because i can't sleep, sydney, the second installment!

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**before i post these last two blogs.... i totally realise that i got home in november!!! haha. oops. so here is what i got upto in my final 2 weeks in oz! enjoy!!!**


i'm awake and its nearly midnight. i fly home tomorrow (its the 30th Oct at the moment), and i can't sleep. i figure its maybe a good thing if i'm sleepy for my flight!

anyhow, lets do the rest of sydney shall we! what a week it was 😊

on the monday...
i went to the blue mountains! i have to admit i wasn't overly excited by the idea as i was still feeling floo-ey and didn't actually relish the though of doing a 3 hour trek through the mountains. especially since i was informed in the lift by a workman type person that it was raining outside. rather heavily. gr. still, i managed to aquire an umbrella from the reception at the hostel.

i was informed by the bus driver that i wasn't actually on the list for the trip, but since i had a receipt and there was room i could come along anyway. bloody good job too!!!! hehe, the bus driver was great - looked exactly like sherman from american pie, and shall therefore referred to as sherman for the rest of this entry as this is how i thought of him for the entire day 😊

grrrr, there were a group of american girlies on the bus who were all from alabama and talked just like britney spears. drove me mad the entire day!!!! made friends with a lovely couple from perth though.

we drove to katoomba which is one of the towns in the blue mountains (there are 26 in total - see, i listened when sherman was talking!!) . oooh and fact - blue mountains, not blue and not mountains. don't ask. (mainly because i don't know. sherman said so.) katoomba is the place that you view the three sisters (a famous ozzie rock formation) from. however, as can be seen from the picture, we didn't actually see all that much. tis rather hard to see things in fog that makes it hard to see even 3 feet in front of you 😊 hehe. so so funny. we drove 2 hours to stare at fog. however, all was not lost - sherman took us for a brief walk that actually took you down to one of the three sisters. oodles and oodles of steps!! but yeah, i've seen one of the three sisters, lol. i hear they're over-rated anynway 😉

next stop, blackheath, lovely little mountain town, cute shops, tree lined streets, really really picturesque. (good sandwiches too!)
it was here that i made the uber sensible decision to opt out of the 3 hour hike. mainly because i'm a wimp. actually, i'm not. it was really really rainy. and i didn't think it would help the whole "i have flu" situation... 😊 so yeah, i joined the group (handily, both groups were on the same bus) that sat on the bus for most of the day, drove around the blue mountains and did mini walks and stop offs at waterfalls and other fabulous stuff like that 😊

so off us sensible people went on the warm dry bus to the wind eroded cave. it is what is says it is. as are so many things in oz, i've come to learn! they have a knack for stating the obvious 😊 so so pretty, all honeycomb like. from the lookout near the cave you could actually see sydney in the distance (considering it was 70km away, that's pretty impressive!!) which was weird. next stop, the grosse valley (which is actually where the darkness filmed one of their videos. not that i know which one. sherman told us. oooh, and before i forget, did everyone know that the matrix was actually filmed in sydney? and one of the scenes was shot in the anex of the bridge near the hostel i stayed in? you do now 😊) which was stunning. really reminded me of kata-tjuta and the valley of the winds, other worldy sort of place. uuuuuummm, we also went to horseshoe falls which was really going for it because of the rain! oooh, and then we went for a walk in a temperate rainforest and saw the strangest weirdest slug i have ever seen!!!!!!! i have posted a picture, just so you don't all think that i'm just being silly!!!

by this point, the 3 hour trek silly people had finished so we picked them up and headed to euroka national park where we saw wild kangaroos! one had a joey in her pouch and we got so so close it was brilliant. there are also oodles of wild cockatoos there. because they are so used to people and so used to being fed they are actually quite violent and tend to fly at you if they think you have food. so you aren't allowed to feed them anymore. this was obviously an uber sensible place for us to have a coffee and biscuits. and obviously the american girls didn't listen to sherman when he said "don't feed the birds, it makes them violent and makes them ill". hm. (don't get me started!!) seriously though, why do people find it so hard to listen?!?

totally beautiful day though, had so much more fun than i thought i would!!

hmmm, tuesday was an indecisive day. totally knackered from monday's mountain antics i had as much of a lie in as hostel living allows and then managed to faff around um-ing and ah-ing until maybe 1pm?!! anyhoo, ended up in starbucks (how predictable?!). i find that coffee clears my mind and makes decision making much easier for me... hehe 😊 aaaaah, and in my coffee fuelled wisdom i decide to spend what was left of the day at....

