Sydney is a great city, but much smaller than New York; but certainly still fun to navigate. I walked through the Royal Conservatory next to the Sydney Opera House, visited Sydney's Chinatown and have made my way through numerous markets where fresh fruits and vegetable are sold chaotically--an organized chaos if that makes sense. I wanted to make my way to North Sydney but haven't found the confidence yet to navigate through the busy city streets on a bike. Although, I have used Gary's bike to get places around Greystanes--the town Matt lives in.
Wednesday. Matt worked all day so I occupied myself with climbing, of course. It was a 15 minute bike ride to "The Pitch" (google it). On arrival, I was greeted by Mark, the owner, who I met the day before. He was quite amiable and lived by the traveler's code of karma, which meant of course that I would climb for free for as long as I'd like. I spent a lot of time climbing, and a lot more meeting the few people that were there climbing.
For those of you who are climbers reading this, Mark sets the routes with the same color holds. This means there is no tape showing where the route is like I'm used to; instead, one follows the holds. Now this can be very confusing especially when a dirty blue hold looks grey and makes a 2 graded problem an 7. I plan on talking to him later today when I go back and see if I can't convince him to try taping routes.. It just seems more practical.
It was nice to climb, and certainly nice to meet friends who share the same passion; and if I stay longer in Sydney I have invitations to join bouldering trips and holiday parties.
In the meantime, I read my book and write emails and just take it easy. I can't forget that this is a huge vacation (or holiday), and I should spend it like one.
Here is the picturesque harbor:
Some odd trees in the conservatory:
The Opera House:
City and Conservatory Scape:
Some more later!
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