Day 9 has been a miracle of a day. My favorite by far. Mountains and the city in the same day, thank you Australia for being everything anyone could want. We woke up in the Blue Mountains YHA for a lovely breakfast of cheese, French bread, fruit, and tim tams, which is supposedly a very Australian thing to do. Whatever you say Dr. Geyer! We apparently have to do a tim tam slam before we leave in order to be truly Australian: bite off the ends of the cookie and drink a beverage through the cookie, then consume the resulting mushy chocolatey mess. It sounds much less scary than the name suggests, so I'm stoked! Anyways, this incredible day:
We went to Scenic World, the company that facilitates hiking around the Three Sisters, this giant rock formation of three spires at Echo Point in the Blue Mountains. They're named for an Aboriginal legend about three sisters of the Katoomba tribe who were in love with three brothers of an enemy tribe, and when battle ensued between the tribes, a witchdoctor turned them to stone to protect them. He intended to turn them back after the battle but was killed, so the three still stand there overlooking the valley. They're really incredible looking, giant and solid. If I had to have sisters, I'd pick them, they look really tough, like they'd beat up anyone who picks on me. We hiked to the best lookout points to gaze upon endless trees and ridges of mountains that extended forever. The three sisters were side by side on their rock platform, holding their own next to the massive mountains. Then we did one of the coolest things I've ever done: descended the Grand Stairway. This thing is 900 steps that go down to the base of one of the sisters, winds around the three and down Into the valley. It is absolutely insane, beautiful, and slightly frightening. But the views distract you from that sufficiently. It was so fun to do it with my teammates too. There were even a few places where I could [probably against some rules] clamber up onto giant rocks and improvise the stairway. It was enormous. Then there was a couple more miles of hiking before we arrived at the railway deep in the valley. This is not just a railcar, but the steepest railway in the world, making an ascent at 53 degrees. That didn't sound too steep to me before hand, but WOW. From the bottom looking up the track, it looked straight up- like we were at Busch Gardens about to ride the Griffon backwards. That was a really fun ride as we were dragged by our lap-bars up the mountains back to the Scenic World gift shop. So the Blue Mountains definitely made an impression on me.
Next was Sydney! I fell in love with Katoomba all over again as we drove through the bright, colorful streets toward Sydney. We entered he city limits shortly but the hub of the city was still so far- it's an expansive city. We unpacked at the Sydney Harbor YHA, a really cool youth hostel built Around the site of a demolished home from the neighborhood that used to stand here in The Rocks of Sydney Harbor. The halls of the hostel are all open air around this pit of the ruins. It's a really cool and beautiful place to stay, especially with the top floor roof/lounge with a view of the opera house and harbor bridge. It. Is. Incredible. We had some free time before dinner so a few of us explored the city! We checked out Australia Square, a bustling centerpiece to that area of town. Then we walked all he way down Pitt street to Circular Quay, a neat outdoor club scene. It also has another wonderful view of the opera house and bridge. We used one of the see-saws right on the wharf and that got pretty violent, little British boys pointed and laughed at us. There were a ton of colorful clubs and bars and restaurants there, not to mention the Sydney Vivid festival. They're having a festival all winter that's a celebration of lights and music, so at night all the skyscrapers, the opera house, and the bridge are lit up with bright changing colors. The opera house especially has crazy changing pictures all over it all night. So that was a sight to behold. Then we had dinner in the hostel, the staff made burritos full of delicious veggies! It's a really awesome place to stay. Next, unfortunately we had to rush one of our girls to the emergency room, she slipped on he stairs and banged the back of her head resulting in a minor concussion. After that panic cleared there was much merriment and laughing and dancing on the rooftop with the perfect Sydney backdrop. So that was one insane first night in Sydney!
Now, morning of Thursday day 10, I did something really stupid [yet necessary], I tried Vegemite. It's concentrated yeast extract, born out of the need for more food issues during a war. Nothing delicious comes out of that. Anyways, I did it so now I'm pretty awesome. Here are pictures from these awesome days!
SCENIC WORLD
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