Sydney

Hope everyone had a fabulous Easter Holiday, I know I did! As I said before I spent my Easter in Sydney. It was really weird because it didn't feel like Easter, it just felt like another weekend. The weirdest part was toasting with my friends "Happy Easter" while we ate pasta at a pizzeria near our hostel. Anyway...

Sydney was great! It's a wonderful city! It was so beautiful especially taking the trip on the ferry around the harbor which let me see all the sites I wanted to see. Like the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Opera House, some beaches and well just a great view of Sydney itself! The hostel that my friends and I stayed at was very close to Darling Harbor, which is a great area full of stuff to do, like the Maritime Museum, the Sydney Aquarium, and there's plenty of shopping and places to eat and drink. The Aquarium was a wonderful experience, if you ever go to Sydney make a stop there... it was great! There are heaps of fish and sea creatures to look at! The platypus were very interesting creatures to look at. They're adorable!

Day one was great except for not being able to pop my ears on the plane! I had no idea how much that sucks because I've always been able to, but being sick and stuffed up made it more difficult! Anyway Day One in Sydney was Friday, I got there in the afternoon and it was mostly spent checking out Darling Harbor (which I've already explained). A group of us checked out the Chinese Gardens which were really pretty, but we didn't really know what to do with ourselves there. They were still pretty great though. I also made it over to the Maritime Museum which has a bunch of sea stuff. And by that I mean parts of ships and displays about the convict ships and the expeditions made to Australia. I believe this was also the night that we discovered Chinatown which was mass crazy! So much Asian food in one place!!! Blair, Amber and I also enjoyed a movie at the Imax (Robots, which is really funny, and a great cartoon) and watching a street performer afterwards. The next day was the Aquarium which was great, and we also went to the Australia Museum, which was pretty cool, not my most favorite thing, but I enjoyed the exhibit about Aboriginees. I also got to experience The Queen Victoria Building! It's really a lovely building, but we went mostly for the amusement of how expensive everything was in the shops there!! $200 for a Versace tank top?! It was crazy, and we had fun looking at some goregous dresses, but there was just the overall feeling that I did not belong there in my t-shirt and rolled up jeans! This was also the day that our friend Andrew decided we needed to go to Kings Cross. Ha! There is no real need to go there, it's pretty dodgy, but for some reason we walked up to Kings Cross and experienced Sydney's dodgy-ness.

My last full day in Sydney was Sunday which consisted of first finding breakfast which took quite awhile, then missing the Ferry, finally getting on the ferry, taking a ride around Sydney harbor to see the bridge and Opera house, and then walking about in Paddy's Market. Paddy's Market is one HUGE market full of clothes, shoes, souvenirs... heaps of stuff! I bought the ever tourist-y boomerang while there. The place was just crazy full of people, but it was pretty cool. The rest of the day I spent with friends Amber and Blair buying souvenirs. By the way, this I have found is the hardest thing to do. Especially when thinking of friends and family back home. What the heck am I suppose to get for you people?! Whatever I do get, you better like it! :-) The three of us spent the rest of the night together first with a couple cheap drinks at the pub in the hostel where we met some other Americans that were visiting Sydney , but studying in Wollongong (about an hour south of Sydney). We then made our way to find somewhere yummy to eat at for Easter dinner that wasn't too expensive and we ended up at a Pizzeria that was really rather tasty! The rest of the night our large group (which totaled 10) spent at the pub in the hostel hanging out, where we once again got to talk with the Americans we had met earlier. It was an early evening for me because Amber and I had to fly out at 8:20 the next morning. Overall it was a great experience and a lot of fun. Sydney is a really great place and the company I had with me was wonderful also. One random thing about Sydney was that this was the first time that I saw a Starbucks and a 7/11. There were many 7-11's, which was convient because there was one two seconds from our hostel. Anyway that was my trip and it was great. It is now Thursday and I have lots of work to do! I have an essay due tomorrow which will hopefully not be too crappy. I just checked comments from my Easter post though and Cassie and Mandi... you two are terrible! Encouraging me to put off my essays! :-) hahaha. no worries! Mandi I'm glad you like to read these, Adelaide is great, I'm glad I came here! Well I should be off, it's about time for lunch and then lots and lots of "essay" writing to do! I keep getting made fun of for calling them papers, so I'm trying my best to call it an essay not a paper! That and I felt really stupid this morning with the way I pronounce banana. Oh and one more share, I watched Family guy with a bunch of Australians the other night, which was funny cuz I tended to laugh at things that they didn't...that was pretty funny.

cheers!
smuder