Day 7: Full Circles

7:00pm – This morning we woke up a bit late (9am!), got dressed, and headed out to brunch. Suny picked this place called Pancakes on the Rocks at Harbourside. On our way out as we were waiting for the elevator, my dad asked me for a make-up lesson/wanted to know what kind of make-up I use. I don’t know what that was about, but I wanted to mention it so I can read this later and laugh again. 

Our brunch restaurant was located on the other side of Harbourside, so we walked through the mall to get there. They took literally FOREVER to get us our food, and their restaurant wasn’t even that busy. My parents and Suny got a bit of everything – eggs, sausages, pancakes, grilled pineapple, and grilled banana. I ordered pancakes with strawberries and ice cream and some other weird cream that tasted like cardboard. All together, my meal wasn’t too terrible, but then again, I’m not really a breakfast person to begin with. Everyone else really enjoyed their food at least!

We got a day-long pass for the monorail which was $9.80 each. With it, we could get on the monorail and get off wherever and whenever we wanted. The single fare pass is $5.00, and since we were planning on going to a bunch of different places along the monorail today, it made sense to get the day-long pass. Our first stop was the Powerhouse Museum for the Harry Potter Exhibition, but unfortunately by the time we got there around 11am, we saw that all the showings for today except the last one at 4pm were all sold out, meaning we would have to come back at 4pm. The line was really long, so we weren’t even guaranteed those 4pm tickets. While we stood in line and waited, I nearly had a meltdown considering this is the last day we’re in Sydney and I’ve been wanting to see the Exhibition for so long and never got a chance when it was in New York City. We eventually made it to the front of the queue and scored tickets! But that also meant we had to come back at 4pm. There are other things in the Powerhouse museum too, since it is a museum of science and design after all, so we decided to come back a little early before the exhibition to check out the rest of the exhibits.

After securing our tickets, we walked back to the monorail and hopped on to go to Galeries Victoria so we could check out the Australian Opal Cutters/Pearl Divers shop. For a place that has been advertised in literally even single pamphlet at nearly every single attraction, it didn’t really live up to its hype. Since they offered free lessons about opals and pearls, we went to at least learn something. When we showed up to the third floor of a small mall area, we found a tiny shop covered in metal fence kind of stuff to prevent robberies I guess, but the place looked mad sketchy.

We got our pearl and opal lessons from Uday, a man from Hyderabad who has lived in Australia for 11 years. He told us all about the pearls and opals, and how you can tell if they’re real by rubbing them against your teeth. I don’t really know who would want to do that, in case they ended up ruining the stone, but I guess that’s just me? My parents got me a set of dangling opal earrings and since we spent a certain amount, I also got a pair of free pearl earrings! I loooove earrings. They’re probably my favorite kind of jewelry, just because I feel like there are SO many different kinds and you can really do so much with them AND it’s a lot easier to collect a lot of earrings than any other kind of jewelry, at least in my opinion? I also love watches now (thanks to Neetu) and now I feel naked without one. TMI? Moving on.

We finished up at the opal/pearl place and walked around Pitt St to check out some stores and see if we wanted to shop there. We wanted to dedicate a good chunk of today to shopping since today is our last day here and we still had a bunch of souvenir shopping to do. Unfortunately though, there weren’t a lot of souvenir places around there so we turned back around and got back on the monorail to head back to Chinatown/Paddy’s Markets which is at the same stop as the Powerhouse museum. Since the monorail only goes in one direction, we made a full circle! It was nice to see the city along the monorail and to rest of our feet. I don’t know if I’ve described the monorail compartments before, but in any case – there are probably like four or five cars on each train, and each car only has 8 seats, 4 on each side that face each other. It’s mad awkward since there are such few people, and if you don’t get a seat, you basically cram however many people into the space between the seats (about three feet wide).

We got back to Paddy’s Markets (which we visited at the beginning of our trip), but this time, luckily all the stores were open. I didn’t really have anything specific in mind when walking into the market, but before I knew it, I had already bought like three different shirts. My parents also picked up a few things and then we walked over to the Powerhouse museum around 3pm.

Turns out, the Powerhouse Museum wasn’t nearly as interesting as we thought it would be. There were a few cool exhibits about engines and computers and things – there was also a mad old Bugatti – but other than that, not too much worth mentioning. Granted, we were also all so exhausted, and walking all over the museum wasn’t high on our list of priorities. Harry Potter was high on mine though! After walking around for probably 30 minutes, we called a quits and just got in line for Harry Potter.

The Harry Potter Exhibition was phenomenal. While we waited for the group before us to pass through, one of the guides was testing our knowledge on Harry Potter, asking us questions to see who the true fans are. He asked what Dumbledore's scar above his knee is of (the London underground), what the seven horcruxes are (diary, ring, necklace, cup, diadem, snake, Harry), who the animagi are in the books (James, Sirius, Wormtail, Voldemort, McGonagall, Rita Skeeter, etc.). Whoever didn't know those simple answers really didn't deserve to be there.

In any case, it was such an incredibly cool experience! They had HUNDREDS of props from all the movies, like Hermione’s beaded bag, the horcruxes, the flying car, Bellatrix’s wand and knife (NICOLE!), the sorcerer’s stone, Hagrid’s hut, the Half-Blood Prince’s potions book, the Gryffindor common room bulletin board, mandrakes, and soooo many different outfits that were actually worn in the movies by characters including Lockhart, Umbridge, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Bellatrix, Voldemort, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Krum, Diggory, Cho Chang, Ginny, Luna, Neville, and SO many others. They even had this cool exhibit where you could throw quaffles into three hoops and see how well you could score. It was kind of like one-handed basketball. Different creatures were all over the place too like DOBBY, the centaurs, Buckbeak, those invisible creatures that drove the chariots, and a bunch of others. Basically whatever props we saw in the movies, they were there at the exhibition. Suny and I took like two hours to get through everything because we literally read every single card. I think my parents were done in 20 minutes haha. 

The only downfall about the exhibition was that WE WEREN’T ALLOWED TO TAKE PICTURES. I really wanted to sneak some pictures in with the flash off on my camera, but they would throw us out if we got caught and I didn’t want to risk it. The Harry Potter Exhibition was definitely one of the highlights of this trip. It was so amazing to see the props and things up close, especially all the details in the books and pieces of parchment, like the list for Dumbledore’s Army or Harry’s endless stream of “I will not tell lies”  written with Umbridge’s “special” quill.

The exhibition was divided into different chambers/rooms and most of them had these 2-3 minute video montages of whatever was in the room. Like when they had a bunch of Hermione’s stuff, they also had a montage of her highlights throughout the series, like when she punched Malfoy, her “wingardium leviOOOsa” and “not in the restricted section” moments, when she walked down the stairs before the Yule Ball, her embracing Harry and Ron at various points, and so many others that brought a smile to my face as I recalled what movie each of the scenes was from. The way they make the trio’s relationships seem, in the back of my mind I’m always left wondering why Harry and Hermione never got together, especially given the way the movies portray the pair. I have separate mindsets towards the books and the movies, since they really are quite different, but this was definitely a nice way to conclude my impressions on the movie series.

