Orientation in Sydney

Hey all! A few days ago I made it to my temporary home, the Gold Coast! All though it is like paradise here I am going to tell you about my past weekend in Sydney!

So on Friday I arrived in Sydney and was very tired and exhausted from a 15 hour flight. Even though I slept the traveling was pretty tiring. On the plane I met a girl named Brooke who was also in my program. There were a few other students from my program on my flight. After getting through the busy and confusing part of customs I picked up my bags and met up with my group and on site director Jackie!

Jackie is awesome! She is like my group’s Aussie mom. Jackie lives in the Gold Coast as well as another team member, Keith of CISAbroad that was staying with us in Australia.

On Friday the group and I stayed at the Sydney Harbour YHA (Youth Hostelling Association). The hostel was in an area called “the rocks” which is the older part of Sydney by the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. When a group of us got there we just chilled out at a bar and looked out at the gorgeous sites of Sydney. We were waiting on a couple of other groups from the airport to meet up with us before lunch. We headed out into the city to lunch at a place called Bar100 where I got a chicken burger. I think chicken burgers are a popular thing here because I have seen many restaurants with that on their menu. In the afternoon the group had a scavenger hunt where we were suppose to do or find certain things. For example, we had to take a picture with an employee at an art museum. So two of us took a picture with a hot Aussie. My friend was having trouble taking the picture because he was so good looking. We explored the area by the Opera house gardens and had a grand ole time doing that. Next we went to the Pylon Lookout, which is next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We took a lot of stairs up to the top but the view was definitely worth it with a site of the bridge and the Opera House. Later that night we went to dinner at The Australia Hotel where I tried Kangaroo pizza. I really do not know how to explain what it tasted like but they put a sauce in the pizza that made it taste like barbeque sauce. Kangaroo does not taste like chicken or beef. Ok more like beef I guess but I can definitely tell it is not beef.

On Saturday we hit up Bondi Beach and tried some Aussie style pies. When I mean pies I do not mean fruit or cream pie. I mean these pies have all sorts of ingredients in them. The one I got was the classic and was one they recommended us to try. It had peas on top, mash potatoes, gravy, and of course the crust around it. I wasn’t a big fan of it but did eat some of it because I was very hungry. The weather was pretty cold that day so we walked the trails, around the beach, which had some awesome lookouts. I think Aussie’s could tell we were tourists because we went too close to the waves and got bombarded by them. They also had these ocean swimming pools on the ends of the beach. They were very cool! Huge waves would come over the edges of pools and the people that were trying to do laps wouldn’t be swimming as straight anymore. After that we just explored the shops around Bondi beach and headed back for a night out with the group. My friends and I looked around and found a nice place to eat.

            On Sunday we took a ferry (Circular Quay: Wharf. 3) and headed to Manly. We kayaked on the Harbour taking a few stops to hike up to a lookout, we ate lunch, and explored a museum where they talked about how they dealt with diseases by putting people in quarantine. We were all so hungry that we ended up eating at our second stop and then by the third stop they hooked all the kayaks up to the back of the boat and let us cruise on back to the dock. We explored manly beach area but were ready to head back soon after because we were wet from kayaking and it was quite chilly out. Our last night out in Sydney was a great one! We had walked past the restaurant the night before and everyone was all dressed up and ready to party. That night was a little bit more laid back because it was Sunday night. The place was awesome, they had a live band and a great DJ. I got a burger and fries but the burger had something different on the bottom like sautéed onions or something which made it very different but good. My friends and I got a few drinks and stayed later than the rest of the group enjoying our last night in Sydney.

Talk to you all soon,

Emily