Sydney

It’s safe to say that I am the worst blogger in the history of blogs. I am a procrastinator to the extreme, and I am terrible if I do not have a deadline. This blog has suffered because of it. I’m very sorry to the one person who actually wants updates (hi Grandpa). Since it has been months since my last entry, there is a lot to catch up on. The plan is to start updating more regularly in order to catch up with everything I have missed. Here is the Sydney installment! Enjoy.

SYDNEY TRIP:

As some of you know, I have been working for some time on my applications to graduate school. I have at this point been accepted to both of the schools I applied to (University of Montana and Portland State University). In order to complete these applications, I had to take the dreaded Graduate Record Exam (GRE). You may be wondering what all this has to do with Sydney, Australia. Since (as we have already determined) I am a grade-A procrastinator, I obviously waited to take the test until I was living across the world. Sydney, over 1,000 kilometers away from where I live on the Sunshine Coast, was the closest testing location. My completely awesome host family (who originally hail from Sydney) decided to pack up the car with the kids and meet me down there after my exam. The afternoon I arrived I checked into a swanky but incredibly pretentious hotel I had booked last minute for a good price. I wandered the streets of the Central Business District and enjoyed a glass of wine at an open-air restaurant until I had the rude awakening of nearly everyone around me lighting up. I’m fairly certain every citizen of Sydney smokes. The buzz of the city made me feel gloriously anonymous, and I happily meandered down various side streets, no doubt irritating the hoards of business people pushing to get back to work. I then had dinner at the hotel restaurant where a waiter told me that he felt I looked “way too young to be drinking.” May I remind you all that the drinking age in Australia is 18. (Prepare for a slight tangent) The age issue has become a bit of a common theme for me here in Australia, and I am still too young to take it as a compliment. I have been handed a twelve and under coloring menu, asked if I am looking forward to graduating from high school, have been given a fourteen and under ferry ticket, and asked if I had my parent’s permission to get my eyebrows waxed. For those of you who don’t know, I will be 23 this year. I’m only slightly bitter. Anyway, back to the trip.

After my exam, my host family picked me up and we headed for an apartment at Coogee Beach, a gorgeous oceanfront stretch that is a quieter alternative to the wildly famous Bondi Beach. We did eventually make our way to Bondi Beach, where I eagerly searched the lifeguard stands for the stars of the reality TV show Bondi Rescue. I spotted one of the guys, but unfortunately for me, it was the old guy who yells at everyone that he saves. When we saw him, he was in the middle of yelling at some tourists for swimming outside the flags, so needless to say, I was too scared to even take a picture.

Bondi Beach

My first sighting of the Sydney Opera House was awe-inspiring. We were up in the hills looking over the Sydney Harbour. It was a spectacular sight with its vast white “sails” and the Harbour Bridge standing proudly next to it. It is certainly a sight everyone should try to see in his or her lifetime. Up close, I was surprised to find that the Opera House actually looks a little outdated. Those “sails” that look so smooth in photographs are actually made up of individual white tiles, and the front of the building has brown metal supports that give the whole thing a distinctly 1970s feel. We walked into a little corridor and found a troupe of vaguely frightening clown/mimes entertaining children. We left rather quickly.

Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House

Close up of the front of the Opera House

Near the Opera House and Harbour Bridge stands the famous old amusement park, Luna Park. We walked through the gaping mouth entrance into a world of vintage amusement and charm. It was a lovely afternoon with spectacular views and memories that will last forever.

The entrance to Luna Park

We toured other bits of Sydney, visiting a nice street market and driving through the notorious (read: dangerous) Kings Cross neighborhood famous for high profile drug rings, raging nightclubs, and vicious street bashings.

After our few days exploring Sydney, we loaded back into the car to take our time traveling up the east coast of Australia. That will be the subject of my next blog entry. Thanks for reading!!