Sydney

After Fraser, I went to a day of my classes back at uni with Margaret, then hopped on a flight down to Sydney that night. Our first day in Sydney, we went to the aquarium downtown, which was neat. They had a lot of cool animals there, my favorites were the sea dragon (like a big elaborate seahorse), sharks, and the weird fish like the stonefish (most venomous fish, and it just sits on the ground looking exactly like a rock waiting for you to step on it), pineapple fish, and the cow fish (look up some pictures, they are small fat fish with really neat designs. Really goofy looking when they swim around too). It was a really cool, I would say just as good as Monterey Bay Aquarium, but with more diverse fish and animals. We got to see a comedian at the Sydney Opera house that night too, his name was Reginald Hunter (born in the US South, now lives in the UK), and he was pretty funny. It was in a small part of the Opera house (I didn’t know there was more than one hall there, but it is a massive place), it was cool exploring that area. We also met some law students going on a party cruise that were dressed all crazy (the theme was ‘search and rescue’ or something like that – firefighters, nurses, flouro spandex people…), and they invited me to a BBQ at their place and to go out in the city with them on Sunday which was cool. People are so nice here, its awesome. You know them for 5 minutes and they’re your best friends. Good stuff.

Day two in Sydney was a full day for sure. We got up and went on a ferry ride around Sydney Harbor where a woman told us about the history of the area and pointed out really expensive houses that belong to Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, a guy that owns TV networks, and other such people. We also went by a nude beach and a harbor housing military ships. After that, we caught a bus and checked out the Paddington Markets for awhile, then walked to Darling Point, a neighborhood where we met with one of my grandma’s friends from when my Mom and her family lived there (when my mom was 6 she lived in Sydney for a few years). This woman had an amazing view of Sydney from her apartment, and we had tea with her and hung out for awhile. We walked back down to the bus terminal from there and went to Bondi Beach. It was a cool area, but it was cold and a bit rainy out, and my family did not want to spend too much time there, so we caught a bus back to downtown after about an hour. I would like to go back and spend more time there at some point, as well as Cogee Beach, which is a few kilometers down the road.

On our third day in Sydney, we took a train out to the Olympic Park and biked around on the trails there. It was an area that reminded me of Mountain View of Foster City, there were lakes around, and it had a similar feel to it. It was a good break from the city, and also cool to get to see the stadiums where the Olympics were held. They also had pillars with all the Australian athletes listed, and video footage playing from the games. It was cool and got me excited for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. We got back to downtown Sydney in time to see the flying fox colony (fruit bats) take off from the trees in the botanical gardens. There are tons of them, and they just all go out flying looking for fruit at dusk, it’s a pretty cool sight. We also went walking out there the next morning, and saw them hanging around in the trees. They look like fruit or giant seedpods hanging from all the branches. Their wingspans can get up to 4.5 feet, which is pretty massive, it looked like Halloween with them flying overhead. After that, we went off to the airport, and I flew back to school. It was definitely an awesome time, I was really happy that my family got to come visit.



Pictures are: view from the harbor in Sydney Harbor, the opera house, dolphin riding at Bondi Beach, Margaret at Margaret St., and my new favorite picture of me and my sister. I dont even know how to describe the emotions being expressed, but I love it.