Sydney Holiday 2010

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It's been a year since we went on the trip, but only just found this amazing site, so writing the Blog up now. Still feels like yesterday!!
Will and i have been to Melbourne seperately but that was about it. (I had been to sydney when i was little but don't remember too much). So when we planned our holiday to Sydney together it was really exciting for both of us.


December 31st 2009
Having some new years drinks.. we drank to the new year knowing on the 2nd of January we were off to an awesome holiday!! My nerves were a tad high because i had never been on a plane, and since september 11th i was worried someone would hijack the plane..but i was way to excited to think about that!! I was also excited because all my stuff was at Will's house.. and after our holiday i was moving in with him and his room mate. We had Wills family over for new years as we had a pool and it was a blast of a night!! I didn't drink much, maybe 4 drinks? But it was one of the best new years i have had!!.. Once midnight had past, and it was around 2am, and most people had gone home, a few of us sat in pool talking about random stuff, but SYDNEY was on me and Will's mind. Off for a maccas trip and back home we were all ready for bed!!

January 1st 2010
We woke up about 11.30am.. i was slightly hung over, but i wasn't too bad!! I was more excited that i could say we are off to sydney tomorrow!! We farewelled our friend, and droped wills brother off. We dropped some dvd's off which needed returning, and went back home for will to pack up his stuff. While he did this, i was on the computer playing games. (I was already well packed). We said goodbye to our house mate, and off to my mums place for the night. (they were taking us to the airport in the morning). We had a bbq for dinner, and off to bed at 9pm (though we couldnt sleep til about midnight!!).


January 2nd 2010- Day 1
The day is here!!! we were up bright and eary (5am) for our 9.30am flight. We were told we needed to be at the airport by 8am otherwise we would not be allowed to check in! So, we left the house at 6.30am as it can take about an hour to get to the airport. We got to the airport at about 7.30am, only to find out we only needed to be there 20mins prior.!! Oh well, better early than late!!
Off we went for the plane, very nervous at this stage, i was also excited to experience it!! I wanted the window seat so i could see what was going on. Will said the worst bit is landing! The plane left, and i was freaking out! i had butterflys in my stomach and thought how scary!! taking off was soo scary, it felt like some crazy ride!! So at this point i was worried about landing. Luckily.. i was quite happy when it landed, it wasn't scary at all!! I was happy, besides take off, and feeling a little scared , i didnt get no sore ears or plane sickness!
Once we landed in Sydney we were looking and interested in how big it was!! we were having a joke about how we could try and get on border securty.(a t.v show), but realised this was for internationl only not domestic. damn! It looked cold outside and we were wearing shirts and shorts( i was wearing jeans) and thought maybe we should have worn jumpers!! When we went outside it was SO HUMID! we couldn't beleive it! In the taxi we went to get to our hotel.
We arrived at our hotel, feeling quite disapointed may i add, very small and crammed, nothing special about it, yet we had read reviews saying it was great. (i later found out this was the hotel that an aussie actor from All saints killed himself in). Needless to say, we were quite dissapointed as we paid about $350 a night for the deluxe room.. We then found out, this was just the entrance area and we needed to go into a lift to the main foyer.. now i was alot happier, because the foyer was really nice!!
We waited at the reception desk for about 30mins, there was 3 people in front of us, and i must say, slowest check-in we've ever experienced, BUT.. we were more excited about doing stuff so didnt matter too much. We handed them our vouchers as we pre-paid for room, and they said they dont accept them. After about 20 mins of basically saying the travel agent had told us you guys do(there company is listed on the vouchers list, so they must have done them!) and we had rung up and double checked prior, they said sorry we dont you need to pay $1750 and thats if we have any rooms spare. By this point i was in shock and quite upset because 1.. we didnt have that much money to waste considering we wanted to do shopping in sydney and 2. it would be near impossible to find any accomidation on jan 2nd!!!! We asked to speak to the manager and he said, yes we accept them.. We finally went to our room, and it was ok.. Nothing to flash, and for $350 a night, i must say we did expect more.. considering 350 a night in Adelaide gives you a good room.. but again we were in Sydney, its expected to be expensive. I realised though not long after, that the room we were given was in fact the standard, not the deluxe. we were only on the 2nd floor, and in the booking our room was located within floors 8-12. Also, the room didnt seem that great. We tried to ring them, but our phone in the room didnt work. GREAT. What a start to the day!! The phone finally started working, and we tried explaining what had happened, and could not understand a word they were saying!! Hardly anyone spoke english and it was impossible to figure out what they were saying! They told us to come down stairs and talk to the manager. So down stairs we went, and again waited 30-40 mins in line again! FINALLY got our room, again nothing to great but we were happy it was all sorted, so off we went to explore sydney!!
We did some shoes shopping, and saw a few things and made our way to the sydney tower. We had a 3D chair moving preview thingy on australia, and i must say it was quite good!! Origionally, we wernt going to do the tower walk, but looking at photos and people getting suited up me and will decided, lets do it!! The views were AMAZING! and me, being scared of heights, was was thrilling!! we came to a bit were we had to walk on a glass bottom.. i didint like the thought of this because we were all chained in basically(for safety) so if someone stopped walked i had to stop.. our camera /tour guy was amazing.. really funny!! i was standing on the glass bottom, and noticed a silver base bit and thought im going to have one foot on this base bit incase this glass bottom breaks..(i dont care if 1000 ton can fit on it, mentally i shouldnt have been standing on a glass bottom stories high!!). The tour guy pressed some button, and then the platform started moving. i completely freaked out, as one foot was one the glass bottom, one was on the silver bit.. i was so close to crying i thought something was broken.. but nope, part of the "thrilling thing". He then wanted us to all jump in the air for a group shot, and then couple/single shots, we all were like ARE YOU SERIOUS?.. and he said 1,2,3 and no one jumped.. he then said trust me, if you all jump together its not as bad.. so on the count of 4 we all jumper, i have NEVER felt something wobble so much in MY LIFE!

