Weekend and BRIDGE CLIMB!

So on Friday we headed down to a beach which is part of Sydney Harbour National Park. We hung out all day on the beach, ate pizza, played cricket, went for swims, played at the tidepool and then took a walk along the cliffs to a couple more small beaches and really nice houses. Along this walk were plenty of picturesque views of the city of Sydney. The rest of the weekend we didn't really do much just hung out around the apartments and such. Then yesterday, Tuesday, Laurie, Melissa, Laurie's sister, and I all went on the Bridge Climb! This is where you climb to the tippy top of the Harbour Bridge and because we did this at night, we had the whole city lit up behind us as we stood some like 130meters above sealevel and above some 8 lanes of traffic. AWESOME.

Crazy Night

So last night was an absolutely ridiculously crazy night and I loved it. We started off the day celebrating Josh's birthday in one of our apartments with some egg rolls and fried rice with home made cake for dessert. We then made our way down to the Olympic Stadium where we watched the waratahs vs crusaders game. After the game we jumped on the train and headed down to Darling habour. At Darling we had a drink at Cargo bar right on the water and made our way over to retro bar. This was a pretty fun bar. They had your favorites from the 90s and what not playing the entire time. We stayed here for awhile until we headed up towards the Queen Victoria Building, but we weren't done yet. We decided to stop in Hotel Sweeney's for what we thought would only be a beer. It turned into having a beer and a few shots. And then we ended it all with a shot of Absinth. WOW. From here some people when back to the apartments, but Josh, Kim, and myself decided we weren't ready to go back yet. We walked around, made our way back to Darling Harbour somehow, peered into the dark harbour waters and walked along waters edge. We stumbled upon the harbour bridge and decided: Hey! Let's have a little fun. So there were steps near the harbour that we walked down and all decided to take a little dip in the shark infested Sydney Harbour. From here we walked along the harbours water and made our way to Circular Quay. And why not, by this time it was maybe 5 or 6am so we thought we'd stay at the Opera House and watch a sunrise. We laid around on the Opera House steps, might have taken a little nap, and sat at the top of the steps, looking over beautiful Sydney Harbour and saw the sun rise right over the clouds and buildings in the background. We hung out there for awhile until we decided we needed some sleep. We got back to our apartments around 830 or 9am. It made me realize how much I really do love Sydney.

Port Stephens

Today we woke up around 7 and headed down to Circular Quay where we met up with Dave and Trang and headed off on our 3 hours journey to Port Stephens. After the bus ride, seeing some crazy scenery, we arrive at the sand dune area. Here we took a 4WD buggy thing out to one of the sand dunes where we grabbed a board, hopped on, and flew down the sand. We only stayed here for maybe 30-45 minutes, but it was an good time. We then headed down to the docks where we hopped on our boat to go dolphin watching. We arrived early so we decided just to go to the top deck and catch sun rays. As the boat started heading out to sea, we kept our eyes peeled looking for the dorsal fins of dolphins. Not too long into the trip, a pod of dolphins were spotted. After awhile of trying to get a good picture from the top deck, a couple of us headed down to the front of the boat where the dolphins were riding the wave in front of us and we could literally see the three dolphins maybe 4-5feet away from us just swimming in the water, popping up every once in awhile for some air. They are absolutely astonishing creatures. We then proceeded out to the deeper waters where we hopped in the boon net to cool down a bit. From the docks, our drive John drove us around the area pointing out some of the beaches and he also took us up to the top of a hill with an awesome lookout where you could completely see all of the land around you. We saw everything from the sand dunes, to the great open water, to the shallow waters, to the mountains, and everything in between... it was amazing.

