New Years in Sydney!

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  Sydney, Australia
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

After travelling on the bus all night I got to Sydney at about 7 am on New Years eve day then had to take an hour train out to the hostel my friend Karina (from 1770) was staying at .  She met me at the station and we went back to the hostel, i didn't have a bed but i had the choice of sharing with her or the couches in the lounge room, which some people were already sleeping on.  Luckily one of the guys in the room was goign straight to the airport in the morning so i got his bed. We thought we'd have the whole day to do some siteseeing but we didn't end up seeing too much.  We went back into the city and took the ferry over to Darling Harbor.  To see the harbor and bridge and opera house for the first time was awesome, I love seeing such famous landmarks with my own eyes!  It was a nice and sunny hot day and the chaos for finding a good spot to watch the fireworks had begun early in the morning.  I was texting Ryan and Roisin ( Whitsundays) and figuring out where we could meet up.  They went to Observatory hill and got us a good spot, this place wasn't regulated so we could bring our own food an alcohol, they got there at noon and got a good 6 hour head start on the drinking

Sydney Opera House

!   We spent at least an hour walking around Darling Harbor looking for a nice place for lunch, almost everything was closed and we were hot and annoyed and just settled for an overpriced cafe then used their bathroom to change into our nice clothes and do our makeup.  We got to the hill around 6 and hung out with Ryan and Roisin and had a nice night.  The fireworks were fantastic, one of the best shows i've ever scene.  From where we were sitting we could see 5 sets of them going off around the harbor.  We really didn't have a crazy night and made it back to the hostel reletively early.  I thinking New Years Eve is a bit overrated. 
Next day was a chill out day in Cronulla. First we took a bus out to Botany Bay, it was where Captain Cook first landed and "discovered" Australia. Theres a monument and a plaque telling the story.  The ship arrives on shore and sees the natives and what do they do? Why shoot them of course!  We spent a couple of hours along the beach, but couldn't go in as there were zillions of blue bottles in the water and washed up on shore!  We went to the movies and saw P.S I love You and we both sobbed through the whole thing.  I loved this movie and if you know me i never say I loooove a movie i usually just say it was ok!
We did the hop on hop off siteseeing bus around the city, made a stop at the casino for me, and visited the maritime museum. Great museum and free too

Sydney Harbor

.  They had an exhibit on the iceman ( man from about 5,000 yrs ago found frozen in ice and preserved, in the Italian alps), I had read a book about him so it was really cool to see this exhibit except his body wasn't actually their so that was dissapointing. 
Went up in the skytower for some great views of all around Sydney.  First  you go on a ride type of thing, similating going through Australia landscapes, and then watch a few little 3'd shows which were really cute.  We spent a good chunk of the afternoon searching for the Hard Rock cafe which was a stop on the bus, but it's not even their anymore so we weren't too happy about that, it's been a challenge to find a good place to eat at decent prices, they just don't seem to exhist.  We eventually made it back over to the harbor and paid a small fortune for some pasta and glass of wine but had a seaside table so it was nice atmosphere at least.  After exhausting ourselves walking all over town all day we then did a walking tour, a ghost tour in The Rocks ( area of Sydney where the first colony was set up)  They took us to several places where muders, suicides,the plague and other gruesome events took place.  I took some pictures and some of them have orbs of light, and most of my other night pictures with flash don't have them and seeing this was a tour of haunted places im convinced these are the spirits! We weren't expecting the tour to last 3 hours and ending at 10 o clock! We were starving by then and had to pee the whole time, but besides that it was a really good time

The harbor bridge

!
We went back to George St. near my hostel and went into an Irish pub for a bit and watched some kareoke. Then we went to the bar in Base Backpackers. Karina wasn't feeling it, she was feeling upset about some stuff so she left early but I stayed .  There was a girl across the table from me and i poked her and oh my god it was someone i had met in my hostel in Capetown!! I met her and her friend a few months ago in South Africa! Now how random is that!  We partied together the rest of the night, lots of fun! Barely slept an hour or so and had to meet Karina for some more siteseeing.   We only had time for the Australia museum but they had really interesting exhibits on the Aboriginals,  apes, gems, and skeletons.
Absolutely loved Sydney, beautiful, exciting, something for everyone, could easily live there!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Me on the ferry and the bridge	up on Observatory hill	New Years eve	Me and Karina
View from Obs. hill	Botany Bay	Fireworks	Roisin, Karina, Me Ryan
People giving out hugs	me and the opera house	View from the Botanical Gardens	First cottage in Sydney, ghost tour
Ghost tour	Ghost tour guide	birds in the park	Street in the Rocks
Sydney from the Sky Tower	Night out in Base backpackers	Ape photo exhibit in Australia museum	one of the skeleton displays, Australia museum

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