bondi beach! yay!!

caught the bus and it took maybe 15 minutes to get there from the centre of sydney? and even though it was raining i loved it 😊 bondi is waaaaay cool. really lovely place, nice and clean, pretty beach and many surfers. wasn't disappointed! however, in order to avoid the rain i spent too much money on skirts (yes, thats right, lindsey now owns many skirts and plans to actually wear them when she gets back in england. she is still blissfully ingnorant to the fact that when she returns it will in fact be november and therefore rather nippy. doh!) on in a surf shop 😊

walked along the beach watching people surfing, there were such big waves, it was great!

that evening was entertained by japanese people at a sushi restaurant. don't ask. they just amuse me 😊

wednesday was possibly the worst day that i have had in oz. i was in a foul mood from the word go. someone stole my food so i had to buy a chocolate milkshake and a cupcake for my breakfast 😞 seriously, i must have looked hilariously pre-menstrual, sat on a bench in the middle of sydney, face like a wet weekend, tucking into my chocolate fix. hehe!!

off i stormed, black cloud hanging over my head to circular quay where i caught the manly ferry. the ferry trip across was actually really great, you get to see all the sights without paying the harbour cruise price tag 😊 highly recommended! manly was lovely. tis a suburb of sydney, has its own beach and its own little shopping district and stuff. is very much like a little tourist town. but i reeeeeeally wasn't in the mood so i had a brief wander and then headed back to sydney.

oooh, but before i did, continuing the super unhealthy chocolate theme of the day i went in max brenner's chocolate cafe - soooooooo good! they have about 5 stores in oz, all in sydney and melbourne where the entire menu consists of things involving chocolate. tis heaven. seriously. i have never had such yummy hot chocolate. like ever. every one should try max brenner's at least once in their life 😊 seriously, i could rant on about max brenner's allllllll day, so i'll stop before it gets yawnsome!!

when i got back to the hostel i slept for the whole afternoon, only to wake up to the strange lady who is in my room trying to talk to me and have conversations with me. when i'm obviously soooo not in a sociable mood. gr! anyhoo, decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and went out with jenny and sarah for a meal at the hard rock cafe which was a brill night! cheered me up no end 😊 until i fell over a rock on the way home and cut my foot open, but anyways, haha.

the next morning i was up shoooooooper early! a combination of the strange lady snoring like no one else on earth has ever snored before and i had to catch the ferry across to manly again to do a SHARK DIVE! WOOOO!!!!! one of the best most exciting things i did in oz, for sure 😊 i did it at ocean world which is a branch of the sydney aquarium. long story short, my booking got buggered up and ocean world was closed for maintenance till lunch time. so amazingly not funny!!!! but the instructor guy kris let me do the dive anyway, all on my own, just me and him!!!! it was out of this world! considering usually there are at least 8 of you in there at one time. just me, him and 12 sharks!!! haha!!!!!! really top bloke, we had such a laugh. got all suited and booted (putting on a wetsuit never gets any easier. never.), watched a safety video, signed a form that said i understood that getting in an aquarium with 12 sharks was a bloody stoooopid thing to do and that i wouldn't sue if i got eaten and then we got into the training tank. apparently i smile too much when i'm diving and my mask should totally fill up with water 😊 haha. so yeah, that all done, away we go! to be honest with you all, i totally wasn't scared! which is slightly weird. but i think i was so excited and pumped on adrenalin by that point that nothing was gonna stop me!

as well as the 12 sharks there were rays, turtles, big huge fishies and port jackson shark too (they are teeny. ish. haha.)

it was AMAZING. amazingly amazing. if you ever get the chance, do it. i would do it again and again and again. i loved every minute and it totally flew by. even though i was in there for 45minutes. i could have lived in there. sort of, lol. you know what i mean. the sharks were huge. and humbling. its the best word i can think of to describe them. they just totally inspire you to respect them. they are amazing in a way you will never comprehend unless you see them face to face.

the turtles are as dumb (but as cute) as anything. they just swim straight for your head. and if you don't duck then you've had it, hehe! and the rays are super fun, they play with each other and do cart-wheels in the water 😊

kris found a shark tooth on the bottom of the aquarium and gave it to me!!! how cool is that! be jealous people!!!!!
there really is just too much to tell about the experience, i could go on and on and on!!! i fell over a few times which was soooo funny, especially because i couldn't get back up again and all kris did was point and laugh!!! uber helpful, not!!!

