This is update, part 2. At the beginning of October, I went to Sydney for a short trip. My friend, Jenn, who is studying in New Zealand was coming up to buy a flute, so we decided it would be best if I joined her. One of the coolest parts was flying in to the airport because we flew all the way across the Sydney Harbour, and I saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge and the city from the plane. It was very surreal, because Sydney has always seemed like such a faraway place (ok, it is), and I always pictured it to be blue and shiny (and it was!).
Thomas's former roommate, Ales, lives in Sydney, and we had met a couple weeks before... so I stayed with him and his girlfriend, Annabelle, for the first day. They live within a four-minute walk of IKEA, which was also surreal, as I had only appreciate IKEA from afar in catalogues. The first few hours I was there Ales showed me around a very Chinese-influenced suburb and we enjoyed cheap food en masse. Later I experienced IKEA with Annabelle and bought Thomas his very own milk frother (which he loves, by the way).
The next day was spectacular because Ales took me to the coast and showed me a few beaches and the cliffs around the edge of Sydney. It was beautiful (as you can tell by the pictures above). I got many pictures and saw the city from afar. We saw the world-famous Bondi Beach, which was very different from beaches I am used to (miles and miles of sand). The beaches in Sydney are in little coves, with some sand and surrounded by cliffs. It is very cool to see. That evening, I met Jenn at the airport and we retreived her brand new lovely flute and made our way to our hotel, which was right in the heart of the city, Darling Harbour. We found delicious greasy food and beer and had an excellent evening catching up. Day three was the one I had been waiting for. Jenn and I took a ferry from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay (pronounced 'key'), and saw the Harbour Bridge (on which people were climbing), and the Opera House, which is very bright and shiny in the sun. We wandered around that area for awhile and saw the Opera House, bought a few postcards, etc. Later we wandered around the Rocks area of the city, which is where the first settlers lived. It was very cool and nothing like I had ever pictured Sydney to be. (Australia is just full of surprises!) We also found a very reasonably priced souvenir shop, although I am starting to wonder if souvenirs in the US aren't just really expensive.... I searched for a sweatshirt for mom, but alas, sweatshirts are hard to come by here. After several hours of walking, we were a bit baked by the sun, so we decided to head back for some A/C therapy. For dinner we found a great restaurant with beer and burger happy hour specials (not quite the Grubs specials I miss so much). It was yummy and Jenn had the hots for the waiter. For the rest of our evening we wandered around Darling Harbour and looked at the shops and watched people go by. It was excellent.
The trip seemed to end as quickly as it begun, and I left around 10am the following morning. Our hotel was very close to one of the train stations, so I walked there, seeing bits and pieces of the city again. The station was at the bottom of the Queen Victoria Building, which is such a neat old building--lots of shops and cafes inside, and old fashioned tiles. The whole building reminded me of an ice cream parlour from the 20s or 30s. It's on my list of places to see when Thomas and I go to Sydney in December.
I still can't quite figure out how to put pictures where I want them on this, so I'll have to put them all at the top again.
