We arrived at about 11 a.m. disoriented from the long bus ride. The next obstacle would be hiring a taxi to drive us to our hostel. We had no idea where it was so we asked the bus driver where it was. By a stroke of luck he replied that it was right across the street! This was one of the most exciting parts of the trip- we were thinking our luck had finally changed!
I had never stayed in a hostel before, but this one was really nice. Worlds better than what I had imagined, but that's because we found one with good reviews, called the "wake up! hostel" :) Here's a picture of it from the outside...
Once we got settled in and were excited to go out and see the city, it started pouring. Our luck still hadn't changed, but it was fine. So instead we took a cab to the Sydney Aquarium!
Awesome turtles!
Aussie shark, ahh scary!
These jellyfish were so cool-they put colored lights underneath them so they were glowing in the tank.
Australia has super deadly animals, but the worst of all is the Box Jellyfish. You may remember it from the movie "Seven Pounds" with Will Smith? They didn't have any here, but it's a definite fear that all of us Americans have for when we try surfing...along with sharks, water snakes, etc.
This part of the aquarium was really cool. I'm surprised that Mystic and other aquariums in the U.S. don't have tanks with walkways like this. It was awesome- it felt like you were in the water next to them.
This is a Dugong (not a manatee)!
Finding Nemo!
This turtle was my favorite!
We only had half of Saturday and then Sunday until late afternoon because our flight was Sunday evening.
By the time we got out of the Sydney Aquarium, it was getting dark. We walked around Darling Harbour and that weekend there was a Latin American Cultural Festival, so we saw this performance while we were walking around. People were dancing in the crowd and everyone was standing out in the damp weather watching.
We decided to get drinks so we went into this really nice little restaurant on the Harbour that we saw. The host definitely wasn't happy we were there- underdressed American tourists, yuck. So she stuck us in a corner and ignored us for a while. It was worth it though, we got cocktails and amazing Mushroom and Chicken pizza. We had a view of the Harbour and it was so beautiful with the whole city lit (I took this picture when we got out).
That night we made friends with the guy stuck in our hostel room with the five of us. We went to the hostel bar downstairs and played pool and then went with him to this club in Darling Harbour. It cost $25 to get in, the music was techno horrible, and that's when we realized it was a gay bar. Oops!
The next morning we woke up and decided to walk to Market City in Chinatown.
Some cool architecture in Sydney we found just walking around...
The Market
On the walk back to Darling Harbour I took this picture. Most Aussies who live in Sydney hate the monorail system and want to change it and put it on the ground because they think it's an eyesore. Originally I didn't understand this and thought it was pretty cool and different that they have this system. After I took this picture however I looked back and it really is an eyesore. I couldn't see the beautiful buildings that I was trying to take a picture of because the monorail was just suspended right in the middle of my picture.
Awesome bird on the walkway.
Weirdest McDonalds I've ever seen.
*Aussies call McDonalds "Maccas" (that's how it sounds when they say it at least!)*
There were McDonalds' everywhere...disappointing.
Darling Harbour by day, again in the rain.
Sydney is a surprisingly small city. Our hostel was in the southern part of the city and it only took fifteen minutes to walk to Darling Harbour. You can barely see Darling Harbour in the bottom left corner of the map. Our hostel was farther south, off the map. We decided we were going to walk to the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Opera House. You can see on the map the Opera House is in the top right, next to all the green (Botanical Gardens). It only took us twenty, maybe twenty five minutes to walk all the way there from Darling Harbour.
I was glad we were walking because it finally wasn't raining and we walked through the Business District with lots of beautiful government buildings and just really cool architecture.
We had a view of the Observation Deck from the street. Later on this same day we went to try to get up there and really see the city, but it was closed already and expensive too.
This is the monorail station. Pretty futuristic looking.
These are meat pies. Aussies love them and they are gross!
This is some government house that is really beautiful.
And finally we arrived at the Sydney Opera House! Landmark of Australia!
This is a picture of our group: Denise, me, Tess, Ivan & Derrick.
(Another friend came but she flew home a day early because she wasn't having fun.)
Close-up.
We went inside for a second to look around but I'm pretty sure we weren't allowed in there. Plus it wasn't nearly as cool as it was from the outside. We walked around and stopped and ate at a cafe on the harbour. Then we decided to take a fairy ride back down to Darling Harbour so that we could see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from the most common angles.
This is all of us on the ferry: Derrick, Tess, myself, Ivan & Denise
Luna Park- famous amusement park that's a little run down, but a famous spot to hit in Sydney
Sydney Harbour!
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