Hyde Park Barracks

Unlocking Australia's Past

It rained the whole day yesterday so we decided to have a museum day. One thing that I have been keen to learn more about is Australian history. All we learn about Australia in school in Sweden is that it was a big prison island. A Europe-sized Alcatraz, a wonderful idea worthy of being made into major motion picture, but more myth than reality I always suspected. So we decided to check out Hyde Park Barracks which once was a central node in Sydney's convict handling and today is a museum covering not only it's own history but also that of Sydney's early history.

Large murals cover the walls of one of the exhibition rooms. This one shows the state of affairs in England at the time. Notice the pickpocket at the right hand side of the picture. He has a future in Australia to look forward to. 

Another big mural showing life outside the Barracks. 

Model showing the building of the Barracks in 1818.

Up to 70 convicts slept in the same room on the top floor of the barracks. Boys as young as 9 and men as old as 70 where convicted to a life in the colonies.

Edutainment!
It was a great day and we both enjoyed the museum very much. There was plenty to see and the two hours we had put aside for visiting the museum was a bit on the short side. We had to hurry through the last two rooms before they rang the closing bell and kicked us out. We both had a fab time and I can highly recommend the museum.

Details
* Admission
At $10 it was well priced and a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald was included in the price.
* Opening hours:
Open daily 10am - 5pm
* Location:
Hyde Park Barracks are located at the top of Hyde Park. Closest train stations are "St. James Station" or "Martins Place" depending on what line you are on.
* Web site:
http://www.hht.net.au/museums/hyde_park_barracks_museum
* Map:

View Larger Map

Katoomba - Blue Mountains - Part 2

Our second day of Katoomba we started slow. After a few beers at the RSL and a bottle of wine at the hotelroom we were not the earliest guests out of the hotel. We just managed to catch the hotel breakfast in the Grand Dining room before it closed at 10 am. After checking out and the late breakfast we strolled around town for a while. I picked up a climbing guide for the Blue Mountains and then we strolled into a cafe where I had a coffee while Nicole sipped on hot chocolate.

Hike 2: Echo Point - Scenic World

After coffee we headed out for our hike. Like yesterday we started at Echo Point and headed down the giant stair case, past three sisters, all 894 steps to the bottom.

Map

View Larger Map

It was a pretty easy hike which again took us about 3 hours including stops for photos and admiring amazing views, birds and crazy big trees.

 Currawong up in tree

 View about half way.

XXXL tree.

Nicole posing in front of a huge and very old Turpentine Tree

At the end of our hike was Scenic World which is a collection of Cable Cars, Boardwalks, Miners Village and a Scenic Railway. It was pretty touristy with plenty of school kids. So it was a bit crowded but that didn't stop us for really enjoying the views, which were breath taking.
http://www.scenicworld.com.au/

View from Scenic World

Continued view from Scenic World.

Check out those crazy trees.

Nicole pretending to be a 1900 century coal miner.

Apart from plenty of views Scenic World is also a Miners "museum" of sorts with lots of plaques with information and old mining equipment on display.

If you energy to spare after the hike and don't feel like being crowded at Scenic World then you can climb it yourself using the Furber Steps which you can take to the top. But beware that it is 900 vertical meters that you need to climb.

The Cable Car was closed so we took the Scenic Railway, which is the steepest passenger railway in the world, to the top and headed back into town. We were both pretty tired and happy after a wonderful hike. But also starving since we hadn't eaten since breakfast. There are plenty of options to eat in Katoomba which seems great. I can recommend "Common Grounds Cafe" for good pumpkin soup or a delicious veggie burger.

But the best place we found without question was the Unique Patisserie which except for displaying delicious looking pastry and cakes also served Malaysian/Penang food which was well priced and absolutely delicious.
https://www.facebook.com/UniquePatisserie

Tofu with bean sauce from Unique Patisserie. Yummy. Ate half the salad before I took the picture. Sorry. :P

After food and Chocolate Pudding we picked up our bags from The Carrington and headed to the train station. We sleept most of the way home happy with tired legs and full bellies.

I really enjoyed my first visit to the Blue Mountains and Katoomba and can really see us going back there many more times. I would love to visit some of the other towns next time, like Wentworth Falls or Blackheath.

Thank you for reading!

Katoomba - Blue Mountains

Our first out-of-Sydney trip went to Katoomba up in the Blue Mountains. It's a great place to start exploring the Blue Mountains. It's a bit touristy down the main street but once you get off that there were hardly any people. Bear in mind that we were there during winter which I assume is some kind of low-season.

Map

View Larger Map

Getting There
Katoomba is easy to get to using public transport. It's a 2 h, $9 train ride from Sydney Central.
131500 is a great place to check the train times and plan your trip.
http://www.131500.com.au/

The Carrington
The Carrington is a 100+ year old hotel in Katoomba close to the train station. There are many places to stay in the city naturally being a popular tourist destination but The Carrington is by far the most stylish place. It looks like something out of "The Shining" or an old Agatha Christie novel. We had the colonial room which didn't have the expected bath but a huge bed and high ceiling which gave that old time feeling.

Hike 1, Echo Point - Leura Forest
Map:

View Larger Map

The hike from Echo Point to Leura Forest was an easy but fun and beautiful hike. It took us about 3 hours to do the trip including lots of stops for photos and fika.