January 3rd 2010- Day 2

Day 2, and it was time to see what we had been waiting for, the famous opera house, and the bridge!! We made our way to the bridge via taxi. The first glimpse of it was AMAZING! We had some photos of the bridge, and it was so amazing to see it! There was still stuff on the floors from NYE, and also the light on the bridge from new years too.. I had been there before when i was little, but it seemed so much better now. The opera house was actually not white! it was more creamy colour, and you could see the aging of it, but it was amazing to see it!! It looked closed, and we had a tour there, but we thought it was closed so we said stuff it.. will was quite upset because he was looking forward to the tour! But in the end, we found it and im glad we toured it. You wernt allowed to have photos in the actual theatres themselves, and we found out soon all tours in the actual main theatre would be cancelled and wont be allowed to do them anymore, so i feel privlidged to see it 😊
We had a quite day, as that night we had the bridge climb!! Ours was twlight. We made our way to the HQ of it, and waited for our time slot. we had an intro with the group, and found we were the only aussies there.. everyone else was either from USA, england or germany!! they loved our accents, and they were all very nice! most of them were older people. 1 mistake i did was wear my clothes underneath! our tour guide(who was AMAZING!) recommened we wore clothes as it can be quite chilly up there. SILLY me wore my jeans and it was quite uncomfty and tight!! We did demos in their warehouse and i got stuck at one bit, but the tour guide was helpful.. he was a funny guy, and always came to me after he explained stuff as i had troubles with stuff (hooking the clips on, the demo bit being stuck up high, and putting the head phones on).. one would probably say he was flirting haha.. but again he could have been real friendly.. but he kept looking at me and smiling and winking.. weird lol.. he was 25, so it was good to have a young person as our tour guide.
THE CLIMB WAS TERRIFYING!! at this point it was day light still.. and i thought i was going to vomit.. i wanted to cry , turn around and go back! we past the bit i was scared to death, and came to undercover, releived i turned to will and say thankgoodness!! (we were 2nd from back-so we didnt hold people up me going slow lol). The we came to a bit that was a cage bottom and the water, i was so scared i litually had tears!! then we came to a ladder.. and yep it was TERRIFIING.. at this point i was like, whats it going to be like when we climb the actual bridge structure??.. we got to the bridge structure, and funny enough, this bit was EASY! not thin bits, and not seathru bottoms.. the views were AMAZING! we had some photos, and when it was our turn, our tour guide was like how ya holding up tammy.. u looking terrified and just kept laughing saying it gets worse.. well he wasnt joking!! time to climb down, part of me wanted to scream, can we have a helicopter instead? because i knew we had to do the scary bits again, but this time in the dark!(it was dark now!!).. The next thing i knew, i couldnt see anyone.. i was obviously climbing down those 8 cases of stairs really slow and they were ahead.. at this point i was crying as i almost slipped at my point. i yelled up to will as i could see him "im going to die tonight.. im so scared".. he waited for me.. and when we kept walking, i turned the corner and saw all of the others were lining up waiting for me.. when i saw them i was like ohh no.. my tour guides gunna give me crap now.. and sure enough he yells out.. HOW YA COPING TAMMY?? WANNA GET OFF YET?.. i laughed and said im ok in a wobbely voice while a few of them laughed and said doesnt sound like it. As we waited for the other 2 behind us, all the group and our tour guide was like are u ok are u ok.. i said yes and we had a chat and said how im TERRIFIED of heights! they asked why i did the climb and i said because it will help my fear of heights and u cant come to sydney and not do it! they all smiled and said you did a great job etc..They were all an amazing group and made mfe felt so welcome. As we returned to the main dock warehouse, i was shaking.. happy to be on safe land, i was shaking so much i couldnt get my headphone and mic set off.. the tour guide helped me and said i did an amazing job and said oh my gosh ur shaking so much!! I thanked him, and went off to colect our photos, as we got them(and happy how they turned out) our tour guide walkd past and said ohh not u again! and had a laugh with the admin girls saying i made the climb entertaining! Ha.. jee thanks lol.
all in all it was fantastic, and i wish i could remember our tour guys name, i think it was damien.. but he was amazing and really good! id recommend him!! when i was on land, i said, it was amazing but ill NEVER do it again.. will i??... HELL YES! next time we go to sydney. im taking on the bridge for a second time!!!! the best experience ive experienced YET!

