Day 31: Sydney

It's amazing how different a city can feel after only one week. I don't know if it's having Em around, or  being more familiar having been here before, or if it's having seen some more of Australia, but Sydney seems to have come into its own today.

In the morning we walked down through the centre of the city, taking in Hyde Park, St Mary's Church again, the Royal Mint, back to the botanical gardens and down to the harbour. That view is never going to get old.

Melting in the heat of the day, we walked around Circular Quay and took comfort in the shade of The Rocks, a quaint network of original 1800s streets built by the original settlers and convicts that lived and worked there when they first arrived. Like the Hyde Park barracks last week, it's one of the few places where it feels the old buildings aren't framed by new ones so you can really get a sense of what it was like.

Of course the area is far more trendy now, filled with boutique cafés, market stalls and delicious smelling street food stalls. It was impossible to make a decision really but eventually I went for a 'light snack' - the santorini sandwich with tomato, lamb, mint yoghurt, feta, cucumber, salad and olive tapenade. Mmmmmmmmm.

In this heat, the only thing we want is water and a breeze and so was born a good excuse to take the ferry to Manly on the city's north east coast. A massive hit with locals, Manly is the alternative to the more well known Bondi. We were expecting it to be a quaint and small seaside town but Manly was buzzing with life and by no means small. Lots of shopping and eating to be done here, and of course surfing. If ever you thought the Home and Away image of Australia as a land of Abercrombie models surfing with Victoria secret models playing volley ball, all tanned and sunned, with ice cream and pristine sand was unfounded, I say visit Manly. Living proof if ever there was any.