The ULTIMATE tourists...

Just in case you want to go to Sydney and do the ULTIMATE tourist activity, take a trip on the hop-on, hop-off bus. It took us all through the city and through some of the eastern suburbs. The recording that informed us about all the pleasantries and fun tidbits about the city are a sure thrill....except...

So we did the whole city loop, including "hopping off" by the Sydney bridge and walking around for a while. We heard the whole recording once. Then we hopped off where we started, at Central Station, to find out that the next bus to Bondi didn't leave for another 45 min. We decided to walk down one of the streets we saw on our first bus tour to find a bite to eat. Two miles and a mall walk later, we FINALLY found food. We ended up walking around for a bit, walked to Sydney Opera House, and thought we would catch it there in time to catch the other bus to Bondi. After wandering around the opera house for a while, we looked at our watches and realized that we were going to miss ANOTHER tour. So we had to wait until 4 to get on our way to Bondi.

There were some pretty awesome hippies singing at Bondi, and some nice waves, but the highlight was definitely driving through the richy-rich 'burbs where our double decker bus granted us the pleasure to peep into millionaires' bedrooms. They weren't so happy about it. We also were privileged enough to get whipped by a few low-laying branches.

Since we repeated parts of the loop a few times, I can now tell you that Hyde Park remains in the shape of an oval because of its racetrack past. It also is home to an Anzac memorial service to "honor the war dead" daily at 11 AM... "lest we forget."

What an adventure...