January 4th 2010- Day3

Day 3 is here, and what a rotten day! it was bucketing down with rain, but HOT! today was a free day to do what ever. I was a bit upset at this point as i wasnt enjoying our hotel, the staff wernt very good. couldnt speak english, and i wasnt rapped. i wish i had stayed at the origional hotel we planned, the shangri-la as its apparently one of the best in sydney. o'well. I found some cool stores, chanel, louis vuitton, but didnt go in there, i was to scared to haha! We stopped at the Lindt store and got an ice-choc.. will thought it would cheer me up.. but i must say i didnt like it.. but im sure williams stomach enjoyed drinking his, and mine 😊 .. we decided we'd go to Bondi beach.. the bus was horrible! the bus driver was SO rude. when i asked how to insert the ticket he was like.. DONT TALK TO ME IM NOT HERE FOR THAT!! FIGURE IT OUT URSELF. woah??.. so we made it to bondi.. VERY SMALL.. i dont see all the fuss??.. i tried to spot someone famous but no luck! we saw bondi rescure being filmed, and then we noticed FITZI! (i thought i saw him on the plane but didnt know if it was him until i realised/and mum told me it was him!). i wanted to go say hi but didnt wanna disturb him, he was with his family..
We left bondi and what do u know?.. we got on the bus and Fitzi was on it.. will wanted to go say hi.. but me being shy i said no no.. i wish we did now =(
On our way back, we thought lets stop at Luna Park. WASTE OF TIME.. was quite crap actually.. and our locker didnt work! the nice lady behind the help desk called the manager to come down as our stuff was in the locker and it was locked.. the manager was SO RUDE! i couldnt get over how rude she was!!! she fix it and sed.. whats the password, so will went to say it and she snapped.. DONT TELL ME, WRITE IT IN...and shoke her head.. um???.. jeeez! she stood right next to will while he did it, and when he was done, she continued and turned and said.. DO YOU MIND? IM TRYING TO PUT MY PASSWORD IN AND YOUR WATCHING ME.. BACK UP BUDDY. i coulda died with my leg in the air! HOW RUDE! needless to say, we left luna park VERY quickly.. we didnt wanna waste our money in that park after how she treated us..but on the way out we saw olden day photos.. and did them.. nothing flash but was good.
Took some more photos of stuff, and came to kirribilli av, rudds street 😊 ... then went home.

January 5th 2010- Day4
AQUARIUM AND WILDLIFE PARK DAY!! i was so excited! the line was HUGE!! but thankfully as we had pre-paid tickets, we got to use the fast-track line! woo hoo! it was packed! due to school holidays and wasnt really that great(the aquarium was, but due to being so busy i felt cramed and wanted to get outta there!). Stupid me wore a green shirt.. and we soon realised sydney has ALOT of green screen things.. which we couldnt do as i was invisable lol..
Next to the wildlife park, which was ALOT better!! not as packed!! and was SOO GOOD. i didnt think it would be sooo big!! We had a great time there, and when we found the koala patting bit, we wernt going to do it, but thought WHY NOT? funny enough the line was only 2 people! it was amazing to get a photo with them done.. though the koala didnt like will..lol it kept turning away hehehe!
Walking back to the hotel.. we found a info box and found phamplets on ghost tours, we thought lets do it!! knowing sydney was old and ssomewhat haunted! .. so that night we did the ghost tour, and it was AMAZING! our tour guide was really nice, and again, our group was really good to 😊 we felt errie at bits.. and as someone who does beleive in ghosts and orbs.. i found the tour amazing and have picture proof of the orbs!.. One girl entered one parituclar site.. and went quiet and white! then she noticed a HUGE bit red scratch up her arm! which wasnt there earlier and people had whitnessed/proofed it.. it disapoeared later.. weird...

