The Sydney Leg

Hello All!

Well, I'm back on campus and using the uni internet to write the first of what I think will be 3 posts to cover the travels and stories over the past 10 days. I began my trip in the wonderfully large city of Sydney, but it started out quite rocky!

I was supposed to leave Brisbane on the 10th at 10am. When I went into my email to check in online, I found out that my plane was CANCELED and that the only flight available to me was at 6am or 1pm. Now, a normal person would have chosen the 1pm flight, but I had made plans to meet up with my cousins at the Opera House at 2pm and with no way of contacting them, it was the early flight or leave them panicking. So I wake up at 4am to catch a 2 hour flight to Sydney. I arrived in around 10am, and luckily met up with my cousins on the stairs outside the Opera House without much difficulty!

Let me tell you - getting off the subway from the airport and walking towards the Opera House was the most amazing experience ever. Just seeing this iconic structure become closer and closer was breathtaking. I couldn't believe that I was actually here, actually seeing it LIVE. Did you know it's not actually white? Or smooth? It's more of a beige color and tiled.....the photos don't really show it, but it's true. Take my word or travel there yourself!

Another cool thing was the Harbour Bridge. Right across from the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge is another iconic stucture in Sydney. You will see from the photos that it's pretty impressive - and the three of us were going to climb it in a couple days! Super cool, but more about that later.

After meeting with my cousins, Andrea got in touch with a distant family relative who came to pick us up from the downtown area and take us out for lunch near Watson's Bay. We also took a walk to the entrance into Sydney Harbour, passing a nice nude beach on the way (filled with old, naked and completely oblivious men. Gross). After touring around a bit and snapping a few shots, we hopped back in the car and drove to Bondi Beach - one of the famous, touristy Sydney beaches. It was such a warm day and you can imagine that the beach was literally PACKED with people. The lifeguards drove around on these dune buggies just to be able to monitor the entire beach! We enjoyed another nice walk along the water and had some ice cream to cool us down before getting a ride to our accommodation for the next couple days - a friend of Andrea's who studies medicine here in Sydney.

(This is in the area known as the rocks)

The next morning brought a sunny day perfect for a walking tour of downtown. With no real goal in mind, we decided to start in the center, and walk towards the inner parts of the city. We stopped at a travel agency to book bus tickets out towards Brisbane, and Derek and Andrea were able to score some sweet deals all the way up the coast. After walking for the morning, figuring out travels, we stopped into a grocery store for a picnic lunch and ate it in - get this - HYDE PARK. Yes, like the one in London and yes, the lunch we had at this park was identical to the picnic lunch the three of us had at the real Hyde Park three years ago. Creepy. I even think Derek is wearing the same shirt at both occasions!!

The third day in Sydney was another nice weather day, so Andrea's friend took us to the Blue Mountains to tour around. We purchased a pass that allowed us access to the entire park, so we took advatage of this and toured around for the whole day. We visited the major site of the Three Sisters - famous moutains in Aboriginee history. We also toured some rainforest walkways before heading into town for a great lunch of roast chicken and beer on the street. Gotta love this country! This evening, we packed up our bags to switch accommodation, this time back to the distant relative that picked us up the first day.

(on the mine walk)

From here on in, we spent most of the time in Paramatta - a suburb of Sydney. We only went into Sydney to do the bridge climb on the harbour bridge. WHAT an amazing experience. Let me tell you - they have this whole system about how to prepare the climbers for the bridge. First off, you watch an educational video about the entire process. Then, you move into room one where you sign your life away AND take a breathalizer test. Yup - they test your blood alcohol levels to make sure you aren't drunk!! Then, you move into room 2 where you get sized for a climbing suit. Then, you get moved to room 3 to change, room 4 to get all your harness and accessories (like sweat bands, headphones and rainjackets) then to room 5 to do a practice climb on a pretend piece of the brigde. Then, it's out the doors you go and you are off to climb the 1500 stairs of the Sydney Harbour Bridge!!!

The climb was one of the most memorable moments of my time in Sydney. It was fairly rainy on the way up, which was disappointing, but just as we reached the top, the sun broke through! What timing! (I personally think someone was up there looking out for me ;) ) In the end, Derek, Andrea and I had a blast climbing together and the guide caputred some great photos. I would highly recommend this to anyone - even those afraid of heights. It wasn't scary at all - the path you climb is about a meter wide and solid steel so you can't see the cars beneath you. It almost feels like you aren't 134 meters above the ground!!

Our last day in Sydney was an excellent, sunny day so we took advantage of this fact and spent the afternoon on Manly Beach (another famous beach in the Sydney area) before heading back into the central part to catch our overnight bus to Byron Bay. I've included some shots of us on the beach - our first real beach day!!!

That's about it for the highlights from Sydney - I'm sure I'm forgetting some stories, which I will have to relay to you in person or at a later time. I've also only uploaded a few photos since it's an annoying process, but if you have access to facebook, there will be more there!!

Bryon Bay and other legs of the trip are soon to come, so keep on reading!

All my love,

xoxo Danielle