Sydney
Sydney is AWESOME!!!! We spent the first day there sightseeing in The Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney, and home to the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. People say that the Sydney Opera House is the 2nd most recognizable building in the world, after the Taj Mahal. It lived up to the hype, especially when we went back and saw it all lit up at night. Brooke and I enjoyed a glass of wine at the Opera House Bar, located just below the Opera House, with a glistening backdrop of the city and the sparkling lights of the Harbor Bridge. On one particularly hot day, we trekked on the train out to Crounullah Beach, the last stop on one of the lines and hit up the beach there. We took a little walk and stumbled on something I have never seen before- a swimming pool in the ocean!!! Not one, but two!! The surf is really strong there, so the walls of the man made swimming pool provide a safe haven for small children, as well as a really fun and novel attraction for adults. We also took a day to trek out to Manly Beach, which is best accessed by a ferry out of Sydney. We took a car instead, and it took over an hour- Sydney is huge and it takes forever to get from one place to the next. But, we finally made it to the beach, and had a lovely day bobbing in the waves (I did get out at one point after seeing a jellyfish bobbing as well) and eating fish and chips on the beach.
Brooke and I decided that we liked Sydney so much that we were going to check out some apartments, and move back in a few weeks. Together, we took train trips of up to an hour around town to check out some seriously expensive hovels. The first place we went was an apartment in a high rise, which sounded decent enough. Wrong. The door was answered by a sniffling Asian guy, who led us around the teensy apartment in about 2 min flat. The room was small and messy, the kitchen was smaller than my armspan, and it looked as if the living room was partitioned off and someone was living there. And they were asking $600 a month from each of us to share a room. Next!!! Unfortunately the next place was even worse. It was in Redfern, which is located right by the University of Sydney, as well as a host of other universities, causing it to have become much of a student slum, where landlords take advantage of the multitude of foreign students by charging insanely high rent for jokes of apartments. The one that we viewed probably should have been condemned, but alas, there were people living in it. Very messy people. The living room looked like it had been ransacked, but we were told the guys who lived there had just been up late partying. We squeezed up one of the narrowest staircases I have ever been on and found ourselves in a room, if you can call it that. There were holes in the ceiling, clothes everywhere, and only one bed. We were told there would be 2, as there are 2 of us. “No problem,” we were told, “I can put another bed in here, now you have 2 rooms!” The landlord leads us through the room, out the what I am pretty sure used to be a balcony, but had been converted to a room by adding plywood floors and walls. Hell No. Additionally, the kitchen had about 60 years of black grime over everything, and the dirty toilet was practically in the backyard, it was so far from the rest of the house.
These viewings had chewed through our entire morning, and more than a day’s worth of patience, so we decided to treat ourselves by taking a trip to the zoo. The Taronga Zoo is pretty spectacular, in that it lies on a hill outside of the city. You have to take a ferry to get there, and then you get on a gondola, called the “Skylift,” which takes you airborne above the zoo to the entrance at the top of the hill, where you proceed by walking downhill as you take in the attractions with a gorgeous backdrop of the city skyline behind each exhibit. I’ve been to quite a few zoos in my life, but really enjoyed this one for the view, and the fact that they had many animals that were indigenous to Australia and therefore not as likely to be seen in zoos in other part of the world. I even saw a legless lizard! We decided we really like the ferries, so rather than taking more trains that day, we took another ferry around the city to Darling Harbor, a lively port full of bars, restaurants and even an IMAX Theater. Brooke and I checked out one last apartment, which was actually really nice, on the 52nd floor of a luxury high rise, but the landlord wanted $800 a month each to share a room, and he wanted an immediate move in. So we said no thanks, we’ve got more traveling to do!! We finished off the evening with a bit of a restaurant/ bar crawl around Darling Harbour, having a drink at one bar, dinner at another, followed by a drink at a third stop. The Harbor has a vibrant nightlife, and was excellent for an evening of people watching.
Melbourne
Our original plan was to drive all the way down to Melbourne from Brisbane, but after the first leg to Sydney, we realized it would be faster and cheaper if we just flew to Melbourne. We lucked out and found flights on Jetstar for $100 each round trip from Sydney to Melbs. We are currently half way through our 8 days here, and have already celebrated Australia Day at the Elsplanade Hotel in St. Kilda, Checked out the shopping to be had on Brunswick Street and Chapel St, viewed the sprawl of one of the world’s largest cities from the top of the Eureka Tower, and mastered the extensive tram and train network. We found some great bargains at shops all over towns- I got a killer new necklace for $3.50 at one store!! Tomorrow we are departing bright and early for a day trip down the Great Ocean Road, “one of the world’s most spectacular costal drives,” according to the Australia Lonely Planet. We will take in spectacular views of costal rock formations, walk on lush rainforest trails, and hopefully even see a wild koala or two.
As we are packing up and traveling somewhere new every day, it may be a while before my next update. Our internet opportunities have been few and far between. Thank for you patience!! But in case I don’t check back in for a bit, we are heading back to Sydney on Tuesday morning, and then immediately driving up to the Blue Mountains for some bushwalking and scenic view taking in-ning. Haha. Then, we’ll jet back down the coast for one last night in Sydney, where Amy and I are going to see Wicked, the Broadway Musical. After that, we’ll start our trek back up north, Brisbane bound. This is the point where we all go our separate ways- Brooke has a friend coming out from Toronto that she’ll travel with for a month, and Amy has decided to move to the Sunshine Coast, about 2 hours north of Brisbane. I haven’t quite finalized anything, but I have been researching places, and I think I may just brave the heat, humidity, and summer storms and go up north to Airlie Beach, the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef, as that area was largely why Australia appealed to me in the first place.
Keep your fingers crossed for me!
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