When we finally made our way out of the exhibit, we stopped by the souvenir shops where I realized how much more expensive things were here than they were in Orlando. Whereas in Orlando you actually got a real 3D chocolate frog, here you could only get a flattened pancake of a chocolate flog and that was $5. Suny and I still got t-shirts and nearly spent all the money our parents had given us for the trip on them. (Just kidding.) Since I got mine in the kids’ section (hooray for being small!) at least I got to save $10! :)

Our feet were totally killing us by the time we got out of the museum, so rather than walk back the one-stop worth of monorailing in the other direction (the same distance we walked when we first visited Paddy’s Markets last week), and decided to hop back on the monorail and ride almost a full circle to get back to Harbourside. We got off a stop before our hotel to get us closer to the mall so we could shop around there. Suny and I each got a pair of authentic Uggs, made in Australia, so at least our feet will be warm when we land in DC on Saturday. There are SO many stores for Uggs around here –  literally one on every other street block. I was wondering why they were so popular here, especially given the warm weather and the unnecessary need for them, and then I realized that they’re actually made in Australia, which is why we got such great prices for them compared to in the states. When we were finally all shopped out, we walked back to the hotel and basically collapsed/I started writing this post while my brother watched the news.

Interesting observation about news in Australia – so much of it is for American news. I don’t know if that’s because they expect a lot of Americans in Sydney or something (which I haven’t actually seen a lot of) or because Australians are actually interested in American news? I have no idea but it’s weird because we as Americans don’t generally give two shits about what’s going on in Australia, yet it seems as though their news gives a lot of attention to what’s going on in our country.

In any case, that’s all for now! We’re heading out to dinner soon so I’ll update after and then post this tonight hopefully. I can’t believe this is our last night in Sydney! The vibe is so different here than from America. It might be because they’re all on summer vacation, but I’m really starting to see what people mean when they say Americans revolve their lives around their work, whereas the rest of the world leaves their work at the end of their shifts to begin their lives. I’m starting to fit into this lifestyle so well here (because I have no responsibilities whatsoever besides helping to make sure we’re productive every day), but I’m really going to miss this amazing, vibrant, and artistic city. :(

 

10:00pm – We just finished dinner at a Chinese restaurant along the harbour called Dragon Boat. Our last meal in Sydney! I’m so depressed. The food was delicious, the view was beautiful, the weather was perfect, but we all felt a little sad that our time in Australia will soon be coming to an end.

While at dinner, I went around the table and asked everyone what their favorite memories from our trip were. My dad went first and said he really enjoyed the harbour –  its restaurants, shopping, and views, and how convenient its location was to our hotel. My mom loved the way none of us were glued to our technology (as I sit here and write this..haha) but she liked how our phones weren’t constantly going off and how we were actually able to enjoy each others’ company. She also felt really happy when the kangaroo man let me in to take a picture with Seth – she thought that was a great moment. Suny had the most fun when he was eating, obviously, and he loved the kangaroo the most. Disgusting. 

No one asked me what my favorite part was because we got caught up in talking about something else, so I’ll just share on here. Although I was originally hesitant about how much time I would be spending with my family, that factor turned out to be my favorite about this whole trip. Yeah, you can put us in this amazing environment with the best food and places to visit, but it’s who you’re with that really makes the trip special and worth remembering. A week from now, there’s a one in a million chance that I could have a job lined up that would move me across the coast from my family. Sure, it’s a really small chance, and it’s a job that I’ve been dreaming to do for so long, but just the thought of moving so far away from these crazy but awesome people really makes me appreciate the time that we’ve had together. We’ve made memories to last a lifetime on this trip and I’m never going to forget them. My family, albeit completely insane at times, keeps me grounded and gives me the best joys of life. I don’t know what I’d do without these people. I guess I really have come full circle!

Tomorrow we head off to Coffs Harbour for a few days with my dad’s cousin’s family. I have no idea what to expect there, except even warmer temperatures and beautiful beaches, but I’m looking forward to moving on to our next big adventure. Sydney’s been amazing and I’m sad to leave but I know it’s not the last time we’ll meet.

Until later then,

Hoo roo mates. :)

Day 6: Taronga, Taronga, Taronga!

5:30pm – Before I begin this recap of today’s activities, can we just talk about how PITTSBURG IS OUT OF THE PLAYOFFS!?!?!??! I just got out of the shower to come upstairs and see the last play of their game against the Broncos in overtime and I could not be more stoked! I can’t wait for the Ravens’  game on Sunday – I’m so glad they decided to wait to play until after I came home. :)

Alright so you’re probably wondering what the heck Taronga is. “Taronga” is an aboriginal word meaning “great view” (I like to think of it more as EPIC view) and our main attraction for today was the Taronga Zoo. Going off of that, every single place we went to today had the most picturesque views. I know I keep carping about how amazing the scenery is here, but the views we saw today just topped everything, so I thought it would be an appropriate title for today’s posting.

We hopped on the Captain Cook sightseeing cruise this morning around 9:30am at Darling Harbour. The cruise ship takes its passengers along many different sites in this great harbour of Sydney, including Circular Quay, Watsons Bay, Luna Park, Fort Denison, Shark Island, Manly Beach, and Taronga Zoo. It’s similar to the sightseeing bus tour we did the other day, except the ferries arrive every 45 minutes (not every 15-20 minutes like the bus) and it runs through a narrower stretch of time in order to avoid the tides.

This was our first water ride experience in Sydney and it was so picture-perfect. Since we already visited Circular Quay (where the Opera House is) we didn’t need to go back, so we hopped off at Taronga Zoo first. The zoo is in this amazing location, surrounded by beaches and trees and perched high up along the cliffs. The layout for it is so weird though! I felt like we were going around in circles so many times because all the exhibits kind of branch off from the center of the zoo and there’s no one set path to follow to get anywhere. To get to the entrance, we took a Sky Lift which is run by the same concept of a ski lift, except you sit with a small group of no more than 5 people in a Ferris wheel sort of contraption if that makes sense. The lift took us up along the cliffs and we could see the beautiful water, coastline, and city skyline from above. We could literally see for miles and miles…it was so incredible. I don’t even have words to describe how incredible it was. The ride lasted no more than two and a half minutes though lol and then we were at the zoo!

Although we went to the Wildlife Reserve last week and saw kangaroos and koalas among so many other animals, the Wildlife place didn’t have quite as many animals as the zoo, like elephants, giraffes, tigers, lions, TAZMANIAN DEVILS, seals, penguins, etc. which we got to see today. The zoo also had kangaroos and koalas too, but we focused on what we hadn’t seen already.

When we got to the zoo, we were a bit overwhelmed by the map. It looked simple enough, but we knew we didn’t have all day to explore the zoo since there were other stops we wanted to make on our sightseeing cruise. As we walked into the zoo, two elderly lady volunteers were standing to greet us – carrying lizards. Now, although lizards are better than snakes, I still kept my distance. Suny, of course, just had to touch it.

