Who you gonna call? Ghost Busters!

Sydney: Day 1

Today was our first full day in Sydney and we were really excited to get out and explore the city. The weather was overcast with a chance of potential showers throughout the day, but our hostel informed us that Sydney had just experienced the worst heat wave it had had in over 150 years, so we were grateful that we had missed that. Right outside our hostel, there was a stop for the CitySightseeing Bus, a double decker hop-on/hop-off tour of the city, so with flat whites in hand, we jumped on and started to learn our way around Sydney. The bus took us past botanical gardens, parks, museums, and libraries...it’s amazing to think about what a young country Australia really is, but the architecture was beautiful.

(On top of the bus)

(Beautiful old buildings)

One of the bus routes took us out to Bondi Beach, so even though it wasn’t the proper weather for a beach day, we hopped off and took a stroll along the beach.

(First glimpse of Bondi)

(Feet in the water!)

It was about lunch time by then, so we grabbed (what else!?) some fish and chips and sat down on the boardwalk to eat. Then it began to sprinkle, so we hopped back on the bus (sitting on top despite the rain) and headed off on the rest of the tour.

(Yum-Fish n' Chips!)

We had to change bus routes at Central Station, a major train station in the middle of the city, so we took the opportunity to do a little more souvenir shopping and grab a few more postcards. Then we hopped on the city route and explored the other parts of the city we hadn’t seen...the Sydney Fish Market, Chinatown, and Darling Harbour. Then we hopped off the bus in an area of Sydney known as The Rocks, what has quickly become our favorite part of town. Just up from Circular Quay, not quite under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and across from the Opera House, this is one of the oldest parts of Sydney. Two pubs here vie for the title of “Sydney’s Oldest Pub” and many of the original buildings are still standing along the cobblestone streets and narrow alleyways. We had heard about an market that takes place every weekend and we weren’t disappointed to find a few hundred tents set up along the streets with people selling their crafts, food, jewelry, and carvings. As we walking along, live music played from pubs on either side of the street, so it was really an amazingly festive mood.

(Outdoor market at The Rocks)

After exploring the many tables, we wandered over to The Orient, one of the many old hotels that has now been turned into a pub. Actually, one of the guidebooks that I read said that Aussies really don’t call them pubs for this reason, they’re mostly still called “hotels” instead. The Orient had a great live band playing, so we grabbed a seat and a pint of Fat Yak Pale Ale (one that we had been determined to try because of the name alone) and sat back to enjoy the music. A couple of pints of cider later, we had made friends with a couple from the UK who were also in Sydney on holiday and together we enjoyed some splendid people-watching throughout the pub. After a few hours, we started to gather our things to leave, our new friends decided we couldn’t go yet and bought us a round of beer to enjoy with them. Gotta love international hospitality!

(Enjoying our pints of Fat Yak)

(Listening to the band)

Finally, we said good-bye to our new mates and were off for our planned evening adventure...a walking ghost tour through the Rocks. We met up with our Ghost Host who gave us an introduction to the tour and assigned each of us characters to play throughout the night. I was a woman buried alive because the doctor had misdiagnosed me as dead when really I just had a faint pulse as a result of the bubonic plague. Erin was a man who had his legs lashed so hard that all the flesh was ripped off, just for stealing some bread, and who later died in the hospital because his legs were removed and infection set in. :)

(Us with our "characters")

The tour took us through back alleyways and had us peering into abandon houses and windows, all of which have remained eerily vacant for the majority of the time since the murders had happened in them. We took lots of pictures looking for ghostly apparitions and may have even had a little success...

(Enjoying the tour and hearing the stories)

(So our ghost host said ghosts appear as orbs in pictures...the window surrounded by the orb is where a murder took place...coincidence??? I think not!)

(Erin's character having his legs flayed off)

We walked up the old hangman’s hill, where the original hanging tree from the 1800’s still stands and then up around the Sydney Observatory where a young boy died. We ended the tour in the buried ruins of a cottage just recently discovered in the early 2000’s beneath an apartment building. Over all, it was a fascinating tour and a lot of fun!

(Creepy underground buried cottage)

(Beautiful skyline walking back to the train)

By this time, we were both knackered, so we hopped on the train and headed back to our hostel. We climbed into bed because we had to get up early for our planned outings for the next day.

Cheers mates!

Jess and Erin

P.S: Thanks to the few of you that have left us some comments...we love hearing from home! So keep ‘em coming! :)