Hello again! Another rainy day here in Sydney, but we were so tired of being cooped up at the apartment that we decided to venture out anywhere, armed with umbrellas and rain jackets. We originally planned to head to The Rocks Market, which is situated under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but upon getting there, there were no tents or stalls to be seen. Shea swore she looked it up and it said it was open on Fridays, but Sian and I weren't convinced. Not that we really cared, as just two blocks up we found a lovely little farmer's market that was in full swing, where they were selling all sorts of food. We were particularly amused by the "southern style sandwiches with American mustard" that seemed quite popular. There were also some really good looking chocolate being sold, which I managed to resist. Because it was raining, we ducked into