Last week was such a whirlwind of new experiences! We left for Sydney last Wednesday arvo (afternoon). After a short plane trip we caught a train to Central Station where our hostel was located. My first impression of Sydney was that it was like Chicago or Washington D.C - but classier. The architecture of some of the old buildings is beautiful, as is the landscaping. Here is a picture of the famous Harbor Bridge. You can't see from the picture, but some people are actually climbing across the top of it! Seeing the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House finally made me feel like I was actually IN AUSTRALIA. The whole experience has been so surreal thus far, but seeing the actual buildings that were on TV during the recent Sydney Olympics finally helped it sink in.
The hostel that we stayed in was right next to Central Station, and was a reconstructed train station. Some of the rooms were even old train cars! I met some amazing people in the hostel who were traveling the world. I think aside from the city itself, my favorite thing about Sydney is how culturally diverse it is. I often felt like a minority - which was fine with me! Walking down the street I heard French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and accents that sounded German and Russian. I think I met someone from nearly every continent in fact (well except for maybe Antarctica).
This is the view from the top of the Sydney Tower.
The Australian Museum
We visited the Tower after a day of absolute random fun. I, of course, had all kinds of things planned for the day (shocking, I know) but as we were walking in the direction of the harbor, we kept stumbling across good fortune.
St. Andrews Cathedral looked small from the outside, but the inside was just spectacular. The stained glass windows, huge archways, and massive pipe organ were so breathtakingly beautiful that we whispered as we walked through.
After visiting the church, we walked past a Virgin Mobile store and a woman was holding a poster and yelling "Guy Sebastian is about to give a free concert!" Concert? Free? We were totally in. It turns out that Guy Sebastian was the winner of Australian Idol, something we have all enjoyed watching during our stay, in 2003. We loved his music - and him! He signed a CD for us "To Team USA, I hope you enjoy your stay in OZ!"
Our stay in Sydney was short, but next up was the Blue Mountains. A post about it is soon to come!
