Sydney Days 1-2

So I wish I could upload my pictures right now, but my card reader is packed in the depths of my luggage… so it will have to wait for a few more days. But for those just tuning in at home. I’m in Sydney now, and have will be here for one more full day tomorrow. I arrived yesterday, the 9th of August and the weather so far has been fantastic. I was a little bit scared when I left Brisbane that I would arrive in Sydney to a cold, rainy place… which it has apparently lived up to that expectation during the past two months. However, upon my arrival, it’s a completely different scene. First off, I had to say that just flying into the city was pretty awesome. The Airport here in Sydney is right along the ocean, so similar to SFO or OAK, you see the water right up until you land. Well as we were on approach, I saw two windsurfers cruising along next to the airplane (going a little bit slower of course), but they had to be less than 100 yards away… I thought to myself… wow, that is really awesome. I’m planning on someday being that windsurfing watching planes land from the comfort of my board.

But getting into Sydney was no worry, it’s definitely a bit pricier than Brisbane in some regards, but surprisingly cheaper in other areas…. Such as haircuts, clothing, and some foods… weird. But I checked into my hostel (YHA Sydney Railway Station)… and this place is by far, the nicest hostel I’ve ever stayed in. I think it was built about 3 years ago and is directly connected to the railway station. Some of the bedrooms are even in old rail cars, but it’s a really nice place with a big kitchen and plenty of nice comfy couches, one of which I’m sitting on right now. So once I dropped my bags off, it was off to start exploring the city. I began my journey by walking outside, and heading straight down George Street, the main drag into downtown, Sydney is definitely a busier place than Brisbane with its fast moving traffic, and people actually honking at eachother while driving. But still, a city is a city, one of my friends mentioned how it resembles a New York combined with Southern California… I could see it. So I’m walking down George Street and then pick up some groceries at the local woolies,.. food is unfortunately more expensive, but then I make my way down to the Harbour, and out of the corner of my eye, there it is, the Sydney Harbour Bridge… it’s one of those things that is just kind of awe-inspiring and something that I’d only seen on TV thus far in my life, so seeing it in real life was pretty amazing. In my past two days, I’ve probably taken about 40 pictures of it from different angles, but after my excitement from that was slowly wearing off, then out of the other corner of my eye comes the Sydney Opera House, It’s quite an impressive place as well. So I spent the next few hours walking between the two and just taking in the sights of Sydney Harbor. Sydney is an absolutely beautiful place, a bit busy, but has a lot of character in its relationship with the water, the ferries, and its architecture.

Later in the evening, I went out to a local pub with some friends from the program, and grabbed a drink. It was nice to hear the experiences of some others in the EAPSI program outside of Brisbane. But then, it was time to retire back at the YHA after a long day, my room was a 4-share, and wasn’t particularly hospitable, fairly quiet and tense looking guys, so I just minded my own business and went to bed.

The next morning, I had a slow start. I woke up around 8:45 and made myself down to brekky. For some reason, I’ve been eating a pretty good bit during the past two weeks. So this morning was no different with my two bowls of cereal, four pieces of toast and granola bar. But I knew I had a big day of walking ahead. I went ahead and bought a daily pass for the transit system. I first two a train then bus down to Bondi Beach on the south shore. I had heard that the walk from Bondi to Coogee along the coast was a must. And it when I got there, it was a great morning trek. I walked as I watched surfers and boogie boarders enjoying the surf at Bondi, it was surprisingly warm today with temps probably in the upper 70s. After about 2 hours of walking around the coast, I was getting ancey to make it back to the CBD, because I wanted to try to make it over to Manly Beach too. So luckily, the one bus I saw during this whole escapade was just around a corner. I knocked on the bus door because it was closed and asked how to get back to the CBD, and apparently this was the right place to be. The driver let me in and off we went.
I eventually made it back to Central Station, and then hopped back on the train to head to Circular Quay. Once there, I jumped on a ferry to Manly Beach. I sat next to a gent from Perth who was the head of the Pharmacy Board of Western Oz. Sounded like an important position, so I kept chatting. Really nice guy, gave me plenty of tips about Manly Beach and where to go, we also had a nice chat about American and Australian Politics. Apparently John Howard bailed out East Timor back in the day… who knew?

So once at Manly, I just kinda ambled around. I walked for about 2 hours there, around the beach over to North Point (I think that was the name), but did a little bit of hiking in the hills and cliffs around the beach, it was pretty rugged hiking considering how close to the city it was. But met a nice German/French couple along the way.

I headed back to the city around 415PM and caught the ferry. On the ferry ride, I got some great pictures of the city and the bridge. Once back, I was just plain ferry happy and decided to catch another one over to Darling Harbour, which goes under the Harbour Bridge…. Even better! So took that one, the ride lasted about 25 minutes or so. Once at Darling Harbour, I went walking for another 2 hours or so, seeing all of the touristy sights of Brisbane, but it is very impressive. Sydney definitely has lots to offer, and there were plenty of people out as well to make it interesting. I stumbed across a really awesome photo exhibit of photography from around the world. It had a sustainability/climate spin so each photo had little snippits of facts about the environment and such, it was really interesting. But after that, I was pretty famished, and it was nearing 7pm. So I came back to the hostel, and made myself some dinner, and now here I am. To be honest, I’m pretty exhausted right now, and may turn in within the next two hours.

But I’ll be off to NZ here in a few days, so I defiantly have that to look forward to. Cat and I are working out final minute details to meet up, but I imagine it’ll all work out.

Funny thing, I was just approached by a girl from Minnesota (more recently Chicago) who was trying to sell her airport train tickets because they were leaving early for the airport on a different day, and it turns out that she was sitting next to me on the Ferry today (I couldn’t’ remember) but she apparently noticed my Chacos, and also did again right now. Hah. Small world. Anyway, until tomorrow!