What's 1,400 more stairs at this point?

Sydney: Day 2

This morning we were up early and one of the first ones down to breakfast--two perks of this hostel are free breakfast and free wi-fi. We ate and then got ourselves ready, packed our bags, and were off to catch the train back to Circular Quay. As you may remember from our first brief day in Sydney, one of the first sights we saw then when we walked out of the train station was the Sydney Harbour Bridge dominating the skyline. Well today, we’re going to climb it! :)

(There she is...dominating the sky!)

We arrived at the site of the Bridge Climb and checked in. We were a little early, so we explored the souvenir shop and finished our flat whites.

(Getting excited!)

Then, they gathered our group together and we started the paperwork that would allow us to get out top of the bridge. We signed waivers and then were ushered into changing rooms and given one piece suits to put on.

(Ready to go!)

We weren’t allowed to bring cameras or any personal belongings up on the bridge with us, but luckily our guide was able to get a few amazing shots. We climb over 1,400 steps and walked over 1.8 km during our journey up and down the bridge. During the climb, our guide spoke to us over headsets and told us about the history and the building of the bridge, as well as he pointed out various parts of Sydney and it’s surrounding areas so we had a better understanding of how the city was laid out. From the top, we were 137 m high in the area (well over 400 feet or another way to think about it, 4.2 seconds from the water) and we had a 360 degree view of Sydney and the harbour all the way out to the ocean. The whole climb took us about 3 and 1/2 hours and it was an amazing experience, stairs and all.

(What an amazing experience!)

Once we were done the climb, we had worked up quite an appetite, so we quickly found another old hotel (pub) to eat at called The Gladstone Hotel. It was having a special of $10 steaks which we quickly took advantage of along with wedges (potato) served with sour cream and sweet chili sauce, something we had tried in Melbourne with Sarah and Andrew and which we had seen on many menus throughout our trip. Finally with bellies full, we walked back over through the Rocks and to Circular Quay to find some free internet access and do a little more souvenir browsing.

Our other plan for the evening was to go to the St. George Open Air Cinema, a summer open air cinema on the water with amazing views of the harbour. We hadn’t been able to purchase tickets ahead of time, but luckily we were able to the check the website and see that there were still 110 tickets available for tonight’s showing of “Love and Other Drugs.” We walked through the botanical gardens and made our way over to the cinema site. Despite the fact that it was only 4:30 pm and tickets didn’t go on sale until 6:30 pm, a queue had already started to form, so we joined it and found ourselves to be the 6th and 7th people in line. Luck for us that we did that because a long line quickly formed behind us! We took advantage of the nice day to sit in the grass and Erin caught up on school work while Jess caught up on blogging. Finally we were able to buy our tickets and go in. We found some great seats and then went off in search of food and drink. Luckily, we found both, the drink in the form of a great Australian Shiraz that we could take back to our seats.

(You couldn't ask for a better backdrop)

(A nice Aussie Shiraz to enjoy with the movie)

As soon as it grew dark, the screen opened up and the movie began. For those of you who haven’t seen it, we both enjoyed it a lot...and not just because of the atmosphere in which we saw it! It really was a good movie and we had fun watching in under the stars.

(The screen opening up against the city backdrop)

(What an incredible view of the Harbour!)

After the movie finished, we walked slowly through the park and back to our hostel. We quickly got ready for bed and were out after yet another great day in Sydney.

Night!

Jess and Erin