Sydney

Top photos are at the Reptile Zoo

Aboriginal man playing a Didgeridoo

Sydney Harbour Bridge/Opera House

I left Pam's house on Tuesday night. I had a great last few days there and I was sad to leave. I took Pam to see the film "Australia", which was fabulous, and if you get the chance to see it you really should. We shared some wonderful meals, even better wine and she sent me off on my 16 hour Greyhound journey. I'll miss her, she was wonderful.

The bus ride was an experience all on it's own. I crammed myself into 2 seats and tried to find the most comfortable position, which was nearly impossible. It was a terrible ride, and I am still paying for it. My back and neck haven't fully recovered.

I arrived in Sydney on Wednesday morning and headed straight to my hostel, which thankfully wasn't far from the bus station. The hostel was undeniably one of the nicest hostels I have stayed in so far, but it should be as it is also the most expensive. I explored some of the city before meeting up with a friend of a friend for dinner. Sydney is beautiful, there is no doubt. After a long day, I was picked up for dinner by Brad, Lauren's friend, who lives in Sydney. We had a great night. It was cool to hang out with a born and raised Australian.

Day 2 in Sydney was a day for exploring. I visited the famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge. A girl from my hostel and I walked down that way and spent most of the afternoon at the Harbour. It was quite amazing. And even more special to see as the architect of the Opera House had just died days before. You can't go into any of the rooms inside the opera house unless you have tickets, which I am hoping to get before I leave. Regardless, it is still quite amazing to see from the outside and in a prime location. I decided not to walk on the Harbour bridge, mostly cause we couldn't figure out where to go to get on it, and we didn't try all that hard obviously. I'm also afraid of heights, so yeah, I'm not bummed about this.

Day 3 I decided since I have always wanted to tour wineries, I would do that here as they have some of the best. I arranged a tour to Hunter Valley, which is an area outside of the city that is pretty much dedicated to vineyards,. This tour was a day trip and included 3 wineries, a brewery and a reptile zoo to finish it off. The wineries were beautiful, the wine was delicious. Because I hadn't slept the night before and I also didn't get a chance to eat breakfast, I was drunk by 11am. But I recovered throughout the day, especially after I had some food. It was also about 35 degrees, which probably didn't help. We didn't get back to the hostel until about 7:30 pm, after which I had a couple drinks with a roommate of mine and called it a night.

Day 4 I arranged another tour to visit Blue Mountains. Another "must see" in Sydney. Again, up and out early. We visited 3 different sections of the area of Blue Mountain. We hiked, which had a intense 15 minutes of steep climbing made worse by the extreme heat. I must be out of shape big time because I can barely walk today. I am beginning to tell people I hurt my ankle, as it's embarrassing to say I can't walk because I climbed stairs on a mountain. The mountains were lovely. I was able to see a couple beautiful waterfalls. We lost one of the girls on our tour and had to leave here there. She did phone about 30 min later, so our driver picked her up but that left me feeling a bit uneasy. Jesus, what would you do being stuck out here in 30 degree weather. I'm just glad it wasn't me. I also got the chance to see the 3 sisters mountain, which was pretty cool because it's a very iconic image of the Sydney area as well, also we have a three sisters mountain in Canmore, Alberta. Yesterday ended a bit earlier than expected so I went out for a few drinks.

Today I packed up and am moving out of the hostel and into Brad and his roommates apartment, which is in the Coogee area of Sydney, which is right by the water. Brad offered for me to stay there and at $36/night for this hostel, I decided if I wanted to stay a bit longer in Sydney that wouldn't be a bad idea. It may not seem like a lot, but I haven't paid more then $30/night and even that was above average. So the offer is sweet and I appreciate Brad helping me out like that.

Sydney has been an awesome experience so far. It's really the first time that I am completely on my own, and as scary as that seemed at the beginning, it turned out to be by far the best thing I have done for myself this trip. I have met so many people in 4 days, from all over the world. Some I may never talk to again, some I may, either way it's great to mix with so many different personalities.

Tonight I am meeting up with 2 friends that I met in Asia for drinks in Sydney. I look forward to that, as I haven't seen either of them in quite some time.

I'm not entirely sure when I'm leaving here, all I know is I have a flight out of Melbourne to New Zealand on the 17th. So as long as I am there a few days before I should be fine.

I'll post photos when I'm at a different computer.
Write soon!!!