Another Classy Day in Sydney

We started off the day getting all dressed up and heading down to Royal Randwick Racetrack where we had Members Access. Basically this is where all the ladies with crazy hats and the guys with the nicest suits go. So we had to look classy. After spending the day at the racetrack we headed over to the Blue Horizon Bar. This bar is located on the 36th, the top, floor of the Shangri-La hotel. We got an amazing view of the city as well as the harbours around us. It was absolutely magnificant. Once we got our couches put together for us it started to pour outside and the lightning lit up the sky. Hold on though, not only did we get some amazing lightning which lit up the sky, we also got a little firework show to the surprise of us all. This was literally amazing, sipping on a cocktail on the top floor of a fancy schmancy hotel with the views of Sydney before us with fireworks going off in the harbour.

Typical Friday Activities

So today I woke up to go swimming in the pool for an hour and a half as part of my lab practical for Marine Science. We were learning "proper snorkeling technique". Aka the instructor sat on the side and laughed as we treaded water. After our lab we decided it would be fun to go to the zoo, of course, as soon as we said this it started to rain. I came back into my apartment to grab my camera and Oh! look at that! it decided not to work today. So I had to take it down to the Olympus place near my apartment. So now I have no camera for a week. But then we decided to hit up Sydney's Chinatown where we sat down for a late lunch on the side of the road. From here our group split ways as Kim and I headed over to the Invisible Children meeting here in Sydney. We met some awesome people there. People who have been two Uganda a few times, people from New Zealand, the Blue Mountains, a few girls from the states, and a girl who moved here from the states. We talked about the upcoming event and just basically got to know eachother. We met a guy from the Blue Mountains who offered us a ride home and a tour of the Blue Mountains if we wanted to make our way out there sometime soon along with the local rugby union game. I love Invisible Children and the people you meet with it!

Fun weekend in Sydney

So Friday night we headed down to the stadium grounds for our first rugby match. We went to the New South Wales Waratahs vs Queensland Reds game. One thing we noticed is that Australia is not very good at picking intimidating names, a waratah is a native flower of NSW and the reds mascot was a koala. We had a great time watching the game, trying to understand what was going on, and drinking a few beers. The game came down to the last few minutes as the Waratahs defeated their rivals. Apparently this was kind of a boring game to be at, luck us. We've decided that we're going to go see some of the rugby league games, the league is the one with all the meat heads who just try to kill each other. After the game we headed out to a bar for a little bit on Oxford Street, I felt a good 10-15years younger than anyone there.
Saturday is a whole story in itself. It was the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade here in Sydney. We headed down to Kings Cross early in the afternoon and had a few beers at a local irish pub. From there we wondered the streets of Kings Cross and made our way down to Oxford Street where the parade was. The parade didn't start for awhile but we made our own fun just dancing around and taking pictures with some crazy people. The parade was a lot of fun with a lot of crazy sights that you would not want your children to see. After a few hours at the parade we wondered back to Kings Cross where we got some food, wondered a little bit more and hop on the train back home, or so we thought. We took two trains to Chatswood just to find out that both the train to our station was done for the night and the bus we could take ended at like 930, ridiculous. So we hopped back on a train downtown where we waited for a while longer until our bus finally came.
Today, Sunday, I met up with Nikki and her friend who basically are in charge of getting Invisible Children up and running down under and talked to them for awhile and plan on getting events and screenings set up all over Sydney with them.
EXCITING WEEKEND!

Classy

Today, the boys and I decided to be a little classy and went to a wine tasting happening down in Hyde Park. We each wandered around and sampled 5 wines each. We spent a good bit of time there but then the food started to smell amazing so we decided to leave before we spent anymore money. From Hyde Park we walked through the cathedral nearby, I believe it is St. Mary's and around that area. We stumbled upon the Royal Botanical Gardens so we decided to take a stroll through there. This part of Sydney was phenomenal, statues, fountains, and flowers everywhere. This trip really made me appreciate Sydney that much more. From the Royal Botanical Gardens, we wondered downhill until we saw the Opera House and Circular Quay. From here we caught our favorite Manly ferry and went to Manly beach for a few hours of fun in the sun.