We saw alligators, koalas, and lots of different kinds of birds, but the first real animal exhibit we stopped at was the Komodo Dragon. Although I’ve heard the name before, I’ve never really seen one or knew what to expect. First of all, the thing is gigantic. When they say it’s the largest lizard in the world, they’re not kidding. It’s like a baby crocodile or something and its tongue is just like that of a snake’s. I was so intrigued by this creature even though it freaked me out a bit. After checking out the dragon, we walked into the Reptile House which was just a huge mistake. I’m deathly afraid of snakes, and we saw way too many, including Boas, Anacondas, Pythons, and even Taipans, which have one of the most deadly venoms in the snake world. The Wildlife Reserve had smaller snakes, whereas this place decided the bigger the better. I was so antsy the whole time and my dad had to help guide me through the exhibit so I wouldn’t sprint to the exit. There were also a lot of lizards and turtles there to serve as buffers between all the snakes.

We next visited the giraffes which had just been fed so all of them were out and about. Apparently when giraffes are born, they’re about two metres in height! How crazy is that? That’s like…half a metre taller than my current adult height. We saw chimpanzees, mountain sheep, bongos, bears, roosters, elephants, zebras, among so many other furry friends. The weather was really nice today, a little on the hot side, but not too bad for touring the zoo, and perfect for the boat ride. Even so, we eventually had to stop for some ice cream/ice pops to cool us off (I got this really delicious raspberry pineapple ice pop), and since we bought three, we got a free foldable Taronga Zoo water bottle (which I totally called dibs on)!

We eventually got around to visiting the Tazmanian Devil, which I was most interested to see. I’ve never seen one before (unless you count the cartoon), and it kind of reminded me of a mix between a small dog and a small cat. Its fur was black and it had a pretty long tail, and the insides of its ears were red. I don’t know what that’s about, but I guess that’s where it gets its “Devil”  name. Apparently these little guys are kind of a nuisance here because they keep getting run over by motorists and people don’t take care of them like they should. They’re kind of like deer in the states I guess. The zoo is trying to breed more Tazmanian Devils to hopefully rehabilitate into the wild because they’re facing extinction. Those little guys were so cute though – I wish I could keep one for a pet! (Along with Seth the Kangaroo of course.)

11:00pm – (Just got back from dinner, continuing from earlier…)There was a huge line to see the tiger cubs, and since we’ve already seen tigers (Suny and I even have a picture with a tiger cub from Myrtle Beach), we thought it would be better to check out the Ausgrid Seal Show and then head back to the ferry. The seal show was really cool! It wasn’t as big as the ones they have in Orlando/Sea World, but they had a bunch of different seals that they trained with all sorts of tricks. I think they had like 5 different seals, all different types too, that they trained to wave, skip around the water, bounce up and hit hanging balls, and walk on their front paws among some other neat tricks. The last seal up was a baby, only three years old, and the trained had taught him how to throw away trash, which he did perfectly, leaving us with a nice message to head out on. If a three year old seal is capable of throwing away his trainer’s trash, surely we as humans should be able to pick up after ourselves too. It was nice to be able to just sit in the shade and watch the show, especially since by mid-day it was getting pretty hot. It wasn’t humid or anything, and the air quality here is pretty good, but the sun was really beating down on us and draining all our energy pretty quickly.

After the show, we hopped back on the ferry to go to Luna Park, our second major stop for the day. Luna Park is an amusement park along the harbour that offers free admission to everyone. It’s kind of like a fair in that whatever rides you want to go on, you pay for, but you can also get an unlimited access pass to get you onto whatever rides you want. They have this huge Ferris Wheel that overlooks the harbour, the Opera House, and the Sydney Bridge. The views from the top are amazing, I’m sure, but since each ride was $10 (unless we got the unlimited pass), we didn’t exactly feel like paying $40 just to go on one ride. Plus we were already planning to go to the Sydney Eye Tower later in the evening and that’s amuch better bird’s eye view of the city. They have all sorts of carnival games in the park though too, and Suny and I played a view. For the first time, I was the one who actually won HIM a prize! Normally Suny wins me a million things, from monkeys to dogs to chipmunks and the like, he’s always winning games and bringing home prizes for me. This time though, we played against each other in this shooting game where we had to hit the targets with a gun as they lit up, and I won! Of course we had unlimited bullets and the first one to hit 30 would win, and we were the only two people playing, so one of us was bound to win…but I won! I felt really proud of myself. :)

They’re so crazy about the Angry Birds game here in Sydney that so many of the prizes were the birds themselves, and I won Suny the black bomber one. I’ve also noticed how they have other Angry Birds merchandise EVERYWHERE. The souvenir shops especially have t-shirts, plush toys, key chains, whatever you name, they probably have it in Angry Birds form. They’re nuts about the game here! I also won us two tiny dogs – one purple and one blue – and two tiny crocodiles – one purple and one blue, from a game that I couldn’t seem to win a real prize on, so they gave me those as pity prizes.

We didn’t stay in the park too long since we wanted to go to the Sydney Tower (and because the ferries stop around 5-6pm because of the tides) but first we wanted to shower and freshen up so we could also go out to dinner afterwards. Plus I could feel driblets of the sea salt from the cruise on me and I wanted to get them off. I know I probably didn’t make it sound like we spent too much time on the cruise, but we really did. In between the two stops we hopped off at, there were a bunch of others that we didn’t go to/already went to earlier, and we probably spent a good hour or two on the boat in total.

On our way back to the hotel, we came across another street performer. This one was HILARIOUS, like absolutely hilarious, and his main trick was juggling three fire torches while atop a 3 metre tall unicycle. This guy was really impressive, but what melted my heart was when the man’s son came on stage and tried interrupting his dad’s performance. His dad gave him one of his swords to play with, so this little kid (his name is Pim and he’s 3 years old) started running around the circle waving a sword. The man had called up another boy (his name is Michael and he’s 11 years old) to help with the trick before all this happened, so Pim started chasing Michael around the circle with the sword. Then the man gave Michael a sword too to see what would happen, and both the kids were about the start going at it when the entertainer stopped them and said he was just kidding. Pim was seriously the cutest little guy ever though. He kept running onto the stage and grabbing his dad’s leg or just being a little distraction. I don’t know if Pim was part of his act, but he definitely bought my sympathy points – that’s for sure.

We headed back to the hotel, showered and changed, when I realized how unbelievably SUNBURNED I got earlier today from the zoo. I have never in my entire life gotten sunburned, and I have spent countless hours laying out by the pool in the summer without using any sunblock or sunscreen whatsoever. I guess the ozone layer is thinner down here or something because my arms and nose are so burned along with my exposed lower neck area. I have no idea how to even treat sun burn. Ice? Lotion? I’ll try both.

When we were all ready, we headed out on foot to the tower. It’s not too far from our place – just across a few bridges and down a few streets (which really isn’t that bad here), but we monorailed it instead of walking since we already got in a more-than-necessary amount of walking earlier in the day. The monorail took us almost right below the tower, to the Westfield shopping center which is another high-end designer retail place near Pitt St. and Market St.

