Sydney Day 3 'To climb or not to climb' - 15th Jan

We had deliberated long and hard about whether we should do the Sydney Bridge Climb – it would be an experience yes but they were charging AUD$200 each for this experience. We decided that as the bridge was right by the Youth Hostel we'd take a closer look.

We saw that a huge cruise liner had docked over night in Circular Quay and so before heading to the bridge we bought a flat white, latte and a couple of muffins and sat by the dock to take a look at the ship. It was pretty impressive.

This morning, a Chinese group of 350 people, who were doing a charity walk came to Sydney all wearing the same t-shirts and visors. They were everywhere and Sydney had laid on lollipop men specially to help them cross the roads, paramedics at the bridge and road sweeps to clean up after them. There were so many they'd closed the bridge to the general public for a few hours in the morning to allow the walkers to cross it. We tried heading to the bridge the same time they were coming down which turned into a bit of a battle to get up the stairs.

The view from the bridge was spectacular. We climbed one of the Pylons for $15 which surpassed our expectations as there was a really interesting museum about the building of the bridge and 360 degree views from the top. We could see the bridge climbers and whilst the experience would have been different we got the same views from the Pylon for a small proportion of the cost. The bridge climb also seemed a bit stilted with lots of waiting around for everyone to climb together. Also, whilst we could understand it, we felt put off by the fact you couldn't take your own camera and were only given one group photo with the price and if you wanted a bespoke photo you had to pay more.

There was a market in the Rocks and we bought a really nice lunch from one of the stall holders. I had a chicken kebab and Andy had a sausage sandwich. We ate our lunch down by the river and watched a female contortionist who apparently “was really good” and was one of “the best female street acts in Sydney” ...she kept telling us this in the 20 minutes she was setting up her show and limbering up. Fortunately we left before she climbed into a small perspex box on stilts. Also whilst we were eating an elderly Japanese woman came past scattering food for the seagulls right by us. It was a bit daunting seeing about 30 gulls flying straight for us and her husband was quite embarrassed and raced off in his electric wheel chair

After this we went for a wander into town to buy a camera card, get out some more money and look for some presents for people.

We then took a boat trip around the bay. This was the last one of the day so we weren't able to hop on and off but it was nice just sitting on the boat and being taken to some of the places on the other side of the bay as well as under the bridge and around to Darlington Harbour. The trip lasted 90 minutes.

We went back to the YHA for a bit and Andy went for a 5 mile run around Sydney Harbour crossing the harbour bridge as well as going round the Opera House.

We'd seen a really nice Italian in The Rocks the night before and decided to go there for dinner. Whilst there were some tourists it also had a mix of local Aussies as well and it was nice to be able to dine al fresco with a glass of wine.

We then went for a final walk around the bay to the Opera House before heading to bed. We both really liked Sydney – it had a great atmosphere and if Andy was told he had to transfer to Sydney for a year with work I'd be quite happy to come along as well.