First Trip to Sydney

I should have gotten to this earlier, since I am beginning to forget all the good details, but I ran out of internet credits so I have to wait. That, and I had a paper that I hadn't started by 1pm Monday, and it was due at 4pm... I just needed to prove that I'm better than everyone else...I guess I haven't gotten my grade back yet, but I think it is pretty o.k.


Pictures of the trip
Anyway, Sydney... where do I start...
It is a 3 hour bus ride there...We had a good time/ interesting experience with the hostel. We booked it primarily because they offered a deal that if you ate 15 of their free pancakes on Sunday morning, you got a night free... We didn't make it until Sunday. When we got off the bus we walked a good 20 min, watching the nicer buildings turn into car stores, then I found myself looking around, and saying "... I think... no we are definitely in the red light district." We were, and our hostel was on dark alley paralleling the clubs. It was kind of funny, we asked some firefighters how to get to the address of the hostel and this is what they said (slightly exaggerated) "Ok, take this street all the way down until it splits, stick to the left, less busy street. You'll see a big lit up hotel, keep walking, its down the block more." The pictures actually make the room look good, since the flash makes the paint look new, and not moldy and chipping, and blankets over the stained mattresses.

We decided to go walk around, and get something to eat. As we were walking out a cameraman and two police men were walking in... It had to have been a murder, because when we came back the cops asked if we were staying there and what room we were in. I started joking that it was old white men taking and torturing young Americans, and as I said that there was a creepy grinning old man in a pink polo at the top of the stairs... Most of us reveled in staying in a crappy, cheap hostel, but one kid just could not stand it and had booked a room at the Hilton, and wouldn't stay anywhere else (I really don't like this kid. I remember Emma talking about having a Capt. Buzzkill while studying abroad, this kid is like Admiral Buzzkill, or even Chief of Staff Buzzkill). So the second night we all payed $44 to stay on the floor of the Hilton. We went from staying at the worst place in Sydney to the best place.

On Saturday we did all the touristy stuff - Aquarium, Opera House (kind of), the bridge, Center Point (a really tall tower that you can see all of Sydney from), and the Wildlife reservation. I also wandered into a cool little flee market.

Sunday, we met up with a native Sydneyite and she took us to Bondi Beach. I guess it is really commercialized and considered a tourist beach, but it was pretty awesome. We ate fish and chips and sat/slept there all day... Then we went to China town before leaving, and there is another super cheap flee market there, but by this time I had run out of money.

Next time should be more fun since we have a better feel, and I am also making a perfect list of stuff to do/what hostel to stay at (its much cleaner/better, and very central) for when TESSA VISITS!!