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Opera House
The view from our hostel balconyAfter our adventure of a train ride to Sydney, we safely arrived at 6 am on Saturday morning. Arriving at 6 am means that there are no hostels to book into at this odd hour, and no shops are open, so the best option? A coffee shop. We found the quickest coffee shop across from the train station and headed in. I got a yummy organic egg wrap with a latte. It was the perfect way to start off a Sydney morning. Prior to this meal, I had eaten a dry mandarin and some tim tams on the train ride. This meal was hitting the empty stomach like a miracle.
After breakfast we found a luggage check (15$, a wee overpriced but makes it worth it rather than wheeling 2 bags around Sydney), and headed out to roam. For the first time in Australia I felt so free. Here were three girls, recently completed 5 weeks of student teaching, and we are ready to take on Sydney. It’s a very independent feeling, being in a big city of unknown. We didn’t have our host mum to provide us with food anymore, we weren’t on our college’s study abroad
Bridge
April and I on the Sydney Harbour...gorgeous program anymore, just three girls traveling down under. April was on a mission to find a store called “Zara”, and we (by we, I thank our map navigator, Kelly) were able to find the main street of Sydney, called George Street. On this street contains shops, food, shops, food, tourists, food. My favorite part of this area was the market, Paddigton’s. I’ve been truly spoiled with my markets in Australia. The atmosphere of roaming markets, getting fruit samples, and taking in all the culture is what I enjoy the most! I was enjoying Paddigton’s market so much that I separated from Kelly and April for a bit, which made the girls a little nervous. Always good to have friends watching your back. April and Kelly found me buying some post cards. I saw 6 postcards for 1$ and my eyes awed at this wheel of a deal! So I bought them. Turns out that these “post cards” were cheap, cartoons of Sydney. We couldn’t stop laughing when we found out. So, tip, markets are fun but it’s important to watch out for the “good deals.”
After shopping around for a couple hours, we went back to the
Ice cream
Mcdonald's versus gelato.. train station, gathered our bags, and learned how to use public transportation pretty quickly. It was chaotic rush between learning how to read the train timetables, learning how to work the ticket machine, finding our train platforms, and making sure we got on the right train to Arncliffe. Saturday afternoon lead us to Arncliffe, Sydney, which is hometown to our friend, Alex, who we met earlier on our Australia adventures. We were very fortunate to have him host us for our first night in Sydney. Arncliffe is the “Italian” neighborhood of Sydney. Sydney has a variety of neighborhoods with those whom are a certain ethnicity/race/culture/etc. For a fun night out in Sydney, we joined Alex for Trivia night with his rugby team at a local pub. The trivia was quite hard! I’m happy to say Kelly and I were proud Americans when we were the few who knew the number of states in the United States. Most of the other trivia was too tricky. After triva night we got a tour from Alex through Sydney, and for the first time, eyes were met with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. I was on a hype of travel excitement.
Bridge
It's the climb of your life Sunday morning we loaded up into Alex’s car with all of our luggage, and as we were ready to drive away from his house, Alex brought each of us a souvenir; a rugby practice jersey (Alex plays rugby here for the Tigers.) I am very grateful that we received this from him! A unique souvenir to bring back to the states! Alex dropped us off at our YHA Hostel, with a gorgeous location overlooking the Sydney harbor. Just a few meters out of our door and the Opera House is in front of your eyes. We got checked into our hostel and went for an afternoon walk on the Harbour bridge. Taking the first few steps on the bridge was a moment of pure joy. Looking to the right and having the view of the Sydney harbor is unbelievable. I’ve seen the landmarks in photos, but to be there is something elese. It’s something that gives three girls named Kelly, April, and Sarah an appifiny. While on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, we spoke about how we would make these last few days down under the best days, and the appifiny we had was that we had to
Kangaroo
A kangaroo burger doesn't look too out of the ordinary. climb the Harbour Bridge, and we had to see a show in the Opera house.
The remainder of the day we took in the ferry ride over to Manly Harbour. We first were going to catch a 4 pm ferry ride, turns out you need to be there 2 minutes in advanced. We were a little late because we were taking photos so our ferry ride was pushed back another half hour, making it nearly sunset by the time we got to the harbor. We were able to do the “Walk to Spit” (which we were told was a top tourist attraction in Sydney.) We turned around not long into our walk, because it was so dark. This leads me to think we missed a big part of the “tourist must see” part because all we spotted on the walk was a large spider and beautiful Oceanside houses. Still a nice walk for the evening. I got lucky for dinner, and using my bargaining skills, I was able to get a ham sandwich, blueberry muffin, and spinach quiche all for $5. Normally, in overpriced Australia, each of these items costs $5 a piece. April got pizza, Kelly
Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood. Opera house. got a kebab and I was happy to be April’s garbage disposal, finishing her pizza. After dinner, sweet tooth comes in and while April and Kelly got fancy gelato, this girl settled for 30 cent McDonald’s soft serve. It hit the spot. We were in our YHA hostel by 930 PM, sleeping soundly getting rest for the next day’s adventures.
Monday morning started off with the purchase of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb ticket. Immediately after, with short blacks in hand, we walked down to the Opera House to purchase our show tickets. With the swipe of my credit card, I purchased a Carrie Underwood ticket in the Sydney Opera House. Within two hours I had gone nearly broke on the two main tourist attractions in Australia. My feelings in that moment: “I can’t believe I just did that!” but so excited at the same time. A smile across all of our faces was happening.
We than walked over to our Bridge climb! A lot of preparation was needed for the climb. We went through six rooms of preparation.
Room 1—brethalizer/singing waiver. I think it’s very logical to have each person
Sunset
Sunset at the Harbour to a breathalizer for the bridge climb, and a little funny to see a twelve year old do it.
Room 2—getting our bridge climb suit. The suit looks very similar to a sky diving suit.
Room 3—dressing room and locker room. We got into our suits and packed our belongings into lockers.
Room 4—harness. We got a harness belt strapped to us, which would attach us to the bridge.
Room 6—hats, gloves, headset and practice climb. It was chilly the day we climbed the bridge (remember, it’s winter in Australia) so we geared up in winter clothing.
CLIMB ON. The actual climb took only about 30 minutes. As I took my first step out onto the bridge I started singing in my head “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus. It was pretty perfect for myself in that moment. Climbing the bridge, I would say, as April and Kelly agree, is not as scary as one might think. The tour guide talks you through it in the head set, and being with everyone in a group gives a secure feeling. The 360 degree view of Syndey from
Church
It has quite a resembleance to Hogwart's the top is awesome.
After our bridge climb, hunger kicked in and I finally tried Kangaroo for my first time while down under. We found a restaurant with 10$ lunch meal deals, which is nearly a steal in Australia. The kangaroo tastes very similar to steak. I enjoyed it and would recommend for everyone, if you ever have the chance, to give it a try! Also give the bridge climb a try if you ever are in Sydney Australia (start saving in the piggy bank!)
We than spent the afternoon walking through the botanical gardens. The afternoon was a bit chilly but the sun was out for most of the time so it was a nice breeze. In the botanical gardens there was a large amount of parrots roaming in the area. I was shocked to see people walking close up to the parrots, and some parrots even going on peoples shoulders/arms. We tried to invited parrots on to our arms, but it didn’t work. We didn’t have the right tools (bread in the right tool, all we had was vegemite.) Being that close to a parrot was a neat experience. At one point
City
A walking tour all of the parrots flew away in the exact same moment. It scared nearly all of the people around, including us. Those bird calls or something like that…
After the gardens the rest of the day was spent roaming more shops on George Street. We had dinner at a Kebab stand. We also spent some time trying to find the Japanese restaurant we saw the first day, which advertised $1 green tea ice cream. I really wanted to try this out, so the mission was set. However, the mission wasn’t complete; we didn’t find it that night. But, we found out later (on Monday), that the reastantant was only two more stores down from where we grabbed our kebabs. Just a few more meters and I could have tried the green tea ice cream. (Monday they were sold out of the ice cream.) Take that advice for the future; when you really want something, never give up, because it might just be a footstep away. We than headed back to our hostel, and met out roommates for the night. We had a six person hostel (because it was cheaper) so we were ready to have roommates any
Inspiration
I find these nice quotes around Australia, and simply love them time. Two girls from California shared a room with us for the night. The YHA staff must’ve known we were American girls and wanted all the Americans rooming together.
