Nope, I didn't find Nemo. But hey, it's a big city.
I just came back from a 6 day trip to Sydney. What a wonderful, busy, and diverse place the city is. Emily B and I went last Thursday and spent the first day exploring, eventually reaching the Australian Museum and the Sydney Opera House and Harbor bridge. It was a fantastic way to start the trip. We traveled to the Blue Mountains for an overnight trip and hiked around a lot. (I don't want to look at another hill for a very long time.)
Coming back to the city, we traveled to some famous beaches, Manly Beach and Bondi beach, and watched some surfers in action. I so wished I could have been one of those people on the waves...
Emily M. came up from Melbourne to hang out with us for the remainder of the trip. Each day was pretty much filled with traveling and seeing the sights. We saw a lot of museums, art galleries, Luna Park, an aquarium and a Lindt chocolatier. Four out of the six nights we participated in one of my favorite activities: dancing! :)
It wasn't necessarily the location that made this trip so successful. We stayed in hostels, which is where there's 2, 4, 6, or 8 people in a room with one shared kitchen for making your own food. (definitely set up for backpackers) We mostly stayed in a 6 person room, so we met a lot of different people. Its amazing the people you meet in a backpacker's hostel. Some of the countries represented: Netherlands, England, Germany, France, China, New Zealand, and of course, Australia. One of my favorite people that I met was a guy from Holland, Netherlands. I told him all about Holland, MI with its Tulip festival and surrounding towns. He thought it was really fascinating that there was a miniature Holland somewhere in the world, especially a person that new a lot more Dutch folklore than himself. Now if only I could have conversed in Dutch with him..
Most of these people have been in Australia for months, and were staying between 6 mths to a year just traveling around. Talking with all of them, learning a little bit about them and where they had gone made me realize that there are a lot of cool people and places in the world! One lady from Sydney told us that she worked in England twice and traveled all over Europe and was planning on going to South America next. How awesome. Someday I hope to do this. And surf. Travel and surf... :D Livin' the dream.
So Sydney was an epic success! We had a great time and walked more than I would have liked...but hey, poor college study abroad student. What can you do?
Lots of love :)
Chels
"Be a traveler, not a tourist" (Ad in Sydney)
