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Published: March 19th 2007
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The Opera House
One of the surreal moments in Sydney! After you've looked at it in the media for so long to actually see it is a bit bizarre! Once again we're on our last few days before we move on to our next destination!! This time it's Sydney to Byron Bay on a 5 day surf trip which I am very excited about! I just hope I can master it!
Well our stay in Sydney has been lots of fun and I'm a little sad to leave really! It's a little bit like London, always lots going on, lots to do and see, nice bars, and obviously lots and lots of shops!! (If I wasnt on a budget I could easily fill a suitcase, although they are preparing for Winter 2007 which seems a bit bizarre!) So where do I start .........
Obviously one of the first places we went to was Sydney Harbour. I have to admit in the day light and up close I thought the Opera House looked a bit dated, but it was amazing to see and looks so different when you look at it in different angles. The Bridge was really magnificent aswell, especially at night, and like Hong Kong its strange to think how buildings and a big bridge can look as spectacular as natural landscape! We saw the bridge and
The Opera House/Bridge
Amazing to think that we climbed over the bridge when I look at this picture Opera House several times on our random walks round the city, and thanks to our hostels only being five minutes away, but they're still amazing every time you look at them. We decided to climb the Bridge quite early on, but unfortunately due to some bad weather and a few trips to the beach on good days we ended up doing it near the end of our stay! The climb itself took about 2 hours I think and the views you get are amazing! Unfortunately you cant take your camera up so you'll have to wait for the picture they took for us I'm afraid. It was a pretty tiring work out but not scary at all, your all strapped up with a harness and obviously its quite a sturdy structure. Apparently when it was built they had no safety measures but only five people died! I think if anyone else went I would suggest doing it, it does feel quite cool to have climbed a world famous landmark.
The area around the harbour is really nice, obviously some very nice bars and restaurants. The best one by far (which was a little way from the harbour) is the
Lindt coffee shop!!! Apparently it is the only one in the world at the moment and thanks to some rainy weather we ended up there twice, everything in there is soooo yummy! The hot chocolate is just melted Lindt chocolate with frothy milk, mmmmm! and obviously there are several chocolate cakes and sweets to make you feel a little ill on. For all you chocolate lovers (possibly most you girlies reading this) I think it would be a must to visit , hopefully one will arrive in the UK soon! We also went to Minus 5 Degrees, which is a bar with the same concept as the Ice Bar in London. Basically you get to go in with a massive jacket and ugg boots, drink in temperatures around -15 degrees out of a glass made of ice. Its really odd to go into when its actually quite warm at night and your wearing summer clothes!
Another site next to the Harbour would be the Botanical gardens. We went round them a few times and its seems like you can see something new everytime and I think most of it is free. The best thing we saw in my
opinion is the bats in the tops of the trees, there are hundreds of them just sleeping in the trees. It is also a really nice place to sit and just relax in front of the harbour, although watch out for ants as they seem to bite people here!
A trip we did in Sydney which was really good and worth the money is the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains is a national park just outside Sydney which is a quarter of the size of Switzerland, this seems very believable when you see the views at the top of the mountain ranges. At the beginning of the trip we saw some Kangaroos, they are quite tame really and you can get really close to them before they jump of. Then we went on quite a walk, i'm not sure how far but it took us but we were walking for about 4 hours in total, went up a mountain I think, and then down via 1000 steps. I was a little underprepared on the foot wear and almost lost a shoe at one point in the mud. It wouldnt have been as embarassing if the tour guide hadnt started
Mardi Gras
Obviously the most Gay people I've seen in my life, was hilarious! shouting at me to move quickly and then insisted on hugging me after. The views were really beautiful, there are lots of eucalptus trees, a few areas of rainforest and we also saw a waterfall. Apparently it is home to a few deadly creatures which the guide wasnt scared to inform us of, we mainly saw a few funnel web spider webs, the picture on here is the only one where you can actually see the spider. Thanks to zoom I was able to get close enough to see it without getting too close! such a creepy picture!
Another event to mention was Mardi Gras! I was sooo funny! They were all getting into it and the dance routines were hilarious, so gay obviously, but they were loving the audience. There was a lot of nakedness aswell, which at times I have to admit was a bit disturbing. My favourite part of the parade was the Kylie floats, they had Kylie playing and a different drag queen for each different song, so funny! There was a really good atmosphere which I'm not sure they'd pull of at home, and it was generally a really fun night!
Hmmm
other things to mention in Sydney.... Well there's the beaches which we made trips to on the hot days. Bondi is quite cool, although it was a lot smaller than I expected it was fun to watch the surfers and go in the sea. We also went to Manly with a girl we met in the city which was cool, it has a nice beach and you have to get there via the ferry so you get a nice tour of the harbour on your way for only a few dollars. We also went to Bronte beach with the hostel on a group trip, bit like going on a school trip but it was fun to have a barbeque near the beach!
I think thats it really!!! Im sure once again I've got some more stories to bore you all with on my return! Hope your looking forward to them!
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Judith
non-member comment
hello from off campus!
Carole has been to the ice bar as well - said it was a good night out! -not worth dressing up for! - and apart from the spider makes me want to try out the otherside of OZ -needless to say very jealous of your next trip - enjoy and keep going till you stand girl! Judith