Again with the delay...keeping up with this thing is a lot harder than I thought. Since I'm going to be in one place for at least a week I should have a few up this week. I'll try to catch up on all my adventures and post a few of the hundreds of pictures I've taken. Cheers!
DAY 7, SUN AUG 15 – Luckily Steph and I were wise enough to go back to the Hostel. Apparently the night didn’t get much better from the frustration of walking all the way to the bar. It took them an hour to walk there only to find out that one of the girls didn’t have the proper shoes on so the group had to go elsewhere. I tell you its crazy that these bars and clubs will not even let you in if you have cute strappy sandals on…is wearing my chucks that much better than cute strappy sandals!? Apparently…and if they’ll let me in wearing chucks well it’s pretty sweet but I’d prefer the cute sandals to match my outfit ;p
This morning the group decided to meet downstairs around 10-11ish to see if we could catch the Whale Watching Tour at 1pm. Hooray!! We were able to fit in the tour. So we walked our merry little way to the metro station. 2 stops and a change in the line and we were there.
FYI – if you’re going to be in Sydney for a week or so it’s best to just purchase a My Train Pass. $41 gets you unlimited ferry, train, and bus rides throughout the city for the week.
We arrived early so we explored what Darling Harbor had to offer. We checked out a few cafes and cute little shops. I was getting hungry and thought we definitely need to eat lunch b/c the tour was from 1-5pm. And ya’ll know I get hungry every 2-3 hours ;p Lunch was delicious! I ventured a bit from the normal menu and tried Lamp Kabobs served with a small salad (though their definition of a salad was quite different…peppers, roma tomatoes and a little bit of dressing). Also, instead of having chips (aka fries) we went for the wedges. OMG were they very scrumptious! Here in OZ chips are pretty much served with EVERYTHING! And most often they are paired with sweet chili sauce and mayo. Never thought of that combination, but the sweet chili sauce was great ☺ Xnay on the mayo…not really a fan. Tomato sauce as they call it is not that popular here and if you do like the good ole ketchup on the chips, sometimes they charge extra for packets of those. During lunch it started to pour, luckily we were done with our meals and were just hanging out until it was time to walk back to the pier. We made our cover into this hidden room in the back that had a TV, pool table, and a few other games (pretty cool if you ask me). The rain quickly subsided and we walked back to the pier and waited patiently for the boat. It wasn’t very long of a wait. We all boarded the ship, went over safety and other procedures…like where to find a bag in case we were feeling sick. The guy was a bit rude by explaining, “He DOES NOT clean!” so you better grab one of these bags or else. Whatever man…it’s your job if you’re part of the crew. In any case, we were all excited to get a glimpse at these majestic creatures. (SN: The great thing about this particular tour is that if you don’t get to see a whale you can either get ½ your money back or come back another time for free.) When we left the pier we oddly made our way to Sydney Harbor and were surprised because we took the train and walked all the way to Darling Harbor when we could have just waited at this pier. Weird I tell ya and a bit irritating. But we were already on the boat so no worries.
Group photo on our way out to see for the whale watching
The view getting out to sea was of course amazing…cliffs, coves, lighthouses, etc. The rainy clouds looked feathery and I definitely had to take a picture of that. As soon as we hit the open seas, the water and sky were just gorgeous, cerulean blue skies and deep sapphire ocean. We quickly joined a group of near by boats who were also scoping out for whales and luckily came across a blue humpback whale. He was shy for a bit but after getting comfortable with the surrounding boats he responded with frequent tail shows. (He wanted some tail. Hehehe). The captain explained that each whale was unique; where the undersides of their tails were all different and so that’s how scientists could identify and tag each of the whales that returned each year. We wanted him badly to breach, jump out of the water like those posters you see…but we weren’t as lucky ☹ We watched him for a bit and was supposed to move on but the captain decided to stay and watch him because we were pretty close to him. Thankfully I had my telephoto lens with me; otherwise I couldn’t have gotten the shots I wanted. The group wanted copies b/c he was just a bit to far and fast even for their 12 optical zooms cameras to catch a good shot. I absolutely love the supposed 6.5 fps on my Canon. After a bit we headed back to shore to see if we could catch glimpse of other whales. I’m glad the captain turned the ship around when he did because the wind was getting out of control, as did the waves. It still surprises me how fast conditions change out in the water. We thought we’d enjoy the ride back by sitting in the front on the first level. We quickly found out…not such a grand idea. The wind was fierce…freezing us to death. We were also greeted with a surprising cool slash of water that drenched us. After shrieking from the icy water, we just started to giggle foolishly. During our ride back we ran into quite a few more whales. There were two whales far off in the distance in the direction of Manly, synchronized with each stroke and breath. I wish we were closer ☹ This experience was definitely cool…literally and figuratively. I love nature at its best.
We were heading back to Darling Harbor as the sun was setting and was thrilled to get shots of the Sydney Opera House during this time of day. Colors galore! Instead of getting off at Sydney Harbour we decided to continue onto Darling Harbor where we boarded to explore the other side of it. We found cool water fountains surrounding the grounds, a large ferris wheel, and plenty of restaurants and bars calling our names. Though they were quite tempting, we decided to head back towards the city to catch the metro. As were trying to find our to the metro we ran into an Irish Pub and decided that this was probably the best place to have an irish coffee that Katerina was craving. The pub was huge as was the bar, with a second floor to beat. In many of the places in Australia you pretty much seat yourself, order at the bar, take a number and they deliver to your table. The great thing about this process is that all tax and tips are pretty much included. You can leave when you want and don’t have to worry about waiting for a check and calculating the good ole tip. Though if you do receive good service, an 8-10% tip is always appreciated…so says my guidebook. We were in luck it was Sunday, because we quickly learned that Sunday’s are a big deal in Australia…they call them Sunday Sessions. Friends get together, grab dinner and enjoy each other’s company at a bar. It was a good ending to a wonderful day of adventure.
DAY 8 – MON, AUG 16 – I was supposed to go to Bondi Beach for the day but everyone woke up late. It was alright with me because I had to take care of banking business. It was taking forever! Here in OZ or at least at the ANZ bank you come up to a little touch screen kiosk, choose which option you are there for (ex: personal banking, teller, etc.) and they give you a ticket as if you were at the DMV. They post the number on a central screen directing you to which teller and that was it. It was a different experience, as you all know, most banks have a winding rope leading up to front of the counter with tellers waiting to take the next guest. It was nice to wait sitting down, but took forever. While I was handling business, Joff and Stephany made their way to The Rocks to explore the oldest part of Australia. After approximately 2 hours I was finally out of there…yet I still didn’t have an “active account.” Apparently you need a chunk of change to start an account…$500!!! My good buddy Broughski started his account in Perth with the same bank for a measly $70. WTF!? Obviously I wouldn’t carry that in my pocket, I only had $50. I said I had that in traveler’s checks and they wouldn’t accept them! I had to cash them at an exchange office and then deposit it…super lame! I didn’t have the checks on me so I decided enough of this shenanigans! They close at 4pm! which was not enough time to go all the way back to the hostel and back so I met up with everybody else. I waited for Katerina and Mike at the metro station so we could all meet up with Steph and Joff. I talked to Steph and they went to the Observatory and the Rocks already…so jealous.
Finally we all met up at the Rocks and walked around the Harbor for a bit. We later headed towards the Sydney Opera House to check out prices for tix and times b/c Katerina had mentioned she wanted to see the opera that was playing there that evening. After talking to the ticket attendant, we huddled in our little group and came to the census that it would be a unique experience even though tickets were a bit expensive so we waited back in line to buy the tickets. While waiting the guy in front of us was getting quite upset and took forever getting his tickets. By the time we finally came up to the front, a huge line had formed behind us. Since we waited so patiently and were a large group, the ticket attendant was quite generous, offering us the tour and ticket combo w/o us having to actually buy the tour tix. So for the fabulous price of $51 AUS dollars we were going to see an opera at the infamous Sydney Opera House! The Marriage of Figaro…3 hours with one of the most controversial operas during its time but now infamous ☺ I don’t even remember if I’ve even been to an opera as a child so I was definitely looking forward to this experience. While everyone wanted to grab dinner, I wanted to find nice shoes to go with my semi dressy dress for the evening. Although we probably could have shown up in nice jeans and a cute top, I wanted to feel like I was going to a super fancy opera you pay top dollar for in the states. So I headed to China Town to get proper shoes for the evening…yea I said it. None of the shoe stores in the city carry a size 5 and even then those are often too big for me. Lol. After walking around and getting lost in a long search for shoes, I found some in a cheap place in Paddy’s Market. I headed back to the hostel to change and have left over spaghetti dinner I cooked. Everyone was supposed to meet downstairs in the lobby at 6:30PM… but as usual we were all running late. We had to take taxi’s into town to catch the show…barely making it before 7pm. As we entered the glass doors, everyone was semi dressed up all chit-chatting with their glasses of wine and champaign…so classy. Hehehe. I felt a little out of place with my not so fancy dress and shoes, but I made do with what I packed. I’m glad I made the decision to dress up though. Well, we made our way to our seats and on the way was a beautiful evening view of the bridge and city. Entering the theatre was grandeur with the balcony seats covered in red duvet cushioned seats. I was in love! I felt a little like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Ha! But everyone made their way to their seats, the lights dimmed and in a few moments the symphony began with one of my favorite Mozart tunes. I couldn’t tell you the name but if you heard it, you’d know. The curtains opened and on with the show in Italian. Thankfully we had seats where we could see the subtitles. What an amazing show!!! It was quite hilarious too.
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| The cast taking their bows. |
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| View of the Bridge from inside the Sydney Opera House |
After the show, half of us went back to the hostel while others decided to see the city. It was quite chilly so I went back to the hostel. After changing into Pj’s everyone convinced me to go out again to a bar close by called The Sugarmill. It was pretty chill music but not the best for dancing. It definitely had the stickiest floor I’ve ever set foot. I requested from the DJ to play my favorite genre of music to dance…reggae, but not surprisingly he never played my request. All they played were a few popular R&B and 80’s/90’s to house music. Ugh! I danced a bit, enjoyed a beer, was shot with Kim’s water gun, and walked home early with Joff. It had been a long day and thought I was ready for bed…wow did I feel old. Lol. I tried to go to bed but had a difficult time sleeping b/c I was still wired and these girls snore like crazy. Everyone swears I snore a bit...I guess I'll accept that, but these girls were roaring beasts. Oh well…guess that’s what I get for staying at a hostel.
Until next time...
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