Sydney Hotels
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Sydney
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Sydney was very nice, but at the same time it was different than I had expected. I'm not really sure what I did expect, but I could say that I was pleasantly surprised. The city seemed like any other city that I've been to, but Sydney had its own quirks that made it very comfortable and easy to adjust too. Immediately, I felt at ease in the city. It has a very laidback atmosphere with lots of diversity and great restaurants. Every corner has at least a couple of Asian restaurants, especially Japanese, Indian, Turkish, and Thai. Thai food is everywhere. Even McDonald's has Tandoori and Thai chicken sandwiches! Not that I ate there :P
I guess I should recap what we did each day...
December 20: Arrived in Sydney. The quarantine and customs lines were harrowing. Very long, hot, and congested. When we finally arrived at the hotel, we were very ready for a long nap, but in order to make sure that we didn't have too much jetlag, we left pretty much immediately after long showers. My parents left my sister and I to our own devices for a couple of hours so that we could explore the city in peace.
We met up to watch the musical version of Billy Elliot that is currently running at one of the theaters. It was very flashy and intense. I'm not sure if it was the exhaustion or my own personal taste, but I didn't enjoy the show as much as I had thought I would. The little boy (who played Billy) was an amazing dancer though. I've never seen a kid that good at his age. I think that the problem was that they tried to integrate two story lines into many of the musical pieces making them very intense and kinda... weird. I'm not sure how to explain it, you'll just have to watch the show someday.
December 21: It was the first day of Sonali and my scuba certification open water dives. We had them at Bare Island
... some of you might actually recognize the dive site because it was part of Mission Impossible 3 where Tom Cruise rides across the wooden bridge on his motorcycle. Today we did a snorkel dive and two actual dives where we were assessed on various skills that we had already learned in the pool. We got to feed some blue groupers and even pet them which was very cool. We carried our dive gear down and up the hill that you can see in the picture and we got into the dive site directly from the shore. This is different from what we're gong to be doing at the Great Barrier Reef where we'll get in on a boat. It was heavy and a lot of worth, but definitely worth it.
We were absolutely exhausted after scuba diving because of the work of carrying the gear plus our jetlag. We got back to the hotel and pretty much passed out for four hours. Our parents tried to get us up but we were completely out.
When we finally did get up at around 8pm, we walked to Darling Harbor
which was very busy and fun. Because it was Friday night, there were a lot of Christmas parties going around.
December 22:
We finished our scuba diving this day. It was a lot better this day probably because we weren't nearly as jetlagged as the day before. We saw some amazing marine life including: a Port Jackson Shark, Octopus, jellyfish, cuttlefish, and more blue groupers. It was really fun. After the prior day, I wasn't sure if I would want to continue scuba diving, but this day really was a lot better and I think that it's a hobby that I'll continue for a while.
In the evening, we went to see the opera house from the outside and booked a tour for Monday morning. We took a ferry to Manly bay where we got an amazing view of the opera house and Sydney harbor bridge.
It had been raining before this but as soon as we got on the ferry the clouds opened up and the sky became absolutely beautiful. Pefect picture opportunities. On the way back on the ferry, we caught the sunset over the opera house which was great luck and very beautiful.
At Manly beach we enjoyed the nice café-lined streets and small shops.
We grabbed some spinach and feta-filled filo sandwiches and mango ice cream to enjoy while watching the crashing waves.
After, we went to Bondi beach, but it was pretty empty considering the time. I would say that it is a lot more filled during the sunny times, but I don't know if we'll get another chance to see it during the day. By this time, Sonali and I were so exhausted that we were very ready to head back to the hotel.
December 23: We made a trip up to the Blue Mountains today.
It was absolutely beautiful. The scenery was great and we got a chance to walk through the rainforest and enjoy the coolness of being at a high altitude.
We also hiked a bit to see Wentworth Falls. We had lunch in a town right next to the falls where we enjoyed sandwiches and Chinese food sitting at a picnic bench in a garden.
Then we went up into the mountains to this area called Scenic World. It was pretty touristy with wooden walkways built above the forest floor, but we took one of the longer trails which was pretty deserted so we got to enjoy the tranquility of the forest anyway.
You can see some of the beautiful pictures that we took while we were there. There are some pictures of this interesting rock formation called the Three Sisters.
Aborigine legend says that the three peaks are three sisters converted to stone by their shaman father to protect them from a bunyip. That plus the beautiful clouds made some very beautiful pictures.
December 24: (today) Before our flight to Cairns, we took a tour of the inside of the Sydney Opera House.
It was very cool to see the inside of the foils and some of the theaters that were inside. After the tour we left immediately to get to the airport. After arriving in Cairns we just relaxed and booked some of the adventures that we're going to have for the next couple of days. We really needed the rest, and we can get a good night sleep before scuba diving on the reefs tomorrow.
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