Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Sydney!

I’ve been meaning to get this post up sooner but it’s been busy here at home in Minnesota. I just became an aunt over two week ago now and am already running the youth rec soccer program for Hopkins Dynamo. Anyways, more on that later… I wanted to first write about my final days in Australia.
On my way home I made a few stops, first I stayed in Airlie Beach for a few nights hoping to get out to the great barrier reef – I was all signed up to go and made it halfway there on the boat out at our pit stop on Hamilton island when the captain got word that we weren’t going to be able to make it out due to the 3 meter high waves. I was actually a bit relieved we didn’t go out because the ride to the island was bad enough for me with the 1 meter high waves, I even had to take some seasick pills. I wasn’t able to reschedule my tour at all though because I was heading to Sydney the next morning. It was a bummer but oh well, I guess I’ll just have to go back someday and try it again when there’s better weather! Haha. 
At Airlie Beach.

The coast.


The pool right next to Airlie Beach.

I had about 5 days to hang out in Sydney, one of which I went on a tour to the blue mountains. In Sydney I met a few people in my hostel that I hung out with which was pretty fun and I spent some time alone wandering the city as well. Sydney was really fun. I went walking around everywhere. I went to Bondi Beach, through the Botanical Gardens – which are huge, walking through the city, Hyde Park, Darling Harbor, Opera House, the Rocks (oldest part of Sydney), Kings Cross – where I was staying, etc. I also met some people in the hostel and got to spend some time with them walking about and touring the city.    

Opera House. This bird was saying "mine, mine"

The lakeside view of the Opera House.


Bondi Beach

Some people getting a surfing lesson at Bondi Beach.

Darling Harbor

So while I was walking by the Opera House I walked into the box office to see if there was a tour, play or something that I could go to inside and I was pleasantly surprised when the man told me about a sold out concert that was going on that evening that had one vacancy left by a band who I just happen to like a lot – temper trap.  Temper trap is an Australian band and they were on their last leg of their tour I believe. I bought that ticket right away and had my evening planned. It was an awesome concert. The lady who actually sold me the ticket was jealous; she said that she wanted to go to the concert for the opening act that ended up being awesome! It was and I enjoyed every moment of it! 


Inside the Opera House before the concert.

Temper Trap!

Another fun thing that was going on in Sydney while I was visiting was a show called Vivid Sydney. Vivid Sydney is Sydney’s annual festival of lights and music that feature illuminations on the opera house as well as other buildings around the harbor. It was really cool to walk around all over there and see the cool lights displays by different artists. There was also an area for little kids which was pretty cool that had things like a bike lighting up when you rode it, hop scotch, a scream screen, and my favorite which was a dancing/painting one! Haha. I added a few of the lights displays I liked the best!

Some strange girl rolling around on the shells of the Opera House! 

This thing looked like a rubiks cube and you could spin it around.

These little balloon looking things changed colors.

One of the lights show, this one is projected on the Sydney Art Museum Building.

The blue mountains tour was my last day in Sydney. It was going to be a really crappy and rainy day but it actually turned out to be pretty good. The sun came out and it was just a bit chilly and windy. It was really cool to see the mountains. Apparently the eucalyptus from the trees gives off a mist in the air that makes it appear blue above the trees. That’s what our tour guide was explaining to us at least and I didn’t believe him till I saw it. It really does look blue when you look at this canyon with all the mountains. It was a site to see. Our tour started from Sydney, which I was informed that there are a total of 180 nationalities in Sydney! That’s pretty wild. We then went to the blue mountains. I hiked down with a guy from Germany then caught the longest cable car in Australia and rode that back up to meet the group in time for lunch. We then stopped at a small mountain town called leura to walk about and then wentworth falls to get out and see the scenery there. The last big stop was at Featherdale Wildlife Park where we got to pet koala’s and little baby wallaby’s. It was fun to feed the wallaby’s, they were so cute. 


The three sisters rocks on the left side.

The Blue Mountains! 

The view of the three sisters rocks from my hike down the mountain.
The waterfall at the Blue Mountains.

Close up of a side of the falls.

A street in this small town called Leura was called public toilets...

A view of the mountains from Wentworth Falls.

Look at the little baby in the pouch at Featherdale Wildlife Park!

Tasmanian Devil... He is so ugly

Koalas!

These guys sleep around 18+ hours a day.

Feeding little Wallabies


On our way to our drop off area where we took a river cruise back to circular quey we got a driving tour of Olympic Park. The day ended with me and two of my friends I met on the trip going and got some food and a beer.  


Olympic Park - the last stop of our tour. There were solar panels all along the main road above the lights on the main drag and everything looked very modern.

Cool view of Harbor Bridge.

Torben's Kangaroo meat pizza at the Australian Hotel for dinner. I tried a piece of it, it wasn't too bad. It has a very similar taste to venison. 

Having a drink at the oldest bar in Sydney - Fortune of war with my friends I made during the tour. Torben is from Germany and Mai is from Thailand but went to college in Boston and worked there for a while.

For now I’m back home with my family as I mentioned earlier working for Hopkins Dynamo on its last leg of existence. I am about to embark on a 8 or 9 day road trip out west with my parents and younger sister Angie. We’re heading to Banff Canada, Glacier National Park in Montana, down to Yellowstone, possibly going to Colorado depending on the fires. So there should be more to come!