Day 2: Saturday, March 15th

so i didn't wait for my sister for too long at the sydney airport. she came through customs at about 10:40 and we went straight to the train station to get our one-way tickets to the city to our hostel.

my sister coughed most of the way home on the train, looking very ill, sweating, but still alive and in 1 piece.

our hostel directions said they were located 30 meters from the train station. so after walking in the wrong direction for 4 blocks, we finally asked a Hilton hotel valet guy where the "Star Bar" was, knowing it was close to our hostel.

after walking several blocks in the right direction (much more than just 30 little meters) we found our "street". which was more of an alley really. we were greeted by a slow and easily confused front desk guy. it took him a while to get things going. in the meantime, we heard another guest happily tell another guy "yeah man! tomorrow i move to the 3rd floor! i'm moving on up! i'm back again!". i think these guys have stayed here for a while.

my sister and i eventually got our key (on the 1st floor. far away from the emphatic guest). and were told we could come back down "if we wanted to" to get our linens and towels. why yes, we do thank you.

my sister showered, and i made the beds. we watched 'beverly hills cop" and took a quick run out to a convenience store to get some juice, water, and crackers. we returned home, next to a neighboring restaurant where the menu was written in "asian" to quickly fall asleep.

my sister coughed during most of the night and i had a bad dream about fighting in a war and watching a friend get shot in the chest in slo-mo that made me wake up choking on air.

@ about 5am someone cleaned the bathrooms very loudly. and since the walls are thin, you can definitely hear when anyone enters or exits their room. the night was a bit rough.

but we got up at 9:30, took our time getting ready for the day, and headed out a bit after 10.

we walked to Hyde Park. my sister took some pics, we saw the hyde park fountain, and then headed towards Circular Quay (the harbour). we walked by the ferry docks, saw some Aboriginals playing the didgeridoo, and walked along until we reached the Opera House. my sister was feeling a bit faint so we sat down, took some pics, then found a little italian cafe on the harbor and had a margherita pizza, garlic bread, and some really bad sugary cranberry juice.

my sister judged the passer-bys as "hot, hot mess, tranny, tranny mess, fierce" and so on. most were tranny messes. except for the elderly ladies. they were mainly fierce.

so next we were off to ride the ferry around the "inner harbour". while waiting for our ferry we made the best purchase of our lives. we found awesome "Rock Star style" sunglasses which of course we rocked on our harbour bridge climb.

on our ferry ride we saw luna park, goat island, darling harbour, the maritime museum, and then returned back to circular quay.



next we walked over to The Rocks to find the sydney harbour bridge climb headquarters. on the way we saw Bendy Em's street show of contortionistic amazement! she did crazy things with her body and as a finale, she stuffed herself in a 16" box on a small scaffold. the audience assistant she chose to help her she nicknamed "Boo".

we stopped by the information office to find maps, a restroom, air conditioning, and 15 minutes of cheap internet access. we walked by street vendors selling corn, jewelry, australian pennies, "space art", shark teeth, and etc. my sister didn't want any of it. what the hell?

so on to the the sydney harbour bridge climb:
from start to end, took a little over 3 hours, but i think it was worth it.

the waiting area had a silent promo video on loop where my sister generously added the dialogue "i love suits. BRIDGES! i love suits"

then our whole climb group passed an alochol breath test. then we all got our suits on, locked up our valuables, then got our climbing gear clipped on.

we did an indoor "simulation" (just like a real bridge!) to make sure we could all climb stairs.

we got headsets, my sister got some personally delivered water since she was dying of a cough, and we headed on out.

we were 2nd and 3rd in line behind a very nice young UK girl. she was heading over to New Zealand for her sister's wedding.

our tour guide was very nice and the whole experience was awesome.

hard to believe we were on top of a bridge, over 40 stories high.

on the way down, my sister's and my legs were shaking and my heels were in pain for hours afterwards, but we made it.

supposedly we burned 800 calories, but all i know is we got a lot of sun exposure.
it was fun.

we bought pictures they took of us on top of the bridge and we hurried off to Wagamama which we knew was one block away from our hostel for some good din-din.

on our way out from the bridge climb headquarters, my sister heard a man speaking to his wife about their own bridge climb pictures: "why do you always have to put your hand on my gut?!"

it's now 9:30pm and we are in our bunkbeds watching "terminator 2: judgment day"

tomorrow we wake up at 5:30am for our 8:15am flight to Uluru. hooray!!