Tuesday; the final day down under. We woke up, packed our bags up and checked out of our hostel by 10 am, only to place our bags into lockers for the day. THIS is where the hostels get you—the locker charges for those who are checking out, but not quite yet leaving the city. I suppose it’s a way to get ride of all that spare Aussie change that wouldn’t do much good back home. We than proceeded to the Pylon look out, which is a lookout form the Harbour bridge. Normally, this costs $15 to climb up but since we climbed the bridge, we got the perk of going up the lookout for free. Or so they say “free”, but for the price of the bridge climb, you should get a lot more than a free look out and a free hat. Either way, the lookout was a nice way to take some scenic photos from higher up. On the lookout also provided us with names of each of the random areas out on the harbor, so we could educate ourselves about what was out there. We than got more exercise the rest of the day, by walking all around Sydney. We gave ourselves a walking tour, with Kelly in the lead for navigating us. (See my video blog for our walking tour route.)
Our walking tour lead us back to the YHA hostel to get ready. Getting ready was an experience in itself because we were not longer booked into a room at the hostel (since we are leaving at 5 am for the airport it seemed silly to book a room). So what’s a girl to do when she doesn’t have a full length mirror and a bathroom to herself? Squeeze into a bathroom! We used the public bathroom to get ready for the Opera House show. We went in looking like scrubs in our workout gear and came out looking ready for a country show in the opera house!
Seeing a show in the Sydney Opera House is one of those things you do once in a life time, one of those things that’s on your bucket list. I’m a lucky person who can check that off mine. The feeling of a show in the opera house is very different from seeing a concert back home, and just as you’d guess it is, very classy. If I were seeing a show at the Target Center, crowds would be loud, but in the Opera house, people are lined up 2 by 2 and rather quiet. The performance of Carrie Underwood was spectacular. I have listened to Carrie Underwood previously, and this gave me a lot more respect for her. Her voice is beautiful, and she does a great show. I don’t regret a penny I spent on that show, (and I don’t regret a penny I spent while in Australia.) This show was a great way to the end of our trip. A very symbolic happening of the show; We sat next to a girl who is originally from Eagan, Minnesota. She moved to Australia two years ago because she fell in love. Out of all the people who we could have been sat next to in the Opera house, we are seated next to a girl who comes from Minnesota, where we are headed back to. Everything in life happens for a reason.
So there it is my final blog in Australia. I am here in the YHA hostel lobby because we don’t have a room for the night. We are here, Kelly, April and I, with the entire life of luggage we brought, awaiting our bus ride to the airport at 5 am. April is sleeping because she drugged up on cold medication, and Kelly just got told by the front desk receptionist that we shouldn’t be seated in this lobby. But they are letting it slide by with us for the night; I love Australians, friendly and nice.
The month of travels down under has come to an end, and when I arrive back in the United States it will be 4
th of July and halfway through summer. I wish I could travel for a while longer (but money’s a tight issue there….and I think my parents might disagree to that.) I’ve packed and repacked my bags in this lobby, and it’s given me a small feeling of “post traveler’s depression”, meaning I’m going to miss my travels, and the life down under. My time here has been, as cliché as it sounds, amazing, eye opening, and milestone life events happened; I’ve gone down under in the reef, and I’ve climbed up the Harbour bridge. Coming here I never thought I would have done either of those (because of the cost!). But when you travel, it takes money, and in the end, it’s all worth it for the experience gained. Mentioned earlier, I don’t regret a penny I spent here. It’s been a journey and adventure; I’ve gained memories, I’ve gained friendships, and I’ve learned about myself; professionally and personally.
Well, mates, I suppose I could say g’day now. It’s 4 am here in Aussieland. See all of you very soon. Here’s one last hugs and kisses from the land down under.
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helen Schoenfeld
non-member comment
What a way to go!
You and your friends are amazing. We cannot even keep track of everything you have done. Where do you get the energy? Anyway, we are so happy that you had such a wonderful time and have profited so much from the experience. By the way, the pictures are GREAT! Love,G and G