Sydney

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Well, we flew into Sydney late Saturday night and went directly to the hotel. Our first view of the city was at night, and it wasn't that bad of a view. We were all exhausted, so the night ended pretty early.

Yesterday, our first day in Sydney was so busy. We started, naturally, with the building that many would say sums up that city. The Sydney Opera House. The outside is fascinating, but the inside is really something different. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures of the main concert hall. The organ in there was AMAZING!! Absolutely beautiful. We also took the tour at a really good time. The piano was being tuned for a show later that night. I was able to understand how incredible the acoustics really are.

After the Opera house the group went to Manly Beach for lunch. It's always a good time at the beach. Chris was finally able to use his skim board, which he had been carrying everywhere on the trip. He was quite a hit on the beach, when I left to go find lunch a large crowd had gathered to watch him. Manly was fun to just wander around. There are great little shops and restaurants to explore. Sadly, we were only at the beach for about 2 hours before we had to leave.

Next it was the Aquarium. I can honestly say that, being from Florida there are few aquariums that impress me. I enjoy going to them, but few offer me something that I have never seen. The Sydney Aquarium was great though. I ran through the place like a kid. It had all the normal fish one would see, but there was one animal they had that most aquariums don't have. The platypus! They were so cute!! I always thought they were big, maybe around 3 feet long. Actually they rarely grow larger than a foot long. Definitely the highlight of my visit to the aquarium.

Today was pretty chill. We went to an Opal store to learn about the different stones. That was interesting, and some of the stones were huge. Opal is one of my favorite stones, so I really enjoyed looking at all the jewelry.

After the jewelry store we went to Bondi Beach. There was more to do at Manly, but Bondi was prettier. We were able to do a hike around the beach through the cliffs. The scenery was gorgeous.

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Photos

On the hike
Thats a saltwater pool that actually is fed by the oceans waves.