The tower stands above it at 304 metres. We headed up to the concourse level where we got to watch a short 4D film about the city of Sydney. Before entering the theatre though, they had all these facts about the Sydney tower, like how it took about $26 million and six years to build. They also had a graph of the world’s tallest towers and how Sydney Tower stacks up. I don’t know why they would do such a thing since this tower is such a shrimp compared to all the other towers. It’s about 100 metres shorter than the Empire State Building and less than half the height of that huge tower that was recently constructed in Dubai. There were two towers missing from their map though, and seeing the world skyline without them, even though it’s been 10 years, really hit me hard. To think that they’re not even acknowledged, or marked in dotted lines instead of solid lines, or to think that all the design and construction work to create those towers in the first place has now just vanished into thin air is so upsetting. You can’t just erase the twin towers from a graph like that, as if they were never there. :(

I don’t know if it was because I was bummed out by the memory of the twin towers, or because we were on a ferry earlier and my legs still felt like jelly, or because these kids meals are finally catching up on me and I need to replace them with adult meals, or because I’m realizing that this is one of our last nights here, or a combination of all that, but when we got to the top of the tower, I started feeling really sick. When we were at Luna Park earlier, I was also feeling dizzy and seeing spots at one point, but while at the top of the tower, so high up in the air, I felt like the entire room was spinning and the tower was teetering. The palms of my hands and the balls of my feet were sweating and I just felt so uncomfortable. I couldn’t even stand at the window glass because I felt like I could so easily tip the balance of the entire building. It was like I was still on the ferry and I just felt like everything around me kept bouncing up and down. I finally sat down close to the middle of the tower, away from the windows, and tried to compose myself before my family members noticed anything suspicious. I got a chocolate bar from the food stand which got my sugar levels back up so I could at least walk around. I still felt really uneasy though, but I wanted to make the most of the opportunity and get as many pictures of the views as I could. Towards the end of our time there, my mom wanted to get a picture of me up against the window with the city in the background, and it basically took every ounce of strength I had to sit on the ledge (in front of a floor-to-ceiling glass window) and not run away. I had no idea what had gotten into me at that point but I just needed fresh air and I needed to get the hell out of that tower.

Even the elevator back down to the ground was painful. The lifts themselves are so tiny, made for probably like 6 people max, so our family got in, and then this moronic group of like 6 people decided to jump in our elevator instead of wait for the next one. Since there was no one monitoring the lifts going back down, there was no one to say anything. Since I entered the elevator first, I was smushed up against the wall so everyone could fit. The entire time we were descending, I was just praying to God to get me out of the elevator and back on solid ground. Just as we reached the bottom and the elevator stopped, the doors didn’t open.

The morons who entered the elevator after us didn’t press the button or something, so the elevator went back up…304 metres into the air. I could feel my lungs collapsing and my head pounding me as we ascended back up to the top, and I wanted to just tell my parents to get out of the elevator at the top and that we would take the next one, but since we were so tightly packed, worse than sardines, I just closed my eyes and waited for it to be over. We finally got back down to the ground (again) and I nearly passed out after being the last one to step off the elevator. I know this is sounding really dramatic, but the sad thing is that I’m not exaggerating at all. It was such a horrible experience. I never thought I was afraid of heights, and I never have been before, but there was just something about being up there that wasn’t settling right with me. :( Together, the sunburn and this tower experience are really hurting my self-proposed invincibility factor. Just saying.

Once I got some fresh air outside, I could feel the color coming back to my face and my strength coming back to my joints. We walked back to Darling Harbour and ate at this burger joint Suny wanted to try out at Harbourside. I forget the name of the restaurant, but the burgers are apparently the best in all of Australia. I don’t remember what everyone ordered, but I ordered one of the veggie burgers. Another strange thing that’s happened to me while I’ve been here is that I’m not so inclined to eat meat as I usually am. Back in the states, I LOVE eating meat – chicken, lamb, sausage, you name it and I’ll eat it. But, being here in Sydney has turned that around. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been spending so much time with animals at the zoos, aquariums, and wildlife reserves and whatnot, but I can’t really tolerate eating meat anymore. It’s so weird! I mean, I’m sure I’ll eventually go back to eating chicken at least, but right now I’m just so turned off by anything that has to do with eating animals. Plus, the veggie burger was so delicious! The patty was made out of some mixture of potatoes and peas and other vegetables and they added avocado, salad, tomatoes, onion, and some special relish. I absolutely loved it.

We headed home after dinner and Suny and I watched a rerun of the Broncos vs. Steelers game which just ended. I’m so exhausted but I can’t wait for tomorrow! It’s almost midnight here so I should probably get to sleep. We’re going to the Powerhouse Museum tomorrow which has the Harry Potter Exhibition and I’m so excited! Since tomorrow is our last day in Sydney, we’re basically spending the rest of the day shopping, packing, and tying up any loose ends. On Wednesday we leave for Coffs Harbour up north where my dad’s cousin lives. It’s about an 8 hour drive but we thought the drive would be more fun than a flight, especially since there are a bunch of beaches along the way and the scenery I’m sure is going to be amazing as usual. (We booked a one-way ticket to get back to Sydney for our flight back to the states though.)

More minor observations from down under:

• Instead of calling the food “take out” or “to go”, it’s called “take away”.
• Almost all pick-up trucks here have covers over the beds. (Probably to sneak drugs around, not that law enforcement would particularly care.)
• Both the drinking and gambling age is 18, which no one believes I am.
• If you don’t want to pay for your water, say you want “tap water”. Don’t say “normal water” or “still water”, because you could end up paying $6.50 per bottle that they put on your table. (We learned that one the hard way.)

Another note, I have over a hundred views on this blog!? How is that even possible. I’m sure like half of those are myself, and probably 40 views came from random people who click “next blog” and haplessly land on mine, so that means you guys have viewed my blog 10 times!?! That’s ten more times than I thought anyone would. Shoot, if I saw my blog, I’d take one look at how much text there is and peace out. :P I can’t tell you guys how much I appreciate all the thoughtful messages and comments you guys send me about my travels! You all give me my motivation to keep writing and I can’t thank you enough!

Day 5: "On your feet, mates!"

7:00pm – I. Am. So. TIRED! (Especially after just spending an hour writing about yesterday’s activities.)

My dad woke me up this morning at like 7am so I could have enough time to shower and get ready for the day. That means I’ve already been up for over 12 hours. That man could be a drill sergeant or something, I tell you. I don’t understand how anyone can be so chirpy in the morning, or who can wake up on his own so early, but that’s my dad!

Today was kind of a wash – literally and figuratively. We were supposed to go on this Captain Cook Hop-on-Hop-off sightseeing cruise tour (similar to the bus we went on yesterday, except on a boat). It stops at Luna Park, Circular Quay, Darling Harbour, Taronga Zoo, Manly Beach, and a bunch of other hot spots. By the time we got to the bus station that was going to take us to the wharf for the cruise though, it started drizzling so we had to scramble to find new plans since cruising in the rain isn’t nearly as much fun as it would be in nice weather. We decided instead then to head back to the Opera House for a tour and perhaps a show. At 8:45 in the morning. We got back on the double-decker sightseeing bus to take us there since we had a 24-hour pass and still had an hour or so left from yesterday. We stayed on the bus (mainly so Suny and I could nap) a bit longer than we needed to, so we ended up getting there around 10am.

