Sydney

This past weekend from Thursday-Monday I was in Sydney. Rachel and I were extremely proud of the amount we accomplished in such a little amout of time. So we got picked up from University Village in a shuttle bus and taken to the Gold Coast Airport. Our driver was not the most friendly man but we made it there in one piece which is all that counts. We got through security [without anyone once checking our ids] and a quick flight, and even quicker train ride later, we arrived right outside our hostel, Sydney Central YHA. The hostel was so nice and easily comparable to a hotel minus the fact that bathrooms were communal and there were two strangers in my room. Since it was already late by the time we arrived and we were getting up early the next morning we just did a quick walk through down the streets and called it a night.
Official Day 1: Blue Mountains Day Trip. At 630 am we woke up to get ready for our day trip to the blue mountains, located about an hr outside of Sydney. The first stop on the trip was through a national park where we got out and looked for wild kangaroos [no such luck :(]. The next stop was our hike at Katoomba Falls. Every two steps here was a kodak moment...which allowed me to quickly realize that while I brought my camera with me my memory card was left back in my computer on the Gold Coast. Fortunately Rachel is a photographer extrodonaire and took more pictures than I ever would have in the first place (all of which I have now uploaded!) Aside from the beauty element of the two hour hike, however, it was more like the two hour workout of a lifetime on a stairmaster though. While it had the prettiest views in the world, the last leg of the hike was debateable whether or not I would make it back to Sydney. It was then time for lunch where we were taken to the Three Sisters rock formation, another very pretty view in the Blue Mountains, not to mention the pies were delicious and a new food to be added to the list of things I may actually like to eat here! After our pies were devoured and more pictures were taken we were taken to Scenic World, home of the world's steepest train in the middle of the mountain. Much more like a roller coaster than a train! After the train we made our final stop at a cliff for a final view of the day. We got time here to take pictures and just hang out. It was then time for the hour ride back to Sydney, a ride I slept through completely and continued to be drained of energy for the rest of the night. It was a very long but very pretty day.
Day 2: Rachel and I woke up early and spent the day exploring on our own. We started in Darling Harbour where upon finally finding ourselves in the area were starving and needed to locate food. So we frantically searched the streets soon noticing that every restaurant was chinese food. We didn't think too much of this at first because Chinese food is everywhere in this country, but of course when we took out the map it all came together when we found ourselves in China Town. This meal came to be very beneficial as Rachel was finally able to teach me to use chopsticks, a skill I had been unable to ever learn. I guess all it took was a little starvation and no option for a fork to force me to learn. Finally being fed we wandered back over to Darling Harbour, only to find there was an Indian Festival filled with food going on 5 steps away from our food freak out. We were not too happy at this discovery and clearly needed to get a snack anyways. After exploring the festival and walking the lengths of the harbour we continued our walking and map reading skills and walked over to Circular Quay, home of the famous Sydney Opera house. From here we sat and rest, got some quality people watching time in and resolved to do our major Opera House pictures tomorrow on the official city tour we had signed up for. As we got up to move over towards The Rocks, a shopping area filled with markets, we passed many street performers ranging from telling jokes to putting themselves in boxes. The Rocks had many cute little shops and tented boutiques and apparently as it was a weekened the market is set up with even more stores. Unfortunately after not too much time it started to poor. Even more unfortunate was knowing how far of a walk we had to get back. So instead of braving the rain we found ourselves the nearest bar to wait it out in the typical Australian fasion. Finally when we felt the rain was as good as it was going to get we started heading back, breaking for our favorite snack [a waffle cone, no ice cream] and a quick shopping trip at Cotton On. Of course our quick shopping trip led to more rain and the remainder of our walk back was in a downpour. But we made it back safely and in time to meet Rachel's friend for dinner and a night out in Sydney.
Day 3: Again we got up early, this time to get on an official tour of the city. We had signed up for a double decker bus that takes you around the main sights of both the city and Bondi beach, allowing you to get on and off as you choose. We went all the way through the Sydney tour without getting off the bus, realizing what a great job we had done on our own at seeing the city the day before. We then circle the few places we wanted to come back to and got on the bus for bondi beach. There we were able to catch the very end of the surf competition that had been going on [aka we heard them announce the winners?] and walk the cliffs overlooking the ocean, another trecherous walk but well worth the views. The bus then picked us back up for the scenic ride back into the city where we headed back to the hostel for a much needed nap. After waking up we had hoped to see Alice and Wonderland at Sydney's IMAX, the largest IMAX in the world. Unfortunately this was sold out, so we settled and went to the local movie theater anyways.
Day 4: Our final day there was alot pressure to fit everything in. After checking out of our hostel we headed straight over to the Opera House for our final pictures of the Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge ("Coat Hanger") and city skyline. We then met Rachel's friend Erica again for lunch, where we got a good taste of how much worse service can be when you dont tip (noone would give me more water!)and were pleasantly met by my camp friend Adam, who also goes to school in New South Wales. From lunch, Rachel, Adam and I headed into the Botanical Gardens where we were surrounded by bats overhead in every tree. The gardens were very pretty and located right along the water again offering great views. After our afternoon stroll Rachel and I said goodbye to Adam and got on a ferry to Manly Beach, a 30 minute ferry ride from the city. The ferry was a very cool mode of transportation, yet again offering more beautiful views of the very unique city of Sydney. Manly was a cute little beach town lined with shops all leading down to the beach. It reminded us of being back in Surfers Paradise, only much smaller. After our ferry back it was time to head back to the hostel and collect our stuff to the airport. We ate a quick kabbab (we couldn't live Sydney without trying one!) and were on our way to the train station and from the train station to the airport. After our long and tiring day we were shocked we got everything in that we wanted to accomplish on our trip and were excited to head home.
It was a great trip and Sydney is a very cool city that has made me appreciate architecture and transportation in a whole new way. It hardly compares to any American city or any place I have been here so far.