Sydney Obsession

Trip Start Jan 03, 2008
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Trip End Ongoing

Flag of Australia  ,
Saturday, April 5, 2008

I think Sydney is one of those cities that you will either love or hate. I definitely love it. It's huge (4 million people), it has a great waterfront area, tons of interesting museums, great beaches, fabulous nightlife and friendly people. If I could pick anywhere in Australia to live this would be it. One neat thing that I immediately noticed is that near every sidewalk "LOOK RIGHT" is painted really big. I assume this is so that tourists will look the right way before crossing the street. I'm not going to lie, when I first arrived in New Zealand I almost was run over a few times because out of habit I looked the other way.

I am staying in a small hostel, The Palms which is located in the Kings Cross area. This is where all of the backpackers stay and it is packed with restaurants and bars. It also is the city's red light district which makes for an interesting mix. There are tons of prostitutes everywhere at night. Prostitution is not illegal here. You only get in trouble if you have a pimp. Don't worry, the area is a whole lot safer than it sounds. My hostel is very friendly and small (only 40 people) so I have had a chance to get to know everyone. I will have stayed here for 9 days but I could easily stay much longer.

Here's what I have done in Sydney:

Day 1: I went with Kerstin to the Aquarium. It really reminded me of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I loved seeing some of the fish that I snorkeled with in the Great Barrier Reef. Next, we walked around the Opera House. That is such an incredible building. Darling Harbour Bridge
Darling Harbour Bridge
 We spent the rest of the day walking around the city, getting acclimated to everything.

Day 2: Today we went to the beach. Dan the manager of the hostel took a group of us to a small beach in the Sydney National Park. I walked the hostel dog, Bandit. She reminded me of Chloe going crazy on her walks through Fox Harbor. That night, the hostel had a big barbecue. I had a burger and it was delicious! That night, I went out with Kersten and this Irish girl, Aiefa. We went to a few bars including Madame Debier's which was playing 80's music.

Day 3: Me, Kersten and Aiefa got up today and went on a walk through downtown. On our way, we stopped at a market. It's so nice to be able to buy produce from the farmers. While we were walking downtown, we came across all of these people dressed up in costume. Evidently, it was the color parade to celebrate the diversity within the city. In all honesty, a lot of the people were very strange but I liked the general message. Next, we went into the Queen Victoria Building which is basically the classiest shopping mall ever. The floors were mosaic and it had huge stained glass windows. It definitely made the Mall of St. Matthews look terrible. Next, we walked across the Darling Harbour Bridge. The bridge was a lot longer than I originally thought. Over 170,000 people go across it every day. We went over and took some pictures from the other side. Then we walked to the Luna Park which is an old fashioned theme park. It had beautiful views of the city including the bridge and the opera house. The rides were also a blast. It has been way too long since I have been to an amusement park. Tonight, I went out with Kersten and two other German girls. We had so much fun.

Day 4: Today we went to the Red Bull Flutag event that was held in the waterfront park near the Botanical Gardens. Basically, these teams create these plane-like floats and go out on the dock. They then perform to a song and run into the water. Some actually get pretty far and others just fall straight in. My favorite was "4 Men and a Butterfly." I mainly liked it because four really old men were wearing tutus.

Day 5: It rained all day today. So I decided that it was okay for me to be lazy. I read a book and tried to catch up on my journaling.
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