Sightseeing in Sydney

So, still trying to catch up on my blogging entries.  Now, I have finally gotten to the part where Nicholas C. Galante goes to explore the city of Sydney.

The whole trip got off to a wild start.  The night before our plane left, St. Mary’s College had a Color Turn (a turn is a St. Mary’s only party).  This turn required all fresher to wear white, 2^nd years to wear red, and third years to wear blue; which surprisingly enough are the three colors of St. Mary’s.  I donned a killer white ski vest with some white short shorts and tube socks.  Anyhow, this turn was way fun and we celebrated late into the night…later than we had expected considering that our flight was scheduled to leave at 6AM.  Luckily, I had prepared by setting 3 alarms that shocked us into consciousness at 4:30AM so we could pack and catch a cab.  We arrived to the airport just in time to hear that they had cancelled out flight.  Because we were so tired, we were pretty neutral on the matter and decided to cozy up on the floors of our new terminal gate and took a two-hour nap.  So classy! What were we really going to do in Sydney at 7:30AM anyways, right?

Sydney Harbor

We literally hit the ground running after our plane landed.  We dropped off our things at the hostel we were to stay at and ventured off to explore the harbor.  The concrete footpaths of the harbor were cluttered with tons of people, and ther were many wild sights to check out.  We jammed with a few body-painted, loincloth-wearing, didgeridoo-playing Aboriginal street performers, and later set off to conquer the Sydney Opera House.  The opera house was just like it had appeared in many esteemed films such as Finding Nemo.  I thought it was awesome; totally a piece of architectural candy.  We took all kinds of touristy photos in front of it and even considered grabbing tickets to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  We then cruised over to take on the epic stretch of road and steel arches that is the Sydney Harbor Bridge. According to The Guinness Book of World Records, it’s like the widest long-span bridge or something…crazy!  We successfully walked over the bridge and feasted our eyes on the most epic view of the harbor.  Later we went back to our hostel, where we barbequed up some burgers and enjoyed heaps of bats sailing through the sky. 

After drinking a bit of boxed wine, we set out for a night of adventure.  An awesome coincidence was that my roommate Danny, who I had traveled with throughout Southeast Asia, was in town.  We met up with him and began an epic bar crawl downtown.  It was honestly kind of strange to see Danny, but before we could really catch up, he got punched in face by a local—total buzzkill!  Anyways, after we had bought a pack of iced peas to stop the swelling on his eye, we hit up some really fun bars and danced the night away at a club called The Gaff.  It was a blast!

Blue Mountains

For our second day in Sydney, we purchased a Blue Mountain bus tour package. The tour kicked off with a visit to the Featherdale Wildlife Park, where we got to cuddle koalas, lounge with some kangaroos and even witness a crocodile feeding.  The koalas were way cuddly and cute, but I still managed to have an allergic reaction.  Little known fact, koalas are constantly on a high due to their constant nibbling of bamboo—so funny!  We also got watch our tour guide throw a real—life boomerang.  We also hit up some sights such as the Three Sisters, huge waterfalls, and other mountainous sights.  For the majority of this part, we couldn’t see the sights due to the barriers of fog and mist – we still took tons of touristy pics and laughed it off.  The tour ended with a trip to Sydney’s oldest candy shop, a visit to the Sydney Olympic Park, and a boat cruise through the Sydney Harbor.  Such an kickass tour! Once we arrived back in the harbor, we ate at a little Italian place at The Rocks, where I later learned had once been dines at by my parents years before.  Another crazy coincidence!