Sydney, Australia

My journey began on August 24th when I landed in Sydney, Australia.  I was super excited and had high expectations... all of which were met!!!  Each day was packed with activities, gorgeous sites, yummy food, and, of course, great company!!! Simonne Horwitz, my friend from home, is on exchange in Sydney, so I had the pleasure of staying with her at the University of New South Whales, and also traveling around the country.

First, we spent two full days in Sydney.  I was blown away by the size of the city.  It seems to be much bigger than Toronto, and has a fantastic public transit system with buses and subways traveling to every corner of the city -- or so it appeared!  It really leaves Toronto wanting in that respect.  The population (I just looked it up) is approximately 4.5 million which I believe is fairly larger than Toronto.  I was truly overwhelmed by the size of the city, but luckily I had Simonne around to be my tour guide and help navigate the oh-so-crazy public transit :)

The night that I arrived, we went down to the harbour and at dinner in "The Rocks", a happening area in downtown Sydney.

 

The Coastal Walk

On Saturday morning, we awoke to a sunny and gorgeous day! We set out to do the Coastal Walk from Cogee Beach to Bondi Beach.  It was a truly magnificent walk along the coast alongside about 5 different beaches, one more beautiful than the next.  The walk took a good couple of hours, mainly due to our stopping to snap so may pictures!!!  Hard to believe that such beautiful scenery can exist in such a gigantic city!!!

 

Bondi Beach

Sydney Swans Game 

By the time we finally arrived at Bondi Beach, lunch was way overdue and we were hungry for a great meal.  The lunch did not dissapoint!  One Frape and Salad later, we were off to the Sydney Swans game (which I found out is an "Australian Rules Football" game).  As it turns out, these tickets were highly sought after-- the game was sold out!!!  Quite unfitting that I was occupying one of these seats since I didn't know the first rule of Australian rules football.  Funny enough, I still don't.  It's sort of a cross between rugby and football, with few rules at all.  Crazy Australians running each other over was the name of the game.

And two nice gentleman were kind enough to lend us their Swans scarfs for a great pic!!!

Followed by a fun night out!

Manly Beach

On Sunday we took a ferry to Manly Beach-- a popular beach for surfers,  about an hour ferry ride from Sydney proper.  We had lunch, walked around, and shopped in the surfer dude stores around the area.

 And then we set out on our Journey up the west coast of Australia.  I will upload these pictures in a different post.  But first... here are some more pictures that I took of downtown Sydney at the tail end of our trip, and before returning to New Zealand!  Can't you see my big fat tan ???;)

Walking Across the Bridge