We alighted (hopped off) the bus at the Opera House and by then it had stopped raining. The weather here is so crazy some days. Like for the past hour it has been POURING rain with thunder and lightning, and then it just stopped. It got so ridiculously cloudy though that we could hardly see out from our window, and now it’s perfectly pleasant outside.

Anyways. So we went to the Opera House, which to be honest with you, Suny and I weren’t all THAT stoked about, considering we weren’t in the mood to hear some woman sing so fiercely and shatter a glass of wine. That was clearly a misconception though, because this Opera House is much more amazing than we gave it credit for. First of all, the building itself is so unique and architecturally gorgeous (as I mentioned in my last post), and its setting along the water could not have been more perfectly chosen. 

We learned so much about the place today, like how the original estimates for the building were $7 million in costs and 3 years in time to build it. They were completely off, as it took nearly 16 years to build and $102 million. The chief architect of the project was a genius by the name of Jorn Utzon. When the original Opera House committee decided to create such an edifice, they welcomed submissions from architects all over the world for its appearance. Hundreds of ideas were sent in, and even though his was sent a few days late, Utzon’s was chosen primarily because of its unique spherical design. Most of the other ideas incorporated some sort of flat rectangular building, whereas his idea pushed the boundaries of science and creativity.

I know you guys are probably thinking I’m typing all this information up off pamphlets or notes I’ve taken or something like that, but I promise you, the tour guides here are so well-educated, interactive, and engaging that I’m learned LOADS every single day. I’m essentially just regurgitating it all into this blog, or as much as I can remember in any case.

So back to this Opera House. We toured the entire building and got to see many of the different halls and rooms, including the Concert Hall which seats about 2,700 people. Our tour was interesting in that we each got our own set of headphones, and our tour guide had a microphone, so she could speak softly into it and we would all hear what she’s saying. This came particularly in handy when we were in each of the halls since we didn’t want to disturb those working on sets or preparing for their shows. 

My favorite hall was the Concert Hall, which is freaking HUGE! We entered the hall through its lobby, which has PURPLE carpet! One of the performers, a very supersitiious man, refused to walk on the carpet because in his country, purple felt is used to coat the inside of a coffin. I guess they created some sort of special back entrance for him then. All the seats and banisters etc. within each of the halls are made from native materials grown in Sydney. The seats were low-backed and comfortable, but since the backs only reached about a few inches below my shoulders, it’s pretty hard to fall asleep in those chairs – which I guess is how they wanted it. It would be pretty rude to have someone snoring in the middle of these expensive shows and ruining it for everyone else.  Right now they’re getting ready for a performance on that stage called The Illusionists, which is a magic show featuring five different magicians from around the world. Suny and I were SO excited when we saw the advertisements for it, and then so dejected/SUPER BUMMED OUT when we realized the show starts after we leave Sydney. Suny’s really into magic and loves watching magicians perform, so it would have been perfect, but they decided to start the performances three days too late. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in any of the halls since they had sets on stage and for whatever reason thought we would copy their ideas…? I don’t know. 

We also visited the Opera Hall, which stands side by side with the Concert Hall. This was another one of Utzon’s ingenious ideas, whereas most of the other submissions had the two halls either one on top of the other, or far apart from one another. Based on the design of the Opera House though, by creating separate wings/spheres for each of the halls, the sounds from each wouldn’t interfere with each other. We could actually see the lobby of the Concert Hall while we were in the lobby of the Opera Hall, and vice versa. The Opera Hall is smaller than the Concert Hall, seating only about 1300 people, I believe. They have high rise balconies for dignitaries and celebrities to sit, but those aren’t the best seats in the house. In fact, the best seats are in Row J, so if any of you go to the Opera Hall, try to get seats there. The people who sat in upper balconies of the hall were more interested in being seen than actually seeing the show, so although they had plush box seats, they couldn’t really see the entire stage. Also, there are two seats in the hall that are haunted: L4 and L5, which the ushers refuse to sell. I forgot the reasoning for why exactly, but apparently those seats crash into the floor or something crazy wicked, and ever since the first night, they’ve just refused to sell those two seats, even if the entire place is sold out. The roof of the Opera Hall has a drop hatch, so people can descend downwards onto the stage if they wish. One trumpet player, I forget his name, always does that whenever he comes to perform here. During the group’s first visit, the band/orchestra was so confused because they couldn’t find him since he didn’t tell them that he would be pulling this little trick. From then on, though, they grew to expect it.

The Opera House has a bunch of other stages, although much smaller in comparison to the big two that I just mentioned. One of the halls, the one directly below the Concert Hall, is actually used now as a small theatre for La Solei (?), a type of circus/acrobatic performance and the theatre seats about 250 people. It used to be the prep room for the Concert Hall, but they decided it would be more effective to use it as its own smaller hall to host some of the smaller events. Interesting fact: Coldplay has used that same stage to record a few of their songs since the acoustics are apparently impeccable.

More about Utzon. So since this Opera House project took much more time and money than originally anticipated, the governments eventually changed over their leadership about ¾ of the way through the planning and construction. Although the government at its initial stages was very supportive, once the project started demanding more funding, newly-appointed officials grew impatient and the government started pressuring Utzon and his team to quit, or to accept collaboration from the government which was trying to change Utzon’s original ideas. Without a lot of options, Utzon resigned from the project and didn’t look back. He moved back to Denmark and never actually saw his idea to the finish. Eventually his friends and supporters here started sending him pictures and videos of the completed project, but he never came back to see it for himself. After all the hardship that he faced, however, he still agreed to design the interiors of a couple of the rooms in the Opera House and contribute ideas. One of the rooms, used for receptions and banquets, is named the Utzon Room in his honor. He is very highly regarded in Sydney as an incredibly respectable and admirable man, and his dignity remained intact up until they day he sadly died in 2008.

(The title of this post, by the way, comes from our tour guide at the house who would let us sit and rest our feet for about two minutes in each of the halls before calling out “On  your feet!” and we would proceed onto the next place. For an already-tired person, the whole process of sitting down and getting up so many times was just exhausting.)

I feel like I have so much more I could say about the Opera House but my memory is failing me right now. I just know that the entire place completely surpassed my expectations and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to tour it. For all those who want to come to Sydney, if you do nothing else while you’re here, you must see the Opera House. Since we were there so early, none of the real shows were playing, so we stopped for lunch at the Opera House café overlooking the water with the Sydney Bridge in the distance.

All day, Suny had been non-stop talking about going to the Star City Hotel and Casino (to watch football), so after lunch we took a cab from Circular Quay out to Darling Harbour and walked over to the casino. Turns out, it’s not too far at all from our hotel and the harbour – just about a quick ten minute walk.

Oh gosh, it’s raining again. With thunder and lightning. Ughhh…

Okay I’m gonna try to wrap this up quickly. So we got to Star City, Suny watched his football game – Saints vs. Lions I believe – and my parents and I just gambled. When we got to the hotel, the lady at the door didn’t believe I was 18, and was about to make us go all the way back to get our passports since apparently my Virginia ID looked fake? But she was Desi and eventually let us pass without a passport. We went up to get a club card to access the slots and games, and the man there, Daniel, also had difficulty believing I was of age to play. He kept quizzing me on my license as he inserted our information into the computer – “When’s your birthday? Where are you from? What’s your middle name? How old are you?” Like honestly, are you joking? So annoying.

