Day 2 in Sydney! Part 1!

A&A had agreed that since this was the only day they'd have in Sydney, they'd wake up really early to get their itinerary settled. With that in mind, A&A woke up at 6.30am (i.e. 4.30 in SG), dressed, washed up and set off from their room at 7am. Adal lingered at the reception for a while to book the airport shuttle, which was $24 - only about $6 cheaper than a taxi but at least they wouldn't have to pay the taxi surcharge. Then they set off for a long walk to The Rocks area.

Bed and Breakfast!

These are the heaters used throughout Australia it seems. They're like tiny gas-cookers with the flames inside the cylindrical iron web (below the umbrella like thing). A&A settled for breakfast at Mokabar - a small eatery that was just about the only shop open at that time of day.

We ordered the Spinach and Ham Pie, and the Beef Pie.

The Beef pie wasn't very nice, and the spinach was salty. But the salads were still fresh, and the coffee was quite good. The service was also very attentive!

This little bird came towards us halfway through our meal, no doubt waiting for crumbs. Open air eateries in OZ are filled with birds. They can be quite a hazard, so if you're at all squeamish of birds, stay in in-door eateries.

Just around the corner we saw this house perched right in front of a hill! Almost like a mansion with its own nature park!

The soldier, the Settlers, and the Fugitive - interesting carvings into a tall rock structure.

At about 8.30am, the town was waking up slowly, but it was still quiet and relaxed.

The Australian Hotel! We saw the Marriott and Shangri-La as well, and Adel jokingly (but almost seriously) suggested we book out of Travelodge and book into another hotel, just so we could enjoy our sleep more.

Sydney Skyline

Sydney Opera House in the Distance! So nice!

On the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where we got a good look of the Sydney Opera House and also where Adal stayed a safe distance from the part overlooking the sea as it gave him vertigo.

Massive metallic structure

Coupled with massive stone supports!

En route to the Observatory (our first destination), we saw this huge underpass. Adal thinks he's seen something like this when he was a wee lad, in the railway areas in Singapore.

The Sydney Observatory. Sadly, it was closed at 9am, so we decided to go to a cafe nearby, which was ALSO closed. So they scraped the idea of visiting the observatory altogether.

We then proceeded to walk to Cockle Bay Wharf, enjoying the sights along the way.

Their Fire Stations are very nice.

Cockle Bay Wharf! And the reason we're here?

That's right, the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World!

The Cockle Bay Wharf is really pleasant to sit and sip coffee. A&A proceeded to the Wildlife World, not wanting to waste any time. Tickets can be purchased in value packs! If you choose to see 2 attractions (Wildlife World + Aquarium) or 3 (+Sydney Tower), you can get the tickets cheaper by quite a lot!

We didn't get many shots of the Nocturnal area, because it was completely dark except for some red light, and the flash just bounced promptly off the glass panels. But the Bilbies, little furry creatures we saw were so incredibly adorable!

Kangaroos!

They were mostly sleeping, and looked quite woozy.

Apparently, the Casowary is the world's most dangerous bird! Adal thinks the chicken is (on account of the Avian flu).

An adorable Wallaby!

They look like Kangaroos, but are smaller and have really bushy and striped tails.

More to come in part 2!