Travel blog: Summer in the city - I mean Sydney

Anna Kainberger is taking a year-out from her career to travel in south-east Asia, Australasia and the South Pacific, along with Hawaii and the USA. This month she is reporting from Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Here is her thirteenth blog entry:

After three months in Asia and 36 hours of Singapore it was time for me to board the plane to reach Australia, Sydney to be precise.

However, while checking in at the airport the lovely and very pretty ground staff nearly gave me a heart attack when she announced that I did not have a valid visa in my passport.

Despite trying to keep calm it was only a couple of hours until take-off and the last thing you want to hear when trying to check in is that the visa you paid for way back in November last year is not valid.

It turned out that the STA travel agent had got my passport number wrong and in the end I was checked in just in time. I even got a window seat to make up for my near heart attack and was well on my way to Sydney before I knew it.

We landed shortly after sunrise at 06.30 in the morning and the views from that plane will stay with me for the rest of my life. The early light touching the red-earth rock shores, the beautiful coastline, the ocean, it was a great start to my first day in Australia.

What followed was quite a long time in immigration, where I was told that my trekking boots bore a health hazard and that all my shoes had to be cleaned.

I got them back dripping wet and didn't have to pay a fine - so my advice to fellow travellers is to clean your shoes and trekking gear before entering this lovely country - it will save you about an hour at the airport.

As I was staying in Sydney for a week I had pre-booked my accommodation. After three months in Asia where you can find a very decent place with your own bathroom for as little as £2 per room per night, the bill of A$209 (£98) for a week in a hostel was a bit of a shock to the system.

This was for a six bed dorm room with no air conditioning. I was not only sharing my room with six other backpackers but at night the cockroaches were coming out to say hello in the kitchen and shared bathrooms.

The bunk beds were, well bunkbeds. What did I expect? I guess I did NOT expect my bunkbed to break every day at least once, to the amusement of my fellow backpacker-roomies.

But the accommodation was not really what my time in Sydney was about. In the week I had I wanted to explore the city - taking the ferry over to Manly to watch the surfers do their thing as well as do the Cogee to Bondi beach walk and the Split to Manly Scenic Walk.

I was going to visit the aquarium and hang out in the botanic gardens to see the giant bats sleeping in the trees.

Well, apart from the aquarium visit none of these things happened. The reason? It rained for a full week straight. The few hours of sunshine we had I tried to get out as much as possible.

I did go over to Manly on the ferry, which was a lovely boat ride, for A$12 (£5.60) return. I also took the bus to Bondi beach one afternoon when the rain was merely a drizzle rather than the torrential downpours I experienced the majority of the time.

So you can imagine it was difficult to fill a whole week with "dry" activities. The aquarium in Darling Harbour filled one afternoon and I have to say the size of the sharks in those tubes really is impressive.

I was not prepared for a shark that big swimming towards me, certainly not in captivity, but those Aussies keep them fed well, otherwise their hunting instinct would kick in and they might try a bit of pool cleaner or fellow sea creature.

I was even more shocked when the people next to me said, that those sharks can be found at Great Barrier Reef, they had seen similar-sized sharks ... so much for my desire to learn surfing any time soon.

I did go and explore the botanic gardens, amazed by the size of the trees and had a laugh over the wild cockatoos cleaning each other and walking around in the grass.

I also was quite stunned by the bats hanging sleeping in the trees. Back home in England a bat is as big as a plum - more or less. Fruitbats here are as big as fat London pigeons and equally messy, so be careful when walking underneath them while they are sleeping.

I have to say that the week in Sydney did cost me as much as nearly a month back in Thailand. I cooked my own meals, staying in one of the cheaper backpacker's and didn't even splurge on the Harbour Bridge walk or similar expensive but exciting activities.

If you do get to Sydney and it is not raining: do the scenic walk from Split Bridge to Manly. You can take a bus to Split Bridge and then just walk along the beach and through town, climb up to the hills and see old Aborigine carvings, while taking in the view around the bay.

Going over to Manly on the ferry or taking the bus to Cogee or Bondi beach to spend a couple of hours in the sun, trying your luck body boarding or even surfing is also definitely recommended.

However, do remember to put on a high-factor sun screen as the sun here is very strong. Sun screen factor 30 is the minimum requirement, especially if you are blessed with fair English skin.

There were two afternoons without rain and I walked about town, smiling at very familiar street names such as Haymarket, Liverpool Street and Victoria.

I was amazed by the proximity of the ocean and how sporty the Aussies are, spending their lunch hour running along Circular Quay between the Opera House and the viewpoint further down the bay.

I also found it quite amusing that walking the streets you will again and again see a surfer, heading for the beach in board-shorts, his surf board tucked under his arm, right next to a business man heading out to lunch.

A week in Sydney in the rain was not really how I had imagined my time there, so on day seven I was rather happy to get up extremely early to get a transfer to the airport and wave goodbye for now.

I was reaching the highlight of my trip: New Zealand. And nothing, not even the fact that it was a wonderful clear morning, was going to stop me.

Anna Kainberger