i know i seem to say it about everything, but totally, another top of the list highlight of the trip!!!

so made up for the god awful day i'd had the day before!!!

totally on a roll, that evening i did the sydney bridge climb! which was brill!! had to sign more release forms (apparently climbing a bridge is considered quite stupid too...) and then get dressed up in some quite stunning bridge climbing suits, hehe! although, because it was raining (bonus, haha) ours were a slightly more attractive black, rather than the usual grey/blue ones 😊 had to strip right down because the suits are really really hot so you're only meant to wear your undies underneath. well thats what they told me :D lol. by the time we were ready to go i felt like a pack horse the amount of bags and things that i had attached to me! still, if its gonna stop me from falling off the sydney harbour bridge, really shouldn't complain!!!!!!

the climb leader decided to take a liking to me. which for some reason meant that i was at the front of the group and had to do everything first. not scary, not scary at all!! *nervous laughter ahoy!!*

the first bit of the climb is the scaries - facing the public in those bridge climbing suits!! hehe. only joking - you have to climb up some more or less totally vertical steps to get to the main climb. not uber scary. until you notice that these steps actually go through the middle of two of the main traffic lanes on the bridge and cars are whizzing past you. oh. my. gosh. lol. bit scary. to say the least!!! ah. and please remember not to look down. argh! i see.... sydney harbour... as in the water. brilliant stuff!

once the initial fear had gone and i had convinced myself that i had a harness on and wasn't going to die the climb was ace! the views were stunning, totally breath-taking. i did the twilight climb which meant that when we started the climb you could see sydney by day. and as we reached the top and started the climb down you saw sydney by night. a little more expensive but so unbelievable worth it. the harbour is just amazingly beautiful at night, all lit up. so different to during the day.

the whole climb, from suiting up, to leaving took about 3 and a half hours, but i'd say you are only on the bridge for maybe an hour and a half, most of that just spent looking around and being told facts about the bridge and sydney. wasn't tiring at all, thank god!!

ooh, and when i was climbing down the super steep steps at the other end, this time they go through the bridge next to the railway line and i managed to time it exactly so that as i was climbing down, whoooooosh, train goes past me 😊 i truly am a genius. so so glad i had a harness on!!

totally shattered by this point, back to the hostel i trotted, and off to bed!

next day...friday...lindsey went shopping and bought lots of pritty new clothes 😊 and drank oodles of starbucks 😊 and remembered that the pilot on the flight from ballina to sydney was called captain kirk which amused her greatly 😊

that evening, got all dressed up and stuff which is totally novel when you've been travelling for 3 months, believe me and went to the opera. how sophisticated am i :D had a bit of a "moment" when i got to sydney harbour and just had to stop for a minute to take it all, where i was, what was going on that sort of thing. the harbour has an almost magical feel to it at night. sydney really is beautiful.

went to see 2 short gillbert and sullivan operas at the opera house, and i never thought i would say it, but it was brilliant 😊 really funny and a rather good night out in all! it all finished at about 10.30 by which point i was starving so i treated myself to dinner in a super posh restaurant in the harbour, sat outside, on my own, had a lovely time, as sad as it sounds! watching the world go by... it was really just the most amazing experience.

yet another super awesome day! i seem to be having an awful lot of them in oz 😊

the first actually super hot day i'd had in sydney! it was like 30celsius+, brilliant stuff! had a super super lazy day, updating my paper journal, supping starbucks and just generally pottering around 😊 ahhhh, and then in the evening i went and got myself a souvenir of australia...16 of them to be precise...i got 16 little stars tattooed all over my left foot and up my ankle! they look so so pretty! the guy who did it was so nice. i went to (apparently) one of the most famous tattoo places in oz - tis where natalie imbruglia and motley crue had their tattooes done. so there ya go 😊 twas a little bit hard to walk at first but soon got over it 😊

and that was the end of my time in sydney!

lins
xx

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Photos

i spy with my little eye...
supposedly the three sisters are out there. somewhere. in the fog. hm.

oooh, found one!
one of the sisters. in the blue mountains.

me. in the wind-eroded cave.
yet another highly imaginative australian name there.

eeeeeew!!!
and yet somehow the prettiest slug you'll ever see.

der-dum.... der-dum....
hehe!

Comments

[anonymous]

Linds, What a great entry! I crown u queen travelBog :) Jen xx