From Beaches to Operas

Well, it's been a few days since my last update.  I'm coming on the end of my trip now.  Let's see, on Wednesday, I went on a beach tour from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach.  The walk itself took probably around three hours or so, and was right on the coastline, so we had great views of the water the entire time.  Once we got to Bondi, we had a late lunch at the Blue Burrito Company, which had some extremely decent burritos.

Thursday, I ventured to Darling Harbor, and went to the Sydney Aquarium.  The aquarium had a ton of sealife, a lot of which I had already seen, like the reef sharks, and many of the reef fish.  However, I got to see a dugong along with a leafy sea dragon.  Dugongs are in the manatee family, and are extremely rare, since they are an endangered species due to human impact.  There are only five dugongs currently in captivity, and the Sydney Aquarium has two.  After the aquarium, I got on a sightseeing tour bus, and saw most of Sydney during the afternoon.

Friday, I did a city walk through my hostel.  We walked around in a large circle, and saw Darling Harbor, Queen Victoria Building, Circular Quay (including the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House), the Royal Botanical Gardens (with their fruit bats), and the Sydney Hospital.  The tour took about five hours, and afterwards I definitely felt a lot more comfortable walking around on my own afterwards.  I met a ton of great people from my hostel, including a group of Americans!

Today, I toured the Opera House, which was absolutely amazing!  I got to see the Playhouse, the Studio, the Concert Hall, and the Utzon Room.  I got some pictures of the inside (none that we weren't allowed to take!), and learned a ton.  If I had time left, I would definitely go see a production there.  After the Opera House, I walked around the Rocks where a weekend market was set up.  It was definitely hard to keep my wallet safe in my purse!

Well, I'm off. Tomorrow will probably be Olympic Park.  I'll post pictures when I finally upload them from my camera.

G'day!

KK

Only one week left.  The last two days were a ton of fun.  Yesterday, I went on a wildlife tour of the Southern Highlands.  We saw lots of cool animals, including platypus, koalas, wombats, kangaroos, emus, wallabies, and we heard a ton of lyrebirds.  We also saw some bush-tailed possums after the sun had set.  We had dinner at the oldest continuously licensed pub in Australia, which was opened in 1836.

Today, it was more wildlife, but at the Taronga Zoo.  The zoo is on an island right outside of Circular Quay, so you need to get on a ferry to get there.  The zoo itself is probably about the same size as San Diego Zoo, and has a ton of animals that you don't see in American zoos.  There was a platypus, Tasmanian devils, snow leopards, leopard seals, a fishing cat (kind of like an ocelot), tons of Australian wildlife including the most poisonous snake in the world which looks a lot like a common garden snake from America, as well as usual zoo animals.  The zoo took about six or seven hours to see pretty much everything, and now I'm just lounging around for a little while.

Tomorrow I'm planning on going to Bondi Beach and get some sun if it's warm enough as well as hit the shops in the area.

KK

Platypus...kinda looks more like a log though.

Koala

Wombat

Leopard seal

Snow leopard

not very long, but if you listen closely, you can hear lyrebirds.

G'day from Sydney!

This was my first full day here in Sydney, and I started off my grand tour of the city with a day tour into the Blue Mountains.  This is actually a misnomer, because the Blue Mountains are not blue and they are not mountains either.  The blue hazy color comes from light hitting eucalyptus vapor, and reflecting only the blue wavelength.  And they are actually a sandstone plateau that has been eroded into mountain-like shapes by rivers.  All in all, it was absolutely fantastic!  The guide was extremely knowledgeable, and I met a ton of great people, including a family from Chicago.  The father looked and sounded a lot like my Uncle Dale, and now I'm wondering if he has any relatives from Chicago that would be travelling around Australia…

We also drove around Sydney Olympic Park, and saw many of the stadiums that were used for the 2000 Summer Olympics, including the Gymnastics Arena, the Tennis Center, the Aquatics Center, and the Baseball Stadium (which is now being used for agriculture showings).  Our guide didn't say anything about the Softball Stadium, however I am planning on finding out if it is in the park or if it is elsewhere, and see if I can find a way to go see it.

After the tour, we were put on a river cruise that would take us to Circular Quay, where the Sydney Bridge and Sydney Opera House are located.  This was around 6:30, so we saw these structures at night, which was absolutely breathtaking.  Once we got off, I ate dinner at a small Italian café that served an extremely decent gnocchi and panna cotta.  I then took the train back to my hostel, where I am preparing for tomorrow's trek into the highlands.

Cheers, mates!

KK

And here are those pictures I promised:

Wombat!

Feeding the kangaroos

Hanging around with the koalas

In the Blue Mountains

Three Sisters

And the Real Adventure Begins

Wow, the last few days have been extremely busy!  We finished up the last of our course on Wednesday with our group presentations, and began to pack up for the trip back to Perth.  Unfortunately, our travel karma hit again, and the bus that was coming to pick us up broke down an hour away from Coral Bay.  Because of that, we were stuck in Coral Bay for over eight hours longer than we were supposed to be while they sent another bus up from Perth to come get us.  So we didn't leave until somewhere around two in the morning.  Then, if that wasn't enough, the bus driver forgot to get gas at the road house we stopped at, and we ran out of gas an hour away from Murdoch!  Needless to say, upon arriving back at our dorms, none of us were inclined to go out for the rest of the night.

Friday, however, brought a whole new experience.  We headed over to Caversham Wildlife Park to see Australia's iconic animals up close.  We got to pet and feed close to a hundred kangaroos, pet a wombat, see dingos and emus, and pet koalas!  We saw this adorable koala joey that popped out of its mother's pouch while we were in the nursery.  By far the cutest thing I've ever seen!  After the wildlife park, we headed into the Freemantle Markets to do some last minute souvenir shopping before heading into Perth to do the same along with grabbing dinner at our favorite oriental restaurant.  From there, it was back to the dorms to do laundry, shower, and pack everything up for our early morning flight.

Our flight left at 5:45 am, so we had to reserve taxis for 2:45 am, which meant that none of us got any sleep.  It took about twenty minutes to get to the airport, and thankfully our flight took off on time.  Six hours later or so, I am in Sydney at my hostel, looking out at the city.  I think the plan for today is going to be getting changed into something that doesn't resemble pajamas, and heading out to get my bearings, and hopefully find food.  The camera is dead at the moment, so I'll have to post pictures on my next update.

Until next time!

KK