funThe flight went by without much incident, until I arrived in Sydney and stood in line for an hour and a half to be wearily informed that my luggage was missing, last location unknown. I wasn’t too fussed, but eagerly accepted the overnight bag they gave me in apology.
I walked out of the terminal, gave my friend a huge hug, and set off into the twilight, destination adventure. By the light of ten thousand bulbs, I was introduced to Darling Harbour and immediately put the place on my mental list of Top Ten Places that Jon Likes a Lot. We ate dinner on the harbour, and chatted while we ate dinner overlooking the harbour, parting ways not long after. I checked in to the Wake Up! Hostel in Central Sydney (great accommodation, by the way; though I was in a room with nine other people, there’s plenty of space, very clean, an incredibly friendly and helpful staff, an enormous kitchen, a TV lounge, good location in the city, not too expensive by any means, all in addition to a very popular bar in the basement. Perfect for the 18-30 crowd), and upon meeting my new roommates, I was, unfathomably, dubbed Texas Pete by a couple of the British guys. Apparently there was some cartoon show with a discarded teddy bear given special powers, and the leader of the bad guys was my namesake. However, I digress. Not long after I took a bit more flak for being from the same state and country as our president (it’s something I’ve dealt with during my entire abroad experience), I headed to bed.
Sunday I was an all-star, to be humble about my accomplishments. I did the Harbour Bridge Climb (nice, but a bit overpriced at around US$140, I think), the Sydney Opera House tour (fairly interesting), walked along Manly Beach twice (beautiful and free), wandered around The Rocks (lots of shopping there) and Circular Quay (I always pronounce it wrong, but the place is nice), went to the top of the Sydney Tower (decent views of the city) and saw a show called OzTrek (more for young children, but still mildly entertaining), and finishing off the day with a visit to the Sydney Aquarium (very cool, but I recommend going during the day—US$34 as a combination package with the Sydney Tower) and another walk around Darling Harbour. Feeling like a champion, the day absolutely gorgeous, I returned to Wake Up! and promptly fell asleep.
Pics from Day 1:
In terms of getting around, the Information Centres in the city are a must for booking trips and seeing what’s available. They try to push the Sydney and/or Bondi Explorer packages for travelling around, but I recommend purchasing a TravelPass. Whereas the Explorer packages can run up to US$28a day, the TravelPass gets you all around central and a large portion of greater Sydney for US$32, which lasts a week, and if you traveled around by bus, train, and ferry as much as I did, it’s a fantastic deal.
The second and third days didn’t go nearly as smoothly as that first golden day, as many of the events I tried to see were cancelled, closed, or poorly planned on my part, and my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants decision-making process crashed down around my ears. I was able to see the Chinese Friendship Garden (very quiet and peaceful; probably the best place to go if you’re feeling a bit stressed), a bit of the Sydney Olympic Park, Bondi Beach (they have a sculpture exhibit this time every year, and it’s amazing, particularly with a backdrop of sand and sea), the Taronga Zoo (not a patch on San Diego or any of the super-huge zoos, but not half bad in its own right), and spent a lot of time wandering aimlessly around Circular Quay and Darling Harbour, falling more deeply in love with the city with every meandering circuit, causing me to be late to nearly every meeting with my friend, but that was all right—though Sydney may not be as laid back as the rest of the country (as well as New Zealand), the ideal of a leisurely pace still pervaded the city, and I took full advantage.
Pics from Days 2 & 3:
