29 May: Sydney

Our final day in my favourite city in Australia. This day was highlighted by are trip to the National Maritime Museum. Although I must warn you, we never went inside. We paid only to go see all the boats outside. We didn't have time for both, so if you know me, you know which I chose.

We actually first road the monorail and on our way we managed to find the Chinese Friendship garden we were looking for the day before. Apparently it's at the end of Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour, a short walk from the maritime museum. What luck. So, we toured that in the morning, hoping we'd have time for everything that day.
The gardens were beautiful, though there were little bugs there constantly trying to bite me. That was not cool. the Friendship Garden was donated by Guangzhou, Sydney's sister city, in 1984.
There were some really great views around the garden and you could almost ignore the city buildings in the background.The HMAS Onslow. It was a cool submarine. And it turns out, I am short enough to fit in the head and the shower! Shannon, sadly is too tall. We also saw the HMAS Vampire, an Australian Destroyer, but I don't have any great pictures of it. It smelled a little bad and was definitely built in 'dated' decor. Like maybe 50's or 60's. Turquoise and orange and awful chairs.
The bell of the Endeavour. A replica of the ship that Captain Cook sailed on his first exploration voyage, to places like Tahiti and yes, Australia. It was soooo cool. We had a tour of the ship and even got to see the cabin where Cook would have lived. I am such a geek; I had a great time.
The Endeavour from the stern. She looks so small, but she smelled like pitch. I love the smell of pitch.
The James Craig, now used as a sail training vessel, it used to be a cargo ship that carried all sort of cargo from watermelons, logs and cow poop. Now they take people out on day sails in good weather and do company events.
The night sky over Manly beach. Shannon and I didn't make it for the day time. When we took the ferry to Manly, we got off and saw the smallest beach ever. We were like "this isn't the Manly we've read about." After finding a map, we found that it was on the other side of Manly, opposite the ferry terminal...where the PACIFIC Ocean would be. Hmm...somehow logical. It was BEAUTIFUL. And cool in the salty wind. Plus it was a full moon, so I managed to get these cool pictures, but none of the beach.

In warm weather, it looks like the perfect place to bum around. Everyone was out on the boardwalk taking a walk and houses were beautiful. Best part? It's just a 20-30 minute ferry ride from the Sydney CBD. Not a bad commute to work I suppose, to live in a place like that. After the trip to Manly, we crawled back to the hostel and went to bed. The next morning we were heading to Canberra.