Day 59.

So yesterday was a bust with shitty weather! So I only managed to see a few museums with some pretty cool art but some frickin weird art at the same time! I'll let you guess from the photos which one... Oh! I also had possibly the best pancakes I've ever had in my ENTIRE life from Pancakes On The Rocks! The choice was mind boggling, each one sounded so good!? I'd narrowed it down between Bananarama OR Macadamia.... Bananarama won marginally and well. Just wow! Caramel, bananas, ice cream and pancakes aided my self induced food coma...

(!?!?!?)

Oh how could I forget!? I also got myself a selfie stick!! Stay tuned for evidence of use...

Right in the centre of Sydney stands the Sydney Tower Eye. It's been taunting me since I arrived. It's the tallest building in Sydney and has an observation deck PLUS a skywalk to walk sound the outside! Oh this one was sold long before that! The weather was fairly good today so I decided today was the day I was going up! I stood in line and prepared myself for 280+ feet of excitement and views, I reached the counter to see the prices were over $20 more expensive than online. Now being the savvy traveller I now am, I decided 'FUCK THAT!' So this is now in fact tomorrow's plan. Not to worry though, there was plenty on my Sydney list to keep me occupied... Chinese Garden of Friendship was to be the next stop!

Now, yes I am aware of the irony of going to the Chinese Garden of FRIENDSHIP on my own, but damn it I'm going regardless! (Maybe in search of it!?) The garden is just off Darling Harbour and is totally idillic. It has ponds and pathways intertwining, small bridges and pavilions scattered across the garden in hidden spaces all this with geisha walking throughout (granted, these geishas were just white girls in the outfit and make up... Ruined the authenticity slightly there.)

For the rest of the day I was joining the ImFree tours. For anyone visiting a new city I 100% recommend this, don't follow the crowd and hop on the tourist buses. These walking tours are completely free (although you tend to pay what you think it was worth at the end, around $10), you get a guide who is a local to the city and you get to see the landmarks and hear the history first hand rather than passing it on a double decker bus! I'd done one in Melbourne and had such a great experience I knew I'd do it in Sydney and it was equally as good here!

I'm clearly some sort of expert tourist by now because most of the places on the tour I'd actually already got chance to visit, however the stories and history the guides are able to share make all the difference. We walked through and past landmarks such as the Harbour Bridge and Opera house, Hyde Park Barricks which housed the convicts that were sent to Australia, Queen Victoria Building and linking underground tunnels (now used as malls) and lane ways.

The tour finished by the Circular key over looking the harbour, I was hanging around for The Rocks tour which is by the same company but an evening tour around The Rocks. I had about 30 minutes to kill so I went for a walk around and I ended up finding my Australian addition to my bracelet collection, I now have a shark tooth bracelet to represent my Australian portion of my trip!

The Rocks was the area of the first settlement in Australia and was also where England sent their convicts to live out their days (that was punishment right?) it was build by the convicts to keep the convicts. It was an easy area for police to patrol and is surrounded by water. It essential became a village of convicts, they would set up businesses, work and live in this area, some convicts actually made a lot of money and purchased land in The Rocks!? He was soon killed off though... It's also home to the oldest pub/hotel in Australia, well there's actually two and they're still competing for that title even now! Even had Australia's first and biggest bank robbery, well what did they expect from a bank built by convicts!? Idiots... After the tour finished I'd wanted to see the Opera House in the night lit up, so me and Alfie from the tour took a walk down to the harbour and sat by the water, just enjoying the view for a bit. It really is beautiful at night!

We got the train back together as he was actually staying close to Kings Cross where my hostel was as well. So I grabbed some dinner from Coles and headed back to the hostel. I finished the night with a late night FaceTime with Fliss back home, naturally, she was still in her dressing gown, nice to see something's have stayed the same with her!

(Do I dare put screenshots on...)

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