Day 4: So Much to See in Sydney (Monday May 15th)

I slept horribly last night. One girl was snoring, the other guy snored and coughed all night, and the third roommate got up at 5:30 for work. I woke up who knows how many times. But I got out of bed around 8:30. So much for quality over quantity. 

I got ready for the day, are breakfast, and then decided to use the time that I had remaining to do some yoga and mediate. The rooftop was too cold, so the only quiet place I could find was a hallway, but so it goes. 

Afterwards it was time to head to the free walking tour and I got a tea on the way. The tour was great and I would highly recommend it! I haven't done a free walking tour (besides Melbourne) since I backpacked Europe in 2015. 

It was an interesting tour that lasted almost three hours! We saw a lot of parks, buildings, history, etc. But the exciting stuff was at the end. We stopped for a snack halfway through (where I should have ate lunch, more on that later) and ended at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

By the time I finished, my knees hurt, my feet hurt, and I had no energy. I was famished. I should have got a grab and go lunch when we stopped for the snack break before, but figured it was a snack break so I would get lunch after. But since we ended downtown at The Rocks area, there were not a lot of cheap eats around. I wandered for a bit, and finally decided to just go to the first place I found with $15 lunch. So I got a Greek crepe at a pancake shop. It was okay. It would not have been my first choice, but I did not want to keep walking forever. 

After lunch I was still tired, but I didn't want to waste my time here just going back to the hostel. So since I was right next to the Sydney Harbour bridge anyways, I decided to walk over it. Looking at the map, I could take the train back from the otherside to the hostel. 

Once I got to the other side, I decided that I was done walking for the day. My knee was starting to have shocking pain sent through it, and I knew I couldn't push it anymore. But since I was already on the other side of the bridge, I wondered if I could get to Manly via public transit to take the ferry back. My plan was to ask a bus driver, but I turned on my wifi to see if anything was around, and to my surprise, the Operah House free wifi reached the other side of the bay. So I found that I could take the 150X bus to the Manly ferry terminal. 

This would also be perfectly timed for sunset! I figured I would do this as a way to get a good view of the harbor at sunset rather than an expensive cocktail. (Since a lot of towers have bars at the top with good views if you buy a drink.) I'll save that for another trip. 

The bus was long (45min), but it honestly felt good to sit down for a while. 

I caught the ferry back to downtown Sydney just in time for sunset. It was absolutely beautiful to see the harbour, city, and Operah House at golden hour. 

Once I arrived back at Circular Quay, I took a train back to the hostel to cook dinner. The hostel was also doing a movie night with popcorn and showing 1917. After cooking dinner, I went to check that out. 

At this point, I was deciding between doing the blue mountains or another day in Sydney tomorrow. But with not sleeping well lately - which I didn't know if it was due to traveling, time zone changes, crazy dreams from the malaria pills, snoring roommates, allergies, or all of the above - I was undecided what to do. I really wanted to do a day in the blue mountains because that's been on my wish list for a while. But with low energy and not sleeping well, it felt like a big push. 

So I watched about half of the movie and went to bed early around 9. I set my alarm for 6 and figured I would see how I felt in the morning and make a game time decision.