Today was the first official day of my Australia tour. I got up at around 7am...not because I had to, but because I just woke up. I did some packing/organizing and some blogging (still offline cause of this stupid SIM card issue). WiFi is not free in most places in Sydney, particularly in hotels. And to pay is rediculous. Despite the fact that rooms here likely cost over $200 per night, they charge $25/day extra for WiFi. Rediculous!!!
I went to bfast in the hotel restaurant around 8am. It was free...and great. It was buffet style and they pretty much had every bfast food you could ever want. I had toast and waffles and bacon/eggs and fruit. Yes, the pants keep getting tighter.
At 9:15 I met the group and tour leader Brett in the hotel lobby. We then walked to the subway station and rode it down to Circular Quay, which is the part of the city where the opera house and bridge can be viewed. We stopped there for a little while so that people who hadn't already seen it could take pics. I just hung out cause I had already been there but while i was waiting, my groupmate Gary ( who travels/blogs and takes photos for a living btw) was nice enough to let me piggyback off his WiFi. As a result I was able to finally make a blog post in Australia.
After about a 20min stop, we then contined walking to what's known as "The Rocks" area. This is where the base of the bridge is. There, at about 11am, we stopped in a really old building which was once a hotel but is now just a restaurant/pub. Our lunch for the day was paid for, provided we stayed under $20. I had a really yummy salad made with greens, baby beets, roast pumkin, feta, and walnuts. Normally I would NEVER go out to eat and order a salad for a meal but I had already had French fries twice yesterday and it was honestly too hot for me to crave warm food.
After lunch we walked down to Darling Harbour. At about 1 or 1:30 we boarded a yacht to cruise the Sydney harbour. The cruise was awesome but it wasn't just a leisurely sail. Most of us in some way had to help sail. I did something called "grinding" (laugh if u must) which meant that I turned these big handles which controlled which side of the boat the front sail turned toward. There was a crew of four and they would call out when we had to do what. I don't think I had ever been sailing on a yacht before and I was impressed by the amount of work it took to steer and catch the wind. The tallest mast was huge too... 35 meters high according to one of the crew. I was also surprised at how much the boat is on its side when sailing. Whenever they moved the sails they would call out for everyone to tack (? Spelling) which meant we all moved from one side of the boat to the other, presumably so it wouldn't tip over!
The sail lasted 2-3 hrs and the weather for most of it was perfect. ..super sunny with a great, cool breeze. We had amazing views of Sydney, the Opera house, the coastal properties (worth up to 60 million) and we sailed right under the harbour bridge.
The sail finished around 3:30pm and then the rest of the day was free time. Some of us took the subway back to Circular Quay and then went by bus with our guide Brett to Bondi Beach, a very well-known Sydney beach. The bus ride was a bit long but it was worth it. Bondi beach was beautiful. There was a great view of the whole beach when we got off the bus because it lies down below the road. The waves looked big and there were tonnes of surfers. The beach itself was beige in colour, unlike the grey sand I'm used to. We walked down the path to the beach level and I had a little walk in the sand which was very soft. After taking a few pics, me and the rest of our little group (Me, Brett, Hillary, Sedrick, Kevin, Hanna, and Ben) sat on the patio of a cafe and had dinner and drinks overlooking the beach. We got to know each other better and had some laughs. We stayed till about 7pm.
We then took a bus back to Bondi Junction and then hopped on the subway back to King's Cross which was the stop closest to our hotel.
We were back at the hotel by about 830pm. I took a shower and offline blogged some more. By about 10:30 it was time for bed.
Why is it that I go to bed earlier on vacay than I do when I have to work the next day???
T
No comments:
Post a Comment