From Echo Point you get a great view over the 3 sisters which is 3 pillars of rock reaching up into the sky. The sisters are of importance in Aboriginal dream-time mythology.
http://www.bluemts.com.au/info/thingstodo/threesisters/

Crimson Rosella

View from the three sisters platform.

From Echo Point you start the giant staircase towards the bottom of the valley. About 100 steps from the top there is a platform at the foot of the three sisters. The views are wonderful as you can see in the photos above and below. Most people stop here and then walk back up again. We continued all the way to the bottom to do our hike. It was a total of 894 steps from top to bottom. Nicole counted them ;)

 Nicole at the Three Sisters Platform.

Currawong

 A fallen tree opens up the forest so you can see the thick rain forest. Only a few areas in New South Wales have rain forest. It requires not only heat and plenty of rain, but also it needs to be shielded from the dry winds. 

 Climbing a rock in Leura Forest. 

About 45 minutes after reaching the bottom of the stairs is Leura Forest. It's a beautiful place full of wildlife and thick rain forest. We found a camp site where big boulders are scattered and blended with trestle tables. We took a short break playing around on the rocks.

Continuing from Leura Forest we soon reached the stairways to the top. Another 900ish steps awaited us, we didn't count them this time.

Marguerite Cascades are found halfway up the stairs.

Parts of the stairs up to the top is a boardwalk since it would be too steep too walk. Some parts are also overgrown and go below the cliffs like this one.

 Old graffiti from 1914!

At the top of the stairs this magical view awaited us which made the hike feel extremely rewarding. Look carefully for the flocks of Cockatoos down in the valley.

Found this great mural on our walk back from the Hike. Can you name all the animals?

Our first day in Katoomba was great with a beautiful hike and a stroll through town and dinner at the RSL. Check back soon for a post about the next days hike.

Reading time

Picked up two books yesterday so that I can learn more about my new home.

* Top Walks in New South Wales
Guide to about 50 bushwalks/hikes in NSW, which is the region where Sydney is the capital.

* The First Fleet, the true story
A history book of the first fleet of 11 ships that set sail from England in May 1787 and landed in Botany Bay, NSW, almost nine months later,  January 1788.
Should be an interesting read.

Today we are heading out to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. I'll take lots of pictures and put them up on the blog when we get back.

Centennial Park

Today's outing went to Centennial Park which is a fairly big park neighbouring Bondi Junction where we are staying.

The park was constructed in 1888 to commemorate the 100-year anniversary for when the first British fleets landed on the Australian mainland in 1788. Hence the name Centennial Park.

It's pretty big measuring 2km² with a round 4 km running/biking/skating circuit.

http://www.centennialparklands.com.au/

Map

View Larger Map

There are several big ponds in the park.

Now that's a five star barbie. ( That's Aussie for Barbecue )

Sports field. Soccer and Rugby fields.

And it's teeming with bird life.

Ibis

Purple Swamp Hens. Or Dinosaur birds like Nicole likes to call them.

 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo 

 Black Swan

Black Cormorant

We also saw Eurasian Coot, Magpie-lark and lots of ducks.

The Commonwealth Stone (1901) in The Federation Pavilion which is significant as the site of the official ceremony to mark the Federation of Australia and the inauguration of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901.

Settling In

Arrived safely in Sydney yesterday and I am now starting to settle in. I moved in with Nicole in her apartment in Bondi Junction, Google map of the area. It's a nice apartment that we share with a woman called Prya. We will most likely get our own place in a couple of months but for now we are happy here.

View from the Balcony

Our balcony.

I am pretty jet lagged ( I'm getting old! ) so we took it easy today and just went for a walk to get to know the area. It's very different from Malmö/Sweden of course. The layout and style of Sydney so far reminds more of San Francisco than of European cities. Lots of villas and tiny parks.

Here are some photos from our walk from Bondi Junction, via Tamarama to Bondi Beach and back Bondi Junction again. With plenty of stops for coffee, food, more coffee, donuts and lots of acting-like-teenagers-in-love.  

View from top of Tamarama Park.

I didn't even know that this was a problem.

View of the park from the bottom. When we win the lottery we are going to get the blue house.

Across the Street from Tamarama Park is Tamarama beach which is tiny and full of waves and rocks. Not the safest beach in Australia but that didn't stop the surfers and boogie boarders from having fun.

The coast line was much more impressive than I had expected it to be. 

Two happy duffers enjoying the winter sun. Even though it's winter it's still almost 20 degrees in the sun. 

Nice rock formation.

Vietnamese fresh spring rolls and Hanoi Curry in the Bondi Beach area. The Bondi area seems to be packed with restaurants and bars. And it's only a 2 km walk from our house which is nice.

Good bye Dubai

I left Casa Nobel for the last time at 10 am this morning. That was 12 hours ago. And I am only a third of the way!

Taking slow-travel to new extremes :-)

The last couple of weeks have been intense. Lots stuff to do, many good byes and many tears. I have to say that it feels really good to finally get going.

Currently in Dubai Airport. They have done an amazing job making it soulless and boring, even by airport standards. Found a sandwich, a bag of chips and a corona which made my suffering, a little bit, easier.

Now I am going to give Nicole a call and after that I am looking forward to saying "Goodbye Dubai!"

(I have waited since 2004 to use that line, and it feelt even better than I imagined it would.)

The Last Lucheon

Last lunch in Malmö. Haweli with Nina.

Coffee time

Hanging out at Malmö Central station testing the blogger app. Drinking some coffee and waiting for the train.