Sydney Synopsis

This shall be the final post before I head into the OUTBACK: the arid, deserty center of this empty continent. So I shall be back in a week, Internet!

SYDNEY. WOAH. This is a really beautiful, varying, clean, bright city. It has icons like the opera house (!!!) and the harbor bridge, but it also has tons of winding streets and wharfs, botanical gardens, beaches, there's SO MUCH here. Also, there are people running truly everywhere you look at all times of the day, which is really awesome. So here's how I experienced it!

Thursday morning after the Vegemite torture breakfast we went on a cruise of the harbor. This was a pretty sweet cruise, because they gave us tea and snacks! And one of the snacks was a Tim Tam, so we did the Tim Tam Slam! It's a form of Aussie induction where you bite the ends off of a Tim Tam chocolate cookie and suck a beverage through it. This results in a gooey mess. I got the very gooiest of messes by slamming hot tea, which not only dissolved the cookie but melted it instantly. But now I'm a proper native. Hooray!

Slammin it.

The harbor cruise was awesome, there's so much to the harbor! It dips in and out, has skyscrapers, the opera house, rocks and forests, lighthouses, and then at the very end, the nicest homes I have ever seen, all crowded on cliff faces to get the perfect view of the water. They were so beautiful. We also met cool people on the ship, like Ryan, who we sang to for his 35th birthday! He was a handicapped Sydney native who thinks Obama is a great guy and was so fun to talk to. We met a couple from England who loved to talk about our flight here, and another Sydney woman who wanted to hear about our trip thus far. It was a top notch morning on the harbor. Then we grabbed lunch at a deli on Circular Quay and ate it in a nearby square with tons of seagulls. Nathan and I did some cool dancing that a lot of people stopped and watched. Then I fed seagulls bits of cookie and they swarmed. 

Next was Bondi beach! One of the most famous beaches in the world, and it's right on Sydney harbor. We took a ride on a bendy bus to the beach [the ride actually made one of our girls sick, it was rough]. Then none of us had towels to lay out on, so despite the barely 60s temperatures, we got in our suits sprinted for the water. It would be pretty wimpy  to go to Bondi beach and not splash around a bit. First thing, we ran in a bit and got absolutely clobbered by a wave. All of us were just rocked. So we went out a bit farther and again were totally demolished. We had to go REALLY far our before we could avoid the watery turmoil, but once we were there we had an awesome time splish-slpashing and whatnot. We body surfed a tad and felt pretty tubular. Then the life savers [Australian life guards] came to the shore with a megaphone and informed us we were in a dangerous current area and could we please go between the red and yellow swimming area flags. We swam in and looked for the flags- they were at least a hundred and fifty yards down the beach, we had never been anywhere close. We had been completely oblivious tourists swimming in the part of the beach reserved for surfers because of the strong current and large waves. We decided it'd be good to take a break from swimming and walk down the beach. There are amazing murals down the left side of the beach with kiddie pools and rocks jutting into the waves. The rocks have a bunch of nooks and crannies so that when waves wash over them they fill with the clear water and look really neat. We met a native girl named Georgie [who Scott later certified as a total babe] and her ity bity dog Poppy. The others talked to Georgie while I followed Poppy around the rocks. He liked to fall into the pools of water, and I liked to cherish him. That was basically it for Bondi! It was gorgeous, and probably the best beach ever when it's warmer and the lifesavers don't think you're stupid.

Next was dinner back at the hostel. They made us sausage on the barbie! Finally something America taught me about Australia is right. Not only that, we got to try kangaroo! It was delicious! I don't know what deer tastes like, but my comrades all said it tasted like that. Vegemite, a Tim Tam slam, and kangaroo all in one day, I'm practically a citizen now. We all hung out and watched the lights from the roof for a while before I passed out [accidentally] for a little bit, all tuckered out from being so Australian all day. But when I woke up, the group was coming upstairs to hang out in the TV room where we met a guy from Vancouver! Vancouver was watching American Horror Story which played in the background while we talked with him and which scared the living daylights out of me. Jeepers. Around 1:30 it was clearly time to go get pancakes. I had to go in my pjs because my room key opens my room about 15% of the time. It was a little brisk out. But walking around the city of Sydney in pajamas is pretty neat in my book, and the pancakes were nuts. Becca and I literally had walnuts on ours, with grilled banana, chocolate ice cream, and chocolate sauce. They were all that decedent. So that was a great wrap up to day 10!

Day 11! Was feared for a few days previous because Geyer warned us it was his day. He got us to the opera house, the barracks, the cathedral, and the parliament building all in one day! But first Becca, Sarah and I went for a sunrise run over the harbor bridge, a solid idea, the sunrise was phenomenal. First things first: my love, the Sydney Opera House. I'm notorious in our team for being infatuated with it, when we first got in the city and could see it I couldn't stop saying "woah, there it is, we're really here, the opera house, wowowowowow" and so on. So it was a big deal to tour it. We all wandered around outside before the tour and I snapped some sweet pics. And I found a bird! Then we met our absolutely adorable tour guide who took us through the lobbies and theaters. She was so quick witted and cute. We learned a lot of the history of the opera house. For example, it was designed by a Danish architect. The shells are ribbed so they're structurally sound. It took 7 years and 102 million dollars to complete it. All the money was raised by a state sponsored lottery. The shells are covered in Swedish white and cream tiles. It is just an amazing thing, and so beautiful.

Look at that thing.

My bird friend.

Look at that lush carpeting

Check out those Swedish tiles

Next we went to the barracks. Australia began as a prison colony, and Sydney housed some of the first convict residents. They lived in the Barracks, which is now a neat museum for us to enjoy! They had so much to look at, all in this tiny 3 story place. Some things I learned: they had 2 identical outfits for the whole year. Their only personal space was a hammock. They could get sent to the colony for totally crap reasons like 14 years for "making a noise." One little 9 year old Patrick was sent from England, away from his parents, for 7 years because he stole a pocket watch. Come on England. Anyways, it was totally awesome.

Colonist tools

The EIGHT MONTH boat trip to Sydney. I struggled with 17 hours.

The original treadmill was a cruel punishment for bad convicts that ground wheat! Now it's just a punishment for normal people.

Living quarters for the first "Australians"

Us really enjoying being convicts. Pooped.

Convict Sydney!

Next we had 15 minutes to run around Hyde park like little dogs and look at the cathedral. We looked for about a minute and then passed out on some grass.

#catholic. Actually Australia is only 3% religious, they're pretty indifferent to churches.

Hyde park, pretty beautiful 

Then it was time for the parliament of New South Wales! I don't know if I've mentioned it, but Australia has 6 states and two territories, and Sydney is the capital of the state New South Wales. When we were in Melbourne we were in the state Victoria. Anyways, we went through security and into the large old building, which actually used to be Sydney Hospital in the original colony. We had separate tours of their two legislative houses, the lower and the upper house. From what I understand [limited because its complex and I fell asleep during the lower house discussion, the benches were really comfy] the lower house gets bills first and  the members are selected by smaller electorates, like our HoR. Then bills go to the upper house which amends, passes, or denies bills, and members are chosen by the whole state. Australia has an unlimited number of parties, which is sort of neat. Both houses have a titled bailiff sort of role who keeps order in the room. He is the Serjeant-at-Arms in the lower house and he carries around a mace, while the upper house has an Usher of the Black Rod, who carries a fancy black rod. Those were the coolest jobs. We saw many fancy rooms with fancy chairs, plus the awesome library.

The lower house, with Nathan as prime minister.

The upper house! And our tour guide who was a total thug.

The crest of New South Wales. Not even parliament knows why the lions toenails are blue. I like his face.

The lower house crest. I like this lions face.

Then we had dinner at a tiny cafe that was just completely overwhelmed by our rowdy group of 16. The poor waiters were French so an even worse accent barrier than normal was presented. They were super nice though and we had a great time. I ate a lot of lettuce. After dinner we watched lights from the roof and a few of us went to a backpackers night club [drinking age is 18 here, so we can all go out and party]. The club was called the Scary Canary, and is awesome because there are more people from other countries than Aussies really, so you meet all types! I talked to Aussies, dudes from Stockholm, some Amsterdam people, and someone from somewhere in Brazil. My favorite were by far the three Irish guys I met. YEAH IRISH! I told them I'm an Irish dancer and it turns out one of them came to Sydney with Riverdance, he was a backup dancer for the show! It was so incredible! They had pretty dorky non-irish dance moves and were personally offended when I told them I don't drink alcohol. I talked to them  most of the night, It was great!

 

So now it's day 12 and our last day in Sydney. It's going to be a lot of walking in parks, some hammocking, some shopping, and an early sleep so that we can arise for our flight! Tomorrow I head into the outback, beginning at the world's largest monolith, Uluru [Ayers Rock to the non Aborigines]. Then my life will be sleeping in a canvas sack known as a swag, under the stars with whatever critters scuttle around the desert. We'll see Uluru, Kata Tjuta, the city of Alice Sprigs, a big cattle ranch, and Kakadu national park. We shall end in Darwin, a city on the northern coast. That my friends, is where I shall blog again! Thanks for reading, wish me luck!

Here's a Tasmanian Devil to tide you over.