Last Thursday night we all piled onto a charter bus, and 14 hours later found ourselves in the beautiful city of Sydney. I was pleased to discover that it is about 10 degrees warmer in Sydney than in Melbourne, which made the weekend all the more enjoyable. On Friday morning at 9 AM we checked into our hostel and wasted no time. After a quick breakfast, we started a day of sightseeing. Our tour guides were great- 2 young Australian guys who were a lot of fun and pretty knowledgeable about the tourist attractions in the city. We walked through the Botanic Gardens and looked at all of the beautiful flowers and plants. My favorite thing to see in the gardens was all of the bats that were hanging upside down in the trees. It was a pretty eerie sight to see hundreds of bats just hanging there like that, but it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. One of our tour guides started clapping, which caused all of the bats to fly out of the tree simultaneously and fill up the sky.
Our next stop was the Sydney Opera House which was only about a 2 km walk out of the gardens. The Sydney Opera House is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Australia, and I had seen so many pictures of it before. After that we hopped on a ferry and walked on the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We finished our afternoon with lunch by the water and a few drinks. Sydney Harbor is such a cool place to hang out, as it has countless bars and restaurants with beautiful waterfront views. It had a similar vibe to Baltimore's Inner Harbor, but 100 times better (obviously).
We freshened up at the hostel and then it was time for the Harbor cruise. The city looked beautiful all lit up at night. We went around the harbor from 7:30-11:30 with unlimited wine and beer. Our tour guides informed us that every time we went under a bridge, we had to chug our entire beverage. Seriously, what's better than a FREE all you can drink booze cruise around the Sydney Harbor? After the cruise we went out to another bar by our hostel. It was a really fun night.
A majority of our group woke up bright and early for a guided tour of the Blue Mountains. But Mallory, Rachel, Brielle and I opted to sleep in until noon and then explore Sydney some more! We had lunch by the water at a great tapas restaurant. Saturday night we had dinner and drinks at an awesome bar/club a few blocks away from our hostel to celebrate our friend Anthony's 20th birthday. The place was huge and had tons of bars inside, along with great DJs.
Sunday was beach day. We hopped on a ferry from the harbor and head to Manly Beach. It was beautiful, sunny, and 70 degrees. Manly Beach is a very popular tourist attraction, and the huge crowds of people there reflected that. We still managed to find a spot on the beach and have a great time in the sun. Our next stop was the famous Bondi Beach, one of Australia's top beaches. We relaxed on the beach for a few hours, grabbed a bite to eat and then made our way back to Melbourne.
The weekend was the best weekend I've had here yet. Sydney is hands down one of the best cities I've ever visited. Being in the warm weather on beaches got me very excited for our Spring break trip, which is in ten days. Between now and then I have A LOT of papers to write, but it will be well worth it once I am in the beautiful weather with a drink (or 2) in my hand. It's hard to believe that there are only 6 weeks left of this semester.
