Sydney the Harbor City
Through my study abroad program, KEI my group and I got the chance to go to Sydney, Australia for three days. The day started off early at 5 AM and running to catch my tram to the Airport. When I arrived at Gold Coast Airport I realized that it was a very relaxed airport and probably the smallest airport I've ever been in. The security was minimally enforced and shockingly I made it through TSA with a full water bottle, a lot of liquid items, and without my ticket (which I had to go back and get). This was also my first time entering a plane through the outside, which I thought was pretty cool. When we arrived in Sydney you can see the Harbor Bridge and Opera House from the plane and that was super exciting. When I got out of the plane and Sydney airport I automatically noticed a change in weather/ temperature compared to Surfers Paradise. In Surfers Paradise it's a lot warmer and humid because you're right by the beach. Sydney was a lot less humid and not as warm. When I came to Australia I adjusted to the heat fairly quick. So, now I'm used to 90-85 degree weather and 75 degrees is cold to me now. Our group stayed at the YHA backpackers hostel. This hostel was a lot nicer to the one we stayed at in Byron but, staying in any hostel is always an interesting experience to say the least. On our first day we got a tour of the city getting to go to many historic parts of Sydney. The best part of the tour was going to the botanical gardens and seeing the Sydney Opera house from across the harbor. After our tour of the city we all got to go out to dinner. The next day we took a six mile hike along the Coogee to Bondi Costal walk. Even though the hike was long the views were absolutely breathtaking. If you're going to do the hike I would definitely recommend comfortable walking shoes, sunscreen, and lot of water. The end of the walk was the best because I finally got to see the Bondi Icebergs. No, they're not real icebergs but, pools right on the water of Bondi beach. I've wanted to go to Australia for as long as I could remember and the Bondi Icebergs were on my bucket list. It didn't even feel real being there it felt as if I was in a dream. After the icebergs I went down to the beach and walked along the board walk and got a coconut at the restaurant The Bucket List. Yummy! Later in the day a bunch of girls and I went out for Thai food at Chat Thai and tried Thai ice tea for the very first time and I would highly recommend it. The third day we ended our trip of Sydney by taking a tour at the Sydney Opera house. The Sydney Opera house is an amazing building with unique architecture. The tour was super cool and I learned a lot about the creation of the opera house and I also got to go inside and see the performance halls. The opera house took 15 years to fully construct. After the tour of the opera house I took a ferry around the harbor and got to see the city from a different perspective and I would recommend doing it if you're in Sydney. The ferry took us to Cockatoo Island which was an old military base that is supposed to be inhabited by ghosts. Overall, Sydney was very fun and being in the city reminded me of being in NYC.
