After a good nights sleep we got up early Saturday morning and walked to one of the most iconic images of Sydney...the Sydney Opera House. We walked through the park and then past a news broadcaster...news broadcasting. Poor guy, I hope it was a one way window and he couldn't see the people making faces at him. Oh well. Sarah and Liz went to meet up with some long lost family (I should go someplace where I can find some of my long lost family) so it was just 5 of us trekking around that day.
The harbor was beautiful. It was seriously everything I had seen on movies and tv for years. The opera house tour started with a video of the history. I honestly don't remember all of it. I'm sure google could tell me, but what I do remember is the guy who designed and worked on the Opera House for years got kicked off of the project before it was finished and never came back to Sydney to see it completed. I wonder if he regretted that in his final moments. To never see the thing he had spent a lot of his life and effort on. I hope I never have that kind of regret. The opera house was amazing. The inside isn't anything like you would imagine. It's wood and cement inside and the carpets are bright bold colors. In one of the concert hall rooms they asked if anyone would like to sing. So Caryn sang a piece from an opera. It was pretty neat. I hope one day I can go back and watch a show ther
Food came next. Food always comes next. We ate right on the harbor at the Opera House. I was too late for breakfast by 4 minutes......4 minutes. Come on people. I ended up getting a classic Australian burger topped with an egg and beet relish. It was decent. I could have done without the beet, but it wasn't too shabby. Also the seagulls there have a death wish. One tried to steal my food. Joey
DeeAnn doesn't share food!! Those birds were causing all sorts of havoc picking up drinking glasses and smashing them. Rude.
In the harbor there's this thing I will call extreme speed boating. We participated in this. It was probably not my favorite activity ever. Basically you go really fast and then he spins the boat and everyone gets wet. Anyone who has known me since I was little will know that I do not like getting wet in regular clothes. They did give us ponchos. I kept mine covering my head most of the time. Honestly I was terrified we were going to flip. My plan for this was to quickly unbuckle my seat belt, swim down and then swim out as far as I could before I surfaced so I didn't hit the bottom of the flipped boat. Then find something to get on i.e. Rose in Titanic so I don't get eaten by the shark our boat driver told us about. We drove past a cliff and he made mention that it happened to be the cliff where that guy in that you tube video jumped off with a go pro and as soon as the bubbles cleared in the water he was face to face with jaws. Anyway I survived and didn't have to use my escape plan. We got gelato after. I felt better.
That afternoon we were going to go to the zoo, but because we had already seen animals and such we decided not to. Instead we hiked up this hill, ok it was just a path with stairs, but it was steep, and Erin and I got tickets to do the Sydney Harbor Bridge Walk. More on that shortly. While we were up there we saw an inflatable blow up ball soccer game. It was pretty funny. We headed back to the "hotel" by train so everyone could take a break for a bit. I had other plans. Bri and I made our way to the world famous Bondi Beach! It was an interesting ride out there. A couple train stops over and then a wait in line for a bus and then a packed bus ride. We made it though. The water was cold
and shark infested so we just decided that putting our toes in was enough and laying on the beach would be delightful. Apparently this was a topless beach, or some lady thought it was. Luckily it seemed to be just her and maybe one other lady. After laying there soaking up the sun for a bit Bri and I went up to the stores and each got a cute shirt. I love my shirt. I'm wearing it right now. Finding the bus back to the bus/train station was sketch, but a nice man helped us out and got us on the right bus. I asked probably 3 other people who had no idea where to go either. I'm glad we had a little helper.
Back at the "hotel" I got ready for the bridge walk that night. Maybe I'm a dork, but ever since I watched Mary Kate and Ashley do this bridge walk on the movie Our Lips are Sealed I needed to do it too. It looked so cool. It was super expensive, but totally worth it. Erin and I got there and waited a little bit. We met the guy we hoped was our guide who walked us into a room with the other people we were going with to explain why were doing this. I was lame and didn't admit the Olsen twin thing. I should have, I won't see those people again. We heard the rules, got in the special outfits, practiced moving with our little clip thing up and down stairs, and headed out. I should mention this was a long process. We also had radios so we could hear our guide. I don't remember her name. First we walked on the bottom of the bridge for a bit until we reached the part where it starts to go up. There were a couple sketchy staircases, but nothing too terrible. Then we started walking up. It was a full orange moon that night. We weren't allowed to take our cameras (or anything) but they took pictures of us at certain points. We got to see the Opera House all lit up and even a party going on in the distance. There were parties on boats going under the bridge and so many lit up buildings. One day I want to go back and go during the day. The night was awesome, but day would be fantastic too. Next time...
Our trip back to the "hotel" was eventful. It was late at night. We passed some vomit on the ground and went to McDonalds. On the train home we met Mohawk Man. Yep we named him based on his hairstyle. He was wearing some super lovely tight pants and standing like he was Mr. Australia up against the train wall. He saw us in the reflection laughing so he turned around a bit with the head nod. Apparently we had the same train change. On this change he grabbed an orange cone from what I assume was a drunk guy and blew a little tune for us. Doo doo doo doo. Hopefully that sound was spelled out right. We then continued to follow him since he kept going where we needed to. What a surprise. He got off at Kings Cross which was hoppin' that night. I'll admit it looked like fun. We walked back to the "hotel" and headed for bed since we left early in the morning back to New Zealand. Sydney was great. I really want to go back one day. It was a blast!
