Blogging

Another adventurous day. I had to share my adventure. Also, while traveling I’ve had the opportunity to dine out a lot more and I want to take the opportunity to review the places I’ve been.

This morning we met Nate and walked down to The Rocks. They had a market running with booths set up in the street selling clothing, jewelry, and other odd goods. Ann bought the oddest – fake kangaroo balls on a bottle opener. There was a stall with glassblowing, puzzles, banana bread, and chocolate. It was a nice market to browse on a Sunday morning.

Ann and I had lunch at a small cafe in the Rocks area. Not exactly good reviews. I had a spinach lentil soup and it was served cold, taken back and took an extra ten minutes to be overheated. The tables were outside but they were too close together and you couldn’t back your chair up without hitting the one behind you. After lunch, we took a walk over the Sydney Harbor Bridge. It was spectacular with the clear views of the city and the Sydney Opera House. It took about 20 minutes to walk across, taking photos along the way. On the other side, we walked down to the waters edge where there was an amusement park, Luna Park. It honestly seemed creepy with a large clown entrance, small rides, and open area. We retuned back to the city on the ferry.

We then took the free city circle bus uptown to the Paddy Markets. There were cheap good stalls set up in a warehouse selling Australian souvenirs, clothes, jewelry an produce – all at cheap prices. It didn’t take long to understand all that they had to offer and we continued our walk to Darling Harbor.

This evening, Ann and I met Lauren and Matt for their final night in Sydney. We ate at a restaurant called Sushi Rio. We sat on stools infront of a revolving sushi train. We picked from sides, sushi, and nigiri all reasonably priced at $3.  I had agedashi tofu – I wanted to tey something new, it was but turned out to be a fried tofu in a little broth. I also had a grilled salmon nigiri piece and edamame. All very tasty and washed back with a hot green tea. We walked around before splitting our separate directions.

Tomorrow I’m looking forward to going a little out of the city to the popular Bondi Beach. I’m currently at the Maccas (McDonald’s) to use their free wifi to get directions. As far as restaurant reviews go – I wouldn’t recommend it here at 10pm on a Sunday….

Run around

Finished my Aussie courses! I was shocked to learn the grading scale which came forward in our Australian Cultures class. Pretty much everyone got a 50% on the journal and exam. HWS is curving that grade so we don’t all fail.

Halloween barely felt like a holiday here. Having a test on the day really distracted me from the spirit. After the exam, Lauren and I walked through the Wednesday market on queen street to get a snack – some kettle corn which they’ve always let me sample so I had to get a cup this time. We stopped at bottle shop an headed through ashgrove. this is where i noticed some of the Halloween festivities. The houses added decorations over the day – which is different from from the US where houses decorate all October.  That evening, homes put a balloon on their front gate or door – which i think was to signal that they had candy for trick or treaters.  There were a few kids walking the street trick-or-treating but there were no large groups.

Home was one of those pit stops yesterday – I was home for just enough time (barely) to turn in my literature review to turnitin.com (despise), finish the Stanley (which has overstayed his welcome in our fridge), and change into a skirt. We ran to the bus stop so that we could meet our group at the info center on queens street mall for a haunted tour of Brisbane. It was cool walking the city with our group and hearing stories but I didn’t find an frightening – how is Brisbane haunted?

Today I had to rush around too. I took my suitcase to Queen Street to get the zipper repaired. I had some free time while it was being repaired so I took the bus to Paddington to explore. It was a similar neighborhood with a nice street of shops. There were mostly antique stores, vintage shops, health food stores, and cafes. I enjoyed browsing and seeing the area.  Later, I went to Bardon to say goodbye to a best friend on this program – he will be really missed.

Now off to the Farewell dinner at UQ to say goodbye to the campus, Professors, and wonderful people who made this abroad experience happen in the International Office.

Checked into Sydney

Wow I wouldn’t have thought there could have been any more run around. Wrong. A change of planes this morning led me into a near crisis. My host family had made it clear last week that I could stay at their house on the 10th when I fly into Brisbane for the group fought to New Zealand. I had been so busy this week that we hadn’t communicated at all and it only came up this morning that they had 2 other students coming and couldn’t accommodate me. Ugh. So that left me frantically packing up everything and getting to the airport in a cab with a friend. Upon arriving to the airport I had no idea what to do with my package and New Zealand luggage. I really struggled before hiring a cab to take me to the international airport, post office, and back to the domestic airport. Thankfully I wasn’t pressed for time and easily met Ann and took the flight.

Virgin was a nice airline. We flew in a smaller plane that boarded from the ground. The flight was only an hour so before I knew it I was in Sydney! We waited at tge aurport for the free shuttle to our hostel. we checked into Maze backpackers and then took a walk. I’ve already noticed a few differences between Sydney and Brisbane. Its definately mire crowded here with a population of 4 million and the people look a little different – more business attire and better looking. This is purely observational but there also seems ti be more homeless people. The bus here runs on a different system, I don’t know if they use go cards. There’s also a very similar feel, it is still Australia after all. There are the same chain stores and main shopping mall.

Tomorrow I’m meeting my Dad’s old work friend for a tour of the city! It’ll be nice to see someone I know (well met when I was 5) and get aquatinted and a sense of direction in this cool city!

Sydney, the city that never sleeps

New York, you have some competition. Sydney’s nightlife is lots of fun.

Ann and I had a blast going out last night. We started the night with no plan other then to find a cool bar with some dancing. We hopped around a few – one with an average age of 35, one all guys, one with $8 drinks and then to a nice backpackers place. We met lots of people at each one and talked to all kinds of people. We had a great time finishing the night at the bar watching a Britney Spears music video.

The city didn’t end their night though. From or luxurious 5 star hostel we could hear people out on the street until the morning. I’m not able to sleep very well with noise and by the time the streets quieted, the sun was up. So it’s time for another day exploring Sydney.