January 6th 2010- Day5
Taronga zoo day!! we had planned to go by water taxi, something to experience..! we were quite ticked off as when we booked it the day before, they said it leaves by 10am, and gets in at 10.30. the zoo opened at 10am so we thought perfect!! when we noticed the ferry leaving at 9.45am, we were glad we didnt go with them, as it was FULL! possibly.. 1,000 people!! so the line would be HUGE!.. 10am came and the guy wasnt ready to leave!! 10.15 came, and we were again annoyed, we were told 10am!! we got worried as the second ferry left, and were worried it would leave and we'd get there the same time.. finally at 10.40 (40mins late!!) we left .. we did ask when it was going and he said soon (they were trying to fit as many people on to get as much money!!).. in the end it turned out well!! there was NO LINE ! we climbed the LONG ramp.. and noticed a ferry coming.. PERFECT TIMING! turns out, we had brought the wrong voucher, we brought the info bit on it.. OHH NOOOOOO! we rung flight centre and luckily got our travel agent who booked it all and told the zoo people the number.. by this stage we were freaking out as the ferry was unloading.. lucky though we got it in time!! 😊
The zoo WAS HUGE AND AMAZING! probably could have been set out better though, as we didnt see bits.. (like i was determined to see the giant turtles).. we saw a small corner and went down it.. and that was another HUGE bit of the zoo. AGAIN, packed due to school holidays. Will and i got sun stroke a bit, and wanted to just go back to the hotel. we saw everything.. except the baby elephant(the line was HUGE.. but i managed to get a piccy in the sky lift) so though lets just go back now. we were walking around the city as it was our last day and thought lets go see IMAX?.. we went in there.. and the next avail. screening was feb 4th. NOTE-BOOOOOOK IT WELL IN ADVANCE!!

January 7th 2010- Day6
Today was the last day in sydney and we were sad =(
We went for a walk, and got kristy kremes(i dunno what the big fuss was!)
Although it was sad our holiday was over, we were glad to go home. i was home sick as it was the longest i had ever been away from home, and i was happy to see my mum and dad waiting at the airport- i could see them in the window!!

We found an awesome little woolworths store which had 4 floors!! they had a cafe on the 4th floor!! for $8, we got 2 eggs, 2 toast, 2 hashbrowns, bacon, tomato, and a small oj. GREAT DEAL! beats paying $30 for room service!



When we were waiting for our shuttle bus to take us to the airport, we had heard that the hotel we stayed at had lost a customers WHOLE baggage!! they were due to go on a cruise, and had missed the cruise. they were not happy. the hotel offered to accomidate them a night, while they sort it out.. and would replace their cruise for the next free spot. Not sure what happened, but hopefully it worked out well for them.. wasnt the best hotel, and i wouldnt stay there again..
The holiday was amazing.. apart from some really bad/rude people.. it was amazing! i cant wait to travel around Australia and do the travelling thing all over again!! 😊

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Photos

sydney tower
VERY SCARY ON THAT GLASS! sydney tower.

bridge climb
I was terrified!

bridge climb
WE FINALLY MADE IT!!

Bridge Climb
I was terrified!

bridge
bridge

oprea house
tiny will at the top!!

oprea house tour
excited about the tour! :)

opera house
opera house

bondi beach
bondi beach

FITZI!
Fitzi.. i didnt want to get too close hehe

luna park
luna park

luna park
old photos

ghost tour
ghost tour.. i was the skull.

ghost tour
will was the sailor

ghost tour
orbs

ghost tour
ghost tour-haunted building

will and kangaroo
copying the kangaroo lol

koala photos
photo with the koala

taronga zoo
taronga zoo

taronga zoo
sky lift

taronga zoo
me and the turtles..:)

Comments

[International backpacker]

Hurry the trip up :)
Hey guys, Cant wait for your big trip! Wish it would hurry up... It seems epic after going through all your forum post :) Make sure you keep the travelblog up to date :)