Sydney Part 1

After leaving the tranquillity of Tasmania I wasn't really looking forward to Sydney and the hassle of getting in and out of big cities.  It didn't start well as there was some problem with the shuttle buses all running late so I ended up sharing a taxi with a couple staying roughly in the same area.  They were a different category of traveller to me staying in one of the best hotels compared to my backpackers hostel. They had flown in from Perth and after a week of  visiting relatives would be returning home on a luxury train, a snip at 4,000 dollars  for the two of them. Safely deposited at the hostel I used their automated check-in system which to say the least needed development. The room was the usual chaos that young people seem to live in, their huge suitcases /backpacks covering every surface. It's all I can do to not tell them to tidy up! I have to say that the female dormitories are worse than the mixed,  the young women seem to have so much more stuff.  I set off for tourist information  the next day and was caught up with the atmosphere in Darling harbour  and felt it was my duty to have a latte and watch the world go by. Wandering further along I found the Maritime museum and they had several ships to look round including a submarine. My dad was on submarines during the war and I remembered him being in Australia part of the time. The one that was on show was  of more recent active service,  I think around the 70s to the 90s but was interesting to look round. He had told me that the British subs were tiny and each man shared his bunk with 2 others on a shift system,  he said the American subs were much bigger with each man having their own bunk and locker.
The other ship was a replica of Captain Cook's ship Endeavour which I hadn't known had been originally  commissioned to go to Tahiti to measure the transit of Venus across the sun.

By the time I had seen everything and generally ambled it was time to return to the hostel, on getting to my room all my stuff had disappeared, hoping it was the staff who had moved it I went to reception  to retrieve it.  No sooner settled in my new room someone burnt the toast or something 5 floors down so we were all evacuated. The bonus was seeing the Aussie firemen.

 The evening before I had seen that the Christmas lights were going to be switched on so I went up to the equivalent of Oxford Street  and called my younger children via WhatsApp and shared the switching on with them.  I rather liked that Santa's sleigh was pulled by bicycles.

Two nights at that hostel was enough so the next day I set of for the Blue Mountains.