Only few days are left here in Australia, and there can’t be better way to end this trip than with its most iconic city: Sydney!
Our hostel is in Woolloomooloo, the quarter with the funniest name, but very central and with easy access to the central district, either though the botanic garden or the shopping streets. Our first stroll through the city center takes us by the Opera House, which is undergoing some fixing of the facade and the stairs, but still fully operational. The building itself looks pretty old when you look at it from very close, so you are much better off from the other side of the harbor, or from the top of any of the building close by. We get an amazing view from the roof of the Museum of Contemporary Art on the Circular Quay. The heart of town sits at the root of a bunch of skyscrapers, with classy shopping centers and food courts.

I take the chance to cut my hair before leaving for Africa, so I enter a place which advertises for reasonably cheap cuts, without realizing it was a Japanese salon. But never mind, I sit down, I see scared faces looking at me and my curly hair, so I am asked to pick from a catalog which cut I want, or so I understand from “please, please, how you want hair cut?”, which was fine, if it wasn’t that ALL the cuts were for 100% straight hair.

So I say “well, it’s kind of hard to pick from this”, so spreading the panic I’m given a gossip magazine 😀 Not to say that when I said “please, just dry it naturally”, the girl didn’t know what to do and took out an iron and made my hair as straight as she could! We’ll see what comes out when all goes back to curls! The day is over and we sit down for a glass of wine and look for a place to eat.

A quick look at Chinatown, and we cross the bridge to Darling Harbor, a charming entertainment center with gardens, cinemas, water front restaurants and even a zoo! There are plenty of people out for lunch, taking advantage of the nice sun and the weekend mood.

We proceed to the fish market, the second largest in the world, after Tokyo, but I guess the two look very similar since the market here has a very high percentage of Japanese anyway, they are those who really know how to eat fish, cooked or raw!

Last day today in Sydney, we breathe in the atmosphere of a modern laid back city one last time, then back to the hostel to do some laundry and be ready with all clean clothes for the next continent! We have a long flight ahead to Johannesburg (14.5 hours) and then the 4 hours connection will ensure we get to Cape Town, in about 2 hours, in time to be picked up by the driver the hotel has arranged for us.