Sydney trip: exploring the city

(I just finished a maths assignment due tomorrow, which means time to write about Sydney!)

I arrived in Sydney Thursday evening and left Monday afternoon. The Rubik's cube competition was on Saturday, which gave me plenty of time to explore the city.

I met up with another competitor when I got to Sydney. His name is Edouard, and he is from France, but he just happened to be in Sydney at the time. (If you look at his competition statistics, you can see that he used to hold many Rubik's cube world records!)

Edouard was really nice and took me all around the city, starting Thursday night! (I originally had planned to just rest after arriving on Thursday, but then I would have missed out.) That night, I saw:

Sydney Opera House!

Sydney Harbour Bridge!

I suppose the Opera House and the Bridge are the two big icons of Sydney, which means I finished all my major tourist business on my first night! But of course I didn't stop there. Some other places that I visited during my time in Sydney included:

Chinatown! I spent so much time in this area that I should write another blog post about it!

Darling Harbour!

Darling Harbour at night!

Circular Quay!

ANZAC War Memorial in Hyde Park! (ANZAC Day was on Wednesday 25 April.)

Royal Botanic Gardens! Unfortunately, the gardens closed soon after Edouard and I entered, so we didn't get to see much. We did have a nice short walk.

The Rocks! This is a historic part of Sydney, filled with lots of old buildings from the first colony.

Umm... Apple Store! I suppose every big city has one!

I looked up Sydney's weather forecast back when I had not yet left Melbourne, and I was disappointed to see rain, rain, rain - every single day when I was there! But I ended up being really lucky because the weather was really good when I visited! There was no rain (except Monday, my last day), and the weather was warm enough that I could walk around the city at night without a jacket! (How was this possible? It's almost winter in the southern hemisphere!)

I originally planned to buy a public transportation pass when I arrived, but following Edouard's example, I decided to do most of my commuting via foot. After just the first night, my legs were super sore, and my knees hurt when I bent them. I learned the hard way that Sydney is very very hilly. Looking back, I don't know how I survived "hiking" around Sydney all those days! It was really good exercise though!