CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

Hello again! Posts have been delayed for a little while as I’ve just been on a 7-day tour of Tasmania! Watch for those coming up and I hope you enjoy these posts as I work on getting caught up!

February 11, 2023 — I had another long day of walking. But it came with some gorgeous views. I planned to walk the Harbour Bridge and made my way from my hostel to the Rocks area. I found the stairs that led up to the start of the bridge on that side. And it was at this point that I realized how unfit I am because I was gasping by the time I’d climbed them.

I started across the Harbour Bridge, but hadn’t gotten too far when I found the Pylon Lookout (another recommendation from my walking tour!). You can go up the concrete ‘pylon’ and get a great view of the harbour without having to pay an arm and a leg like you do with BridgeClimb (although I’ve been told that it is also fantastic and worth the money). It’s $19 to the top, and you also get to see the museum, which has a ton of information on the building of the bridge. Honestly, it’s worth the $19 for that alone.

Crossing the entire bridge took me about an hour. I emerged on the other side close to Wendy’s Secret Garden, which is another spot that was recommended by my free walking tour the other day. I decided to walk over and check it out.

It’s actually kind of difficult to find the entrance — it’s quite off the beaten path and not clearly marked. It was started by a woman who used to live on the harbour with her late husband. She tended the garden for as long as she lived there, and it is one of the wildest and lushest spots in the middle of a city.

From Wendy’s Secret Garden, I walked along the waterfront and wandered into Luna Park. Sydney’s Luna Park was built similarly to the one in St Kilda, and, as you’ll remember, they were both modelled after Coney Island in New York City. (And walking through makes me really want to do a trip back to New York to see Coney Island…). It was also very busy, which may be slightly unsurprising since this was a Saturday and a beautiful day, but our guide on my walking tour said that the park had been experiencing dwindling attendance in recent years.

After I left Luna Park, I spotted a ferry station right in front of me, so I took the ferry back to Circular Quay. Because of where I was, we crossed under the Harbour Bridge to come into the wharf at Circular Quay. I really got to see all around the Harbour Bridge on this day.

I got on the L train at Circular Quay and got off at the Chinatown stop to do some grocery shopping. I had lunch back at the hostel, which consisted of instant noodles similar to Mr. Noodles packets at home. I opened up my bag of chips that I’d bought and settled into my dorm bed to have a little relax time with a movie. As this was about two in the afternoon, I didn’t bother with dinner and went to bed around ten thirty. So ends a little more low-key day in my life.

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