Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hey there,
So I am currently soaking in the last few hours of spring break before the craziness that I am sure October will be. Kristen and I got back from Sydney late last night. We had an amazing time...
Tuesday: we left RMIT village around 7 in the morning and took a shuttle to the airport. For some reason we were flying on an international flight so we had to get there really early so we had lots of time to kill at the airport. I tried a savory muffin for breakfast and it was amazing. I am looking forward to going to the airport before going home just to have another one of those...it was that good. The flight itself was pretty uneventful, although it did leave almost an hour and a half late. So we got into Sydney around one and then took a cab to Kristen's family's house outside Sydney in Belfield. Not wanting to waste any time, we made our way to the CBD to just walk around. It took about an hour to get into the heart of Sydney by bus then train from Belfield. We got off at a random stop downtown and found a map and decided that we needed to make our way towards the Opera House (of course). We didn't take the most direct route, but we got to see a lot of Sydney on the way. We walked by town hall and had a quick late lunch in the Queen Vic building, then walked through Hyde Park and the Royal Botanical gardens (which are absolutely gorgeous) and then rounded made it to the Opera House. It is more impressie in person than it is in pictures. After all this time in Australia I finally feel that I am officialy in Aus after seeing the Opera House and the Bridge. SO after we took about 1 million pics of the Opera House we decided to walk across the bridge which was more difficult than we had anticipated. We could see the bridge, but we had no idea how to get on it. So, after walking all the bridge we finally got on it and made our way across. I think both Kristen and I were really surprised at how many joggers were running across the bridge. I think we were both jealous that they all got to have the bridge in their daily run. Once we got to the other side we went and saw Luna Park (which was closed...) and then made our way back since it was getting dark and a little chilly. Before we hopped the train back to Belfield we grabbed some gelato and Gelatissimo (my favorite gelato cafe) and then headed back to Geraldine and Tony's. When we got back to the house we had a huge dinner of amazing food. It was so nice to have some home cooked food for once, and Geraldine is an amazing cook which made it even better. Before going to bed Kristen and I took a quick dip in the hot tub and then I basically passed out in bed (probably before ten) since I was exhausted from the long day.
Wednesday: was pretty boring but very relaxing. Kristen and I spent the whole day at Bondi Beach working on our tans (or burns in my case). It was gorgeous and very relaxing. We packed a picnic lunch and did absolutely nothing. It was perfect. When we got back to the house Geraldine and Tony had made a huge spread of barbecue food which was very tasty. I have become a big fan of Australian sausage. It's a lot differnent than American sausage (and no, its not kangaroo meat). We again took another hot tub dip before passing out.
Thursday was really busy. We started out the day early and decided to do Darling Harbor in the morning. We went to Paddy's market in the morning (which is very similar to the Queen Vic Market in Melbourne) and looked at all of the stuff for sale. After that we walked through Chinatown and then went to the Chinese Garden of Friendship. The garden was gorgeous and very relaxing. At the garden there was an oppurtunity to dress up in traditional Chinese costumes, but we opted out of that...although it was really watch random people walking around in these funny costumes. After that we travelled to Olympic Park and walked around for awhile. The park was pretty boring...but it was cool to see all of the venues. The real reason we were at Olympic Park was to take trapeze lessons which were sooooo much fun. It wa a lot harder than I expected and I think I am still a little sore, but I had a blast. We learned to do one trick which was to swing from your knees and transfer to the other person on the other trapeze (I'm not sure how to describe it...but I posted a video, with great commentary by Kristen). After our lesson Geraldine and Tony took us out for some great Chinese. I had my first experience with dim sims which were super tasty and then Geraldine and Tony also surprised us by buying us our favorite dessert...sticky date pudding. YUMMMMM.
Friday started out early again. We wanted to do an early tour of the Opera house but by the time we got there it was all booked so we made a booking for the next day and headed to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. After the art gallery we had some quick lunch and then headed to the Sydney Skytower. We went on the Sky walk which is a walk on the outside of the top of the tower...it was soooo much fun. THe skywalk was pretty intense...it was one of those things where you had to basically sign your life away and had to wear some very fashionable jump suits before going outside. IT was great. We could see everything from the top of the tower which is twice the height of the Harbour bridge. We could even see the Blue Mountains. It was such a great experience even though there were winds of 89kph...yeah that's windy. After the skytower we headed down to the harbour where Geraldine and Tony were meeting us since they were taking us out on a Harbour Boat Cruise (they are seriously the nicest people). IT was great, we got to see Russell Crows little shack (that was sarcasm), the Prime Ministers house and everything else around the Harbour. IT was gorgeous. After dinner Kristen and I met up with Louis, Alex and Vijay (some guys from IES) who were also in Sydney and we went to a couple bars.
Saturday: Kristen and I got up pretty early and headed to the city to go on our Opera House tour. The inside of the Opera House is amazing. I really wish I could have gone to a production while I was there...next time. I was really impressed by the concert hall...amazing. After our tour we took in our last few hours in the city just sitting by the Opera House and soaking in some sun. We got back just in time to watch the Grand final AFL game (Geelong vs Port Adelaide) with Geraldine, Tony and their really nice neighbors. We had a huge barbecue lunch...it was great. Geelong absolutely killed Port Adelaide by over 100 points. It was a disappointing game even though we wanted Geelong to win (Geelong is right oustisde of Melbourne) since it was so onesided. After the game we headed to the airport to go back to Melbourne.
I wish we could have stayed a little longer in Sydney...it was so much fun. I had a blast. I wish I could have had a chance to see a little more (the Blue Mountains and the Maritime Muesuem) but we did fit a lot into just a couple days. The picture uploader on here is working again, so I posted the pics on this...I will probably post all of my pics on here as soon as I have enough time to do it/feel like doing a lot of procrastination...haha. SO now its back to school :( October is going to be crazy with papers and exams, but I'll survive. The 5k is next week!!! SO I have that to look forward to.
Hope everyone is having a great week!!!!
Leah
- comments