Aussie Holiday: Sydney

I woke up at 3.30am – yes, 3.30am! – to make it to the airport by 4.30am for my 6am flight. That was incredibly early, and probably the earliest I have woken up in New Zealand, but it was a good flight because I arrived in Sydney at 7.30am, ready for a full day of tourist activities. I had some crazy mishaps, such as not finding a shuttle and all of the ATMs in the arrivals centre being out of money, but I eventually made it to my hostel in downtown Sydney. My first objective was to find the Georgia Tech students. They had arrived the day before me in Sydney, but tracking them down was easier said than done. There are apparently two Ibis Hotels in Sydney, and I was looking for them at the wrong one. The lack of mobile phones made this whole situation even more difficult. After about two hours, I had finally tracked them down, and we set off to explore the new city.

As we were all new to the city, we just took off in what we thought was the general direction of China Town for some exploration. We ended up at Paddy’s Markets, a really cheap marketplace with every sort of souvenir or gift you would want. Because none of us had mobiles, we all ended up getting separated. I stayed with Patrick, and after we couldn’t find anyone else, we grabbed some lunch and then left for some more exploration. We walked in the general direction of Darling Harbour and decided that as it was extremely hot (we were used to the cool climate of Wellington), it was time to check out the air-conditioned Sydney Aquarium. I was probably more excited than many of the little kids who were going in at the same time. We spent the next couple of hours watching all kinds of fish, finding Nemo and all of his friends, and walking through the underwater tunnels. It was excellent!

By the time we had come out of there, we were exhausted and ready for some food. We went back to the hotel where the Americans were staying to find some people to get food with, but most people had already eaten. We just ducked across the street, bought some groceries, and made some good old American PB&J. That night was a Friday night, so we all got somewhat dressed up to go out to some of the pubs and check out the night life. After ages of dancing and hanging out, many people headed back home, but some of the diehards (aka three boys and me) went out to the casino. You only have to be 20 to gamble in Australia, so the boys were anxious to get rid of some of their money. It was my first time in a casino, so while the boys played blackjack I wandered around, people watching and checking out the décor. I ended up practically falling asleep because I had been up for so long (we left around 3am, which is 6am in Wellington, and I had been up since 3.30am – do the math, that’s in the neighbourhood of 27 hours!).

As tired as I was, there was no sleeping in for me! No time for sleep on this ‘holiday.’ One thing that I wanted to do in Sydney was shop at the Rocks Market, and it is only open on Saturday and Sunday. I was booked in for an all-day surf school on Sunday, so I had to go shopping on Saturday. Patrick was nice enough to go with me, but I am afraid he got rather frustrated in an amusing way at my indecisiveness. There was a pattern to my shopping – one circuit to check out everything, another to pick out what I really liked, and a third to make the purchases. In the end, he started taking pictures of me trying to choose which purse I liked more or which necklace to buy my mom. I took the hint, made my decisions, and we left. The market is in an area of Sydney known as ‘The Rocks,’ and it isn’t very far from Circular Quay and the famous Harbour Bridge and Opera House. We acted like the tourists that we were and took about a million pictures of the landmarks.

After all of out pictures, we somehow found our way to the bus station and began our adventure to Bondi Beach. Bondi is a famous beach known for its surfing and surfer / party culture. I had originally wanted to go to Manly Beach, but most of the Americans wanted to go to Bondi, so I just joined up with them. Since we had been shopping, Patrick and I were on our own to find our way there. We figured out which bus we needed to be on, but after boarding we realised that we had no idea at which stop we had to get off! We kind of ‘guesstimated’ for awhile, following the crowds. There was a large group of surfer-looking people, so we got off when they got off, only to discover that we were still about an hour walk to the beach! Disastrous. We didn’t want to get back on the bus, so we started walking. We ducked into a locksmith for directions to make sure we were going in the right direction, and a couple overheard us explaining our story and offered to drive us to the beach in their convertible! It was an incredibly nice thing to do. Aussies, like Kiwis, and very considerate and helpful people. They drove us in on a very scenic road and dropped us off at the entrance to the beach.

I am sure I have been on a beach as crowded as Bondi on a perfect Saturday afternoon, but right now I can’t remember when. As Patrick said, it is entirely possible that there were more people on Bondi Beach than in Wyoming! We walked the length of the beach, but we couldn’t find the Americans we were supposed to meet. We found another group, so we put our stuff down with them and went to go play in the surf. The waves in Australia are really strong. They throw you around every which way, so playing in the waves is much more exciting than in Florida. It is rather tiring, so we didn’t stay in very long. Patrick and I laid out to dry off, got dressed, and then started walking again. The couple who drove us to the beach told us about a really pretty coastal walk, so we headed in the direction. We walked for a while and ended up finding several other beaches that were just before Bondi. The rocks were incredible, cliff faces dropping off into crashing waves, and surfers catching some huge waves. We had another bit of an adventure getting back into the city. We had to catch one bus and then switch to another to get back to the city. Normally, this wouldn’t be complicated, but we couldn’t find the bus depot to save our lives. We finally found it, got on the right bus, and made it into the city. By this point, we were completely exhausted and starving, so we immediately found some food, even before showering and changing out of our swimsuits.

The next day, I headed off on my own. Before leaving Wellington, I had booked an all-day surf school. I met my group at the YHA downtown early in the morning, and we left for the beach. The company is based out of Tamarama Beach, which is very close to Bondi, but we went to a much more secluded beach about an hour away from the Sydney CBD. You have to have 4WD to get to the beach, and it is also protected by the Environmental Department, so there weren’t very many people there. It was a much nicer place to learn to surf than some place like Bondi because you didn’t have to worry about all of the other surfers and swimmers. We learned how to get on the board while on the sand and then headed into the water. If you have never surfed before, let me let you in on a little secret: it is incredibly difficult. It’s a little complicated, but it also uses a lot of muscle power. There is a lot of paddling, and then you also need muscle strength to get up on the board. Waves are very powerful, and all of the motion is also difficult to deal with. I had some pretty spectacular spills and nosedives, but they are half the fun of learning how to surf. In the morning I did a lot of the one-knee-on-the-board surfing, but after lunch I finally got the hang of it and managed to stand up a couple of times and surf in to the shore. It’s an incredible feeling to be riding the front of the wave and letting its power carry you in to the shore. If I lived closer to water, I would probably keep practising, but I may have to settle for only trying again on holidays. It is easy to feel how people become addicted to surfing.

The next day, Monday, was my last free day in Sydney. The Georgia Tech kids started their new classes, so I was on my own in doing everything that I still wanted to do. I began the morning with a bridge climb on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This is the bridge that you see in all of the photographs, usually with the Opera House in the foreground. It was a very easy climb, not very adrenaline-pumping, but there was a spectacular view of the city and Opera House at the very top. It was a really fun way to spend the morning. After I came down off the bridge, I headed over to Circular Quay to catch the ferry to Taronga Zoo. This is the famous Sydney Zoo. Out of everything that I had planned for Sydney, I was pretty much most excited to go through this zoo. They had some really cool animals. There was one kangaroo that was playing hide-and-seek with us, coming up against the edge, ducking down to hide, and then jumping back up at us. There were some cute koalas, echidnas, lemurs, and everything else. The giraffes are really cool because their paddock overlooks the Sydney CBD and Opera House, so if you angle your camera correctly you can get a shot of a giraffe gazing out over the city. I also watched the bird show, which had all kinds of trained birds flying right over your head.

I would have liked to spend more time at the zoo, but I also had a pre-booked Pub Tour through the historic Rocks district. We went to three different pubs, all of which had a long history in Sydney, and our guide also talked a lot about the history of the district itself. It was really cool to hear the stories about the original settlers as well as walk through all of the alleyways and back roads of the Rocks that I never would have found otherwise. After my tour, I headed back towards the CBD to meet up with the Americans. That night we had a mini-adventure. In order to see more of the city, we would close our eyes, point to the map, and then go wherever we pointed. Once there, if someone saw a cool sign, we could go there; otherwise we would just point at another spot on the map. It was a good way to see more of the city, and we somehow made it back to where we started!

The next day (if you’re keeping track, it’s now Tuesday) was my last day in Sydney. I had booked in a tour to the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains, otherwise known as the Great Dividing Range, are west of Sydney and originally prevented any white expansion. I was on a full-day tour to see all of the highlights. We drove out of Sydney and stopped at lots of lookouts and landmarks, including a good vantage point of the Three Sisters, a famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains. We learned how to throw boomerangs and also got to take some up-close pictures of wild kangaroos. Morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea was all included. I had a good group of people to travel with. There were two older couples on the trip, and one of the women designated herself my ‘watcher’ for the trip. I have a habit of standing on cliff edges and the wrong side of railings in order to take awesome pictures (no worries Mom – I’m still safe!), and every time I did this woman would tell me to come back on safe ground. It was really funny. We also went on the most vertical railway in the world. We were pretty much straight up and down but facing back towards the ground on this train. It was actually more exhilarating than I anticipated!

After this long day, you think I would get some rest, but then you would be wrong. I arrived back in the city only to start rushing even more! That night several of the Americans were planning on buying rush tickets to an opera at the Opera House, and I really wanted to go. I got back at 5.55pm and was supposed to meet them at 6.30pm! I virtually ran all the way back to my hostel (normally a 20 minute walk – I made it in 10), took the fastest shower of my life (save for our two-minute showers in choir tour days), dried my hair, got dressed, did accessories and a bit of makeup, and was back in the lobby by 6.30 to meet Patrick. He had picked up dinner for us on the way (Burger King because it is pretty much the only thing we both could eat on the run), and we walked as fast as we could while eating back to the Opera House (where I had started out). I still can’t believe that I actually made it in time to buy my tickets.

When we got to the Opera House, we had a bit of trouble finding the other Georgia Tech people, but we finally found them and got in line for our tickets. Our tickets were A$50 because they were rush tickets at student prices. This doesn’t sound like a lot anyways, but we got literally the best seats in the house. Three of us were second row centre in the first balcony and everyone else was on the first row of the first balcony. These seats are A$270 at full price! We were very impressed with our money skills regarding this show. The opera was in Italian. It was a version of The Elixir of Love, set in the country and with Coca-Cola as the elixir. The finale was all done around a lit-up Coca-Cola machine, which we felt was very appropriate for a group from Atlanta. I love going to shows, and I really enjoyed this opera. As it was in Italian, subtitles were provided, and they were incredibly amusing. There would be several minutes of beautiful singing in Italian, and the translation would be, ‘G’day mate!’ Other words used in translation were ‘sheila,’ ‘bloke,’ and other colloquial Aussie words. Highly amusing!

If that wasn’t good enough, the night was about the get even cooler. After the show, we were walking out of the Opera House, and a huge fireworks display started going off in the harbour! I still have no idea what it was for, but it was incredible. It was probably about eight minutes long or longer, and it was definitely 4th of July worthy. The fireworks were huge and colourful and brilliant, and they lasted forever. After it was over, we took some pictures of the Opera House at night and then met up at Gelatissimo for some gelato. (Some pretty amazing gelato, too, mind you. Definitely rivals Paulo’s for my favourite!) All in all, it was a perfect last night in Sydney. I had an amazing time while I was there, as whirlwind as it was, and while I wanted even more time to enjoy the city, I was excited about the next leg of my Aussie holiday.