Turns out, Australians have a real gambling problem. Australia is actually the largest gambling nation in the entire world. So, along with our little club card, they also gave us $50 on our card to use as credit. So, when we would use 30 cents or something on a slot turn, if we didn’t win anything on that turn, a credit would be deducted from the $50 and come back to us. Essentially that meant we kept making money, so long as we kept winning, and if we didn’t win, we stayed at the same dollar amount until our credit diminished. We had to be careful though because if you bet like 20 cents on a turn and only made 10 cents, you didn’t receive any credit. I guess they do this to entice these gamblers to keep going after their free $50 credit is up, but we were a little too smart for that. Some people use up their $50 and have nothing to show for it since they just keep going, but we all stopped at the right time and ended up walking out with almost $200 total. Penny slots are my jam. When we went to Charlestown in West Virginia for my birthday, I left with about $62, but I wasn’t as successful here. My dad made $50, I made $41, my mom cashed out $29 and Suny got $25. Suny’s the worst at playing slot machines – mainly because he hates them. He would much rather be playing poker or whatever, but since we had a free $50, we thought we might as well use it! He’s honestly the worst though. No excitement, no desire to win, just flat out nothing. He’s like completely bored with the process of pushing buttons or something.

So, that went well, everyone left happy, and we got ice cream to celebrate! We have literally eaten ice cream every single day we’ve been here. We went back to my favorite place at Harbourside on our way back to the hotel, with the Swiss-made ice cream, Movenpick, and I got another Crème and Meringue cup. No cone this time since the lady behind the counter wanted to charge me $2 for it. Although I’m now mad rich from my $41 winnings and everything, I wasn’t about to splurge on that. (I think I’m a lot cheaper than I let on.)

Before finally heading back to the hotel, we stopped by to shop in the mall for souvenirs and things. Wait! Before we got to the mall, we for whatever reason decided to go to this small Korean shop, and let me just give you the names of the first few things we saw: Essence of Kangaroo, Sheep Placenta, and Liver of some animal (I stopped reading to gag). They also sold rugs, mats, and God knows whatever else made from real animal skin and parts. As my parents looked around, I stepped outside because I couldn’t handle it anymore. I was starting to get really nauseous. The store was atrocious and I have no idea who would shop there. (No offense to any of you who do – go do your thing, just leave me out of it.)

After that little encounter, we went to the mall and as we walked around, I noticed just how much the Australians here really appreciate their native aboriginal culture. About half of each of the souvenir shops have something or another related to the aboriginals, whether coasters or boomerangs, rugs or paintings, whatever the case may be, they really embrace their aboriginal culture. It’s so different from America where we basically shun the natives, take their lands and force them onto reservations, when their ancestors are the reason the original settlers even survived there.

Final thought: The name “kangaroo” actually means “I don’t know”. When the settlers arrived here, they saw the kangaroo for the first time and wondered what it was. They asked the natives, who had no idea what they were saying so they responded “kangaroo” which in the aboriginal language means “I don’t know”.

Okay, we’re gonna head out to dinner now and my family’s pretty annoyed with me since I just spent like two hours typing all this instead of showering. Oh well, at least I’m all caught up! They can deal with my smellyness.

Until later, hoo roo, mates! :) 

10:00pm – We just had dinner at this awesome restaurant called Cyren at Harbourside. We didn’t want to venture too far off from the hotel because it was pouring down rain with more thunder and lightning. For the record, I hate thunder and lightning, and the fact that the restaurant had floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the harbour, which we were sitting right next to, was not the least bit comforting. 

I ordered Fish and Chips off the kids menu which was delicious and perfectly portioned, my parents also got some grilled fish with chips, and Suny ate more of Seth’s relatives. The “chips” (French fries) here are so good compared to the states. They actually incorporate it as part of the meal rather than just a side dish of grease. The food altogether was really good, but the experience would have been nicer if the rain wasn’t pounding down so hard. We could barely hear each other over the pitter-patter of the rain, but its effect on the harbour was still pretty cool.

After dinner Suny and I walked over to the food court area to use the internet and we noticed that there are guys here taking down the Christmas tree! L I guess this is a symbol that the holidays are actually over, but Christmas in such a warm climate was never all that believable anyway.

Day 4: Pass me a map and call me a tourist.

10:15pm – Finally have a chance to write! Right now I’m watching some magician show with my dad and brother in our apartment that reveals magicians’ greatest secrets. I never understood why these magicians tend to have the ugliest girls, at least in this show. These girls were probably too dumb to become weather girls and not hot enough to be real models, and this is the gig they got stuck with. The magician himself is also masked, which probably says something about his own appearance. Hot magicians have hot assistants. Masked magicians have girls that should be wearing masks. It’s a pretty simple correlation.

I should probably start this post off by explaining what happened last night before I hastily finished my post. Suny and I were sitting in the mall food court on our laptops (I was on my parents’) and this man, who was originally sitting down the table from us with a friend, decided to come over and start talking to me, his introductory line being – “every day I’m shuffling” in an Aussie accent. Alright, LMFAO-wannabe over here…If this man didn’t seem to be over 30, I might have stopped typing, but I was too absorbed in what I was writing. That’s another one of my pet peeves – when I’m in my writing zone, don’t bother me! When he kept repeating himself, stopping briefly in between to giggle to himself, and I wasn’t responding, he started talking to Suny, who didn’t understand what the hell he was saying. I’ve been able to understand the Australian accent fairly well, but the rest of my family still has a little difficulty sometimes. He also wanted Suny and me to shake his hand. He even waved his hand in front of my computer screen to see if he could get a reaction out of me. The guy was just a little drunk, and having dealt with such situations more times than I can count, I didn’t even bother to flinch. He came back the second time and kept asking if Suny and I were boyfriend and girlfriend so he could hook Suny up with a girl sitting in the row behind us in the food court. The girl wasn’t amused by his theatrics either and soon the two men just left. Suny thought they might come back though so he wanted to just hurry up and leave.

In any case, on to today’s activities! I am so exhausted right now and just want to get this written out before tomorrow because I’m sure I’ll have a lot to say about what we’re doing tomorrow. Today we went on one of those double-decker red buses that you oftentimes see associated with London tourism. They have the same thing here with 34 different stops throughout Sydney and you can hop off the bus to check out the specific location then hop back onto another bus that comes around whenever you’re done. There are a lot of buses and one will hit a spot about once every 15-20 minutes so the waits aren’t too long at all either. The Sydney buses share a few spots with the Bondi Beach buses too so we were able to go on both tours. The day was all together pretty fun, but just mad busy and SO exhausting. I’m too tired to even go back to the mall to post this so I’ll probably just be posting it tomorrow because I don’t feel like paying for $5 for an hour of internet at the hotel.

Alright so our tour began in Darling Harbour right outside Harbourside/the Convention and Exhibition Centre. The creation of Darling Harbour (the harbour that I keep referring to) was a multi-million dollar project undertaken to help restore the culture and vibrancy of Sydney. Before, the area was falling apart and turning into a slum, but after the completion of this huge project, they created an amazing mall with tons of stores, a beautiful boardwalk area with restaurants right along the harbour, and spectacular views for tourists and locals alike to enjoy.

Our first stop on the tour was the Chinese Gardens/IMAX theatres which we didn’t hop off to visit. The IMAX theatre here is actually the largest in the world – with screens up to seven stories in height. The Chinese Gardens were made to represent the close relationship between the Chinese and Australians. It has a beautiful botanical garden and zen room, and offers a wide selection of calming and relaxing teas for its visitors. It’s made out to be quite a romantic setting, so Suny and I are trying to get our parents to go one night while we go and do something more up our own alley.

We passed by the Sydney Aquarium, King St. Wharf, Campbell’s Cove, and The Rocks before hopping off the bus to explore Circular Quay. We already visited the Aquarium yesterday which houses more than 12,000 aquatic animals. We decided to get off at Circular Quay since we could see most of the previous stops while there by just walking around. Plus, Circular Quay is HUGE! It’s about the size of Darling Harbour, so it has a million restaurants and things to do, but the most unbelievable part of it (which is the reason it trumps Darling Harbour) is the view of the Sydney Bridge. I can’t even begin to describe what a jaw-dropping, stunningly gorgeous sight this is. We took a million and a half pictures while there so you’ll see what I’m talking about when I post them, but OMG it is absolutely mesmerizing.

We didn’t get a chance to visit the bridge up close unfortunately, or as the locals here call it, “the coat hanger”. The decision to construct the bridge was made during one of the worst economic depressions the country has ever seen back in the 1920s. Creating this bridge meant that 3,000 men were able to have steady, full-time jobs for the 9 years it took to build it. It was a huge benefit to their economy, and for many reasons an icon to the Australian people today. I can’t remember what else was said about it, but basically everyone and their mom loves this bridge, and I can hardly see a reason not to.

We spent most of our day at Circular Quay, starting off with visiting the Crime and Justice museum. Since Australian was once used as a detainee encampment/prison for fugitives, it has a rich history of law enforcement. While we have the Crime and Punishment museum back in the states, I guess the Australians view how they treated these criminals as “justice”. (I am honestly so tired right now I can hardly keep my eyes open so sorry if some of this isn’t coherent…) We got to see a lot of the weapons they used and we learned a bunch about AISO, the Australian Intelligence Security Organization (I think), which used to track people and keep tabs on who was a communist spy and who wasn’t. It took 14 people to track one person, and if you were a POI (or Person of Interest), you better watch your back. We got the chance to use their database to see if we were being followed, but the search came up with no results at all – suspicious much? I’m a little worried. What I thought was most cool about this museum was how they replicated real-life rooms that they used to have back in the day. For example, they created a court room, and for all of us used to the normal court room scenes from Judge Judy or whomever, it was pretty similar, except for one thing –the bird cage. I forget the proper term for it, but basically way back when, when prisoners were on trial, they usually had a huge group of them at one time that they kept in these long, rectangular, bird-cage-like devices with iron bars. It kind of reminded me of Harry Potter and how the prisoners like how Barty Crouch and company were tried in those kinds of holding cells while everyone else looked on and gawked at them like they were some sort of freak show.

We next went over to the Museum of Sydney which wasn’t too memorable besides for the Surf City exhibit they had on the top floor. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in there, but it basically explained the rise of surfing in Australia and how it began with a Hawaiian native coming over to Australia and the Aussies catching wind of his talents and forcing him into a surfing demonstration – just another thing the Australians picked up from America. He brought up a little Sheila to sit on his board as he surfed, so technically the first Australian surfer was a girl! They also talked about the crazy lengths people will go to, just to get recognized out here – they’ll brave the most ridiculous waves and weather just for a chance to steal some glory and get some attention. I read an interesting article there about the 30 things all boys should look for in their female counterpart – I think the article came from an old surfing magazine or something, but the suggestions were actually pretty cute and on point. I don’t know why I’m writing this, but there was a craft corner in the Surf City exhibit too! I made my own female surfer using the cut-outs they provided and brass pins to hold her together, and then I made Suny one too but I don’t think he was as stoked about it as I was.

We left the museums and headed down to the Quay for lunch where we found another street performer. I don’t know why I’m so drawn to these funny-looking men with their obnoxious amplified headset microphones and strange hats, but they’re so amusing. This one was juggling sharp swords when we approached, and his big trick at the end was to use two random men from the audience that he asked to stand about a foot apart facing each other, and to cross their arms…he then jumped onto their crossed arms and juggled four flaming torches! This guy was apparently from Scotland (I’m starting to not believe them when they say they’re from somewhere other than Australia. Their accents all sound too alike.) Turns out this genre of entertainment has a name – “street theatre”.

On our way to the infamous Opera House, we stopped to eat lunch along the waterfront. We settled on an Italian restaurant called Eastbank. My parents ordered fish and chips which was made to perfection (and priced to reflect it). The fish was so fresh and the crust was deliciously crispy. Suny ordered KANGAROO MEAT. I can’t even begin to describe how upset it made me, him eating one of Seth’s relatives. It was served with this weird pink rice and looked a lot like steak. I ordered off the kids’ menu – a Hawaiian pizza! I had them substitute the ham for jalapenos, and this was yet another one of my soon-to-be-infamous trends that the Australians just didn’t understand until I explained it like five times. No ham. Jalapeno slices instead. Not that difficult. In any case, the food was really good!

After getting our fix of food, we headed over to the world famous Opera House. Since we were still on that hop-on hop-off bus tour, we didn’t want to spend too much time in one place, so we decided to save the tour for another day. We checked it out from the outside, and honestly, it is probably the most amazing building (architecturally) that I’ve ever seen. Google Sydney Opera House right now and you’ll see what I mean. It’s STUNNING! Apparently the Opera House has a world recognition factor of over 4 million, meaning that if you were to show a picture of the Opera House to everyone in the world, about 2 out of every 3 people would be able to recognize what it is. That’s insane! It’s one of the most highly recognized buildings in the world.

We got back on the sightseeing bus tour to check out the rest of the city. Some highlights: We drove along Pitt Street which is the 7^th most expensive street in the entire world in terms of retail shops. That’s where you can find all the high-end stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, etc. among so many others. This area reminded me a lot of Times Square what with all the different shops, shining lights, skyscrapers, billboards, and they even had an Apple store with the huge glass windows and lit Apple logo. There’s also this amazing mall near George St./Market St. which is dubbed to be one of the most beautiful malls in the world. Hopefully we can go shopping there before we leave. The architecture is gorgeous – you would think it’s like a church or castle or something, but it’s a mall! We also passed by Kings Cross, which is known more famously as the Red Light District of Sydney. If you’re looking for prostitutes or strip clubs – that’s your stop! It was formerly known as Queens Cross, but because there’s also a Queens Square, people would get confused and about a century ago they changed the name to Kings Cross (like in Harry Potter!).

After a bit, we switched over to another sightseeing bus to go to Bondi Beach – omg. I don’t know where to begin with this. We took a tour around Bondi and everything about this place just solidified my desire to pick up and leave America to come live here. The water was a clear light blue, and everyone around was having such an amazing time. The boardwalk was filled with cool restaurants, small shops, and dessert parlours, kind of like Ocean City except…a million times better. We spent some time walking along the shops and got ice cream at Cold Rock Ice Creamery, which was very similar to Coldstone in that you pick your ice cream flavor then add whatever candy or toppings to it, they mash and mix it up, and then they serve it to you. I tried the Aussie Vanilla flavor mixed with Cadbury caramel chocolate and a caramel square. As much walking as we do here, I feel like we’re just packing the pounds right back on with all these ice cream trips. No worries though, we’re on vacation!! :)

 

Just a note about coming to Australia though – I don’t care if you’re a guy or a girl – never, ever, ever come here if you’re feeling self-conscious about your weight or aren’t ready to strip down into a bathing suit at any time of day. The people here are so amazingly fit and perfectly shaped that if you’re not one of them, you’ll constantly feel like a 400-pound gorilla with all these beautiful, scantily-clad people surrounding you. The only comfort you have is the other tourists who also forgot to devote an entire year to sculpting their bodies before coming here. Good thing I’m not at all self-conscious…

Bondi has a rich surfing history which began with that Hawaiian who came over and taught them how to surf. There’s also an exclusive surfing club of Bondi Beach, and membership is only given to intense surfers who show up every single Sunday to surf, regardless of the weather or whatever else, for four consecutive years. It’s a pretty exclusive club, and only the most die-hard surfers can be found within it.

Overall, Bondi beach was incredible. If you’ve ever watched The O.C., remember how they show houses up on cliffs/mountains that overlook the water? Well, that’s how Bondi is. There are so many houses of all sizes along the cliffs/mountains that offer million dollar views of the beach. Don’t worry – I took lots of pictures here too! When I retire after making my own Kingpin Bowling Lounge/Cupcakery in the states, that’s exactly the kind of place I plan to live. Seeing as how Sydney is sunny and warm about 280 days out of a year, I wouldn’t mind living in a place like this at all.

After a circle around Bondi, we went back to the Sydney city tour bus and stopped off at the Powerhouse Museum. The Harry Potter Exhibition that is traveling the world is currently docked there, and I’ve been dying to see their exhibits. When we got to the museum around 5pm, the Exhibition was still open till 8pm, but the rest of the museum was closing, so we figured we’d come back another day, especially since we were already so tired and had plans for the evening. We got back on the bus and headed towards the hotel to freshen up before setting off again. I didn’t get a chance to write earlier today since I showered instead of typed this up, which in hindsight I regret since I have so much to write now and I’m so tired!

Alright so we got dressed and then hopped back on the sightseeing bus to get to Hyde Park. Today was the commencement of this huge festival throughout all of Sydney, created to commemorate Australia Day on January 26. (They basically party for like three weeks in anticipation of it.) Hyde Park (this gigantic park in the middle of Sydney) was hosting a fair type of thing with entertainers, music, dancing, and food. We walking around a bit, listened to a few songs by a group called Electric Empire, then walked around to see what else they had. We were intrigued by a food kiosk advertising “Fairy Floss”, but when we approached the stand, we realized Fairy Floss to Australians = Cotton Candy to Americans. In another part of the park, we found a band playing live jive music and even had professional dancers teaching audience members the steps. It was really neat and the created such a fun jive about the place. We continued walking around the park and found locals more around my and Suny’s ages. Suny picked up trace smells of pot and so many people were walking around with open containers. They even had a section roped off as an above 18 section for alcohol and I guess weed. These people were jamming to some strange psychedelic trance music, if that tells you anything about the group. Around this area, Suny ran into a guy causing the guy’s sunglasses to fall off and one of the lenses fell out of the frame. The guy looked like he was going to kill someone, but Suny has this weird goofy gift of appeasing people and just making friends with them so they don’t give him a hard time about such an awkward encounter. The guy kept saying something like “I will do unto you as you do unto me” but eventually just walked away. I guess Suny apologizing and being nice to the guy made the guy nice to Suny in return. Also, this guy was pretty drunk so I don’t think he even realized what he was saying.

I feel like my writing skills are deteriorating with each sentence I type for this blog – either that or I’m just really tired and there are way too many background noises here to concentrate on what I’m writing.

We left Hyde Park around 8pm to get to Darling Harbour in time for dinner and the fireworks at 9. By the time we walked back to the harbour we only had about 20 minutes to eat before the fireworks show so we grabbed something quickly from the food court and went out to the waterfront to see the show. As we raced back from the park, we saw a lot more street performers but didn’t get a chance to stop and watch their shows. Just when I thought there weren’t any smokers or homeless people in Australia (because I’ve hardly seen any!), the walk back changed that belief. We saw a few homeless people along the streets of the Central Business District (or CBD) which we partially walked through to get back to the harbour. Also, there were a bunch of smokers in the park at the festival. Another interesting sight – tents for “Occupy Sydney” with “support the 99%” etc. banners and paraphernalia. My dad wanted to go up to one of them and ask “What do you do if you’re in the 1%?” -__- It’s like the time we went to the circus when we were younger and there was this group of protesters standing outside, promoting against animal abuse and whatnot, and my dad, supposedly not realizing who they were, went up and asked one where to buy tickets for the show. My dad’s a funny, funny man. (He really is though.)

In any case, the fireworks display was pretty short but still cool nonetheless, especially since we were right on the water. I’m not sure what the rules are for firework displays in this country, but a few pieces of the shells hit us on the way down. That’s how close we were. I’m not even sure if that’s legal. The fireworks were fired off from the center of the harbour, which is a pretty good distance away, but I don’t think that would be allowed in the states. In celebration of Australian Day (which should actually be called Australia Month), Darling Harbour shoots off fireworks every Saturday night. I love how there’s always so much to do in this city, and since it’s the summer here for the locals, there are plenty of events and attractions for everyone. After the fireworks, we got ice cream and went back to the hotel where I started typing up this post. I got to the part about the street performers after visiting the museums when I completely passed out, and I’m therefore finishing this up right now (Sunday afternoon). I really didn’t want to get behind on this blog, but right now I am! I’m gonna go shower then hopefully write up today’s post before we leave for dinner.

I hope these posts aren’t getting too boring. I’ll probably go back to this blog once I’m in the states to edit/spruce up my writing since most of this doesn’t make coherent sense. I’m essentially just trying to get all my thoughts down and write down everything we did before I forget, which is why these posts are so long. I’d rather write more than less just to ensure that I cover as much of this trip as possible. I don’t have the opportunity to travel a lot, and my memory for the most part sucks, so writing this down really helps me remember what we’ve been doing! (This blog is more for me than it is for you haha, sorry!)

Thanks for reading! 

P.S. – I never knew brown people could get sunburned, but all of us got sunburned from today! I didn’t get hit as badly, just my V-neck area beneath my neck since I put lotion on my arms and legs and wore makeup. My mom got a little sunburned on her nose, but Suny and my dad got hit the worst – face, legs, and arms. After that encounter, we decided to buy some suntan lotion for our future escapades.