East Coast travels have begun!
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2007
1
64
91
Trip End
Jan 11, 2009
Surfers Paradise,
Australia
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Anyways I really ended up loving Sydney. For some reason when I came here, I had this image in my mind that I was going to like Melbourne more than Sydney, maybe be a bit different from the mass of tourists... anyways, with every day in Sydney, the more I liked it. I haven't walked so much in ages.. we walked across the harbour bridge one day, which actually took forever. I think each way is a km, not to mention the ages it took for us to figure out HOW to get on the bridge!!
We also took a ferry to Manly one (overcast) day, which is one of the beach/suburbs, and the train out to Bondi on another. We spent another day in Paddy's Markets/chinatown (the markets were not so impressive as we had been told!). Probably the coolest thing that we did in Sydney was attend the Jerome Robbins: a celebration ballet at the opera house! We got the cheapest seats and still shelled out $69. It was such a cool experience though. The performance was excellent and it was so cool to be INSIDE the sails! Wicked!
From Sydney we took a one day tour to the Blue Mountains. THey make a really big deal how all this nature is an hour outside the city... doesn't seem so unusual where I come from but I guess they think its just amazing! It was a cool, albeit relaxed day, except for the part where we walked down 1000 stairs (did they seriously count?) and then took a "scenic rail" ride back up... the railway is a guinness record for being the steepest in the world.
blue mountains
I was practically shitting myself! It honestly felt like we were just going to topple straight forward... and down. Its a 45 degree angle! About all the excitement I can handle in my life haha.Monday marked our departure from Sydney. (No worries, I'll ba back... multiple times!) We arrived very late into Coffs Harbour, which is a cute, quiet beach town famous for its "Big Banana" which apparently started the craze of large objects in Australia. In case you weren't aware, Australia has a sort of fetish for "large objects". What makes a large object large? It has to be twice the true objects size, and twice the size of a human. Also accessible to public. I got that from the map of large objects. Yes, it exists. ANYWAYS. On our second day before catching the bus, we decided to walk to the banana. Worst idea ever. not only was the walk an hour through industrial area and alongside the highway (who puts a footpath beside a highway??) the banana wasn't even that big! Later on a rest break with Greyhound was at the Giant Prawn... it was much more satisfying.
Byron Bay was the next destination on the East Coast, heading north. Its a very laid-back hippy town, lots of beaches close to hostels, and tons of cool crafty shops. We mostly just chilled here, I wanted to walk to the Cape Byron lighthouse, but I (soberly, I assure you!) rolled my ankle on the edge of a footpath and it was a bit sore, so I didn't push it. No worries its all good now. From Byron, we did a day trip to Nimbin which is an even "hippier" town, where if you so choose, you can find marijuana no problem. Old folks were actually approaching us on the street asking of we wanted to "but some smoko"... don't worry, Mom & Dad, I did not! We also splurged one night and went to the theatre and saw Made of honour... ohmigosh so cute!!
We are now in Surfers Paradise. Its a small touristy town, apparently the surfing isn't even that great haha! We're here for two nights before getting to Brisbane (which may henceforth be referred to as Brissy) for 4 nights-ish.
Well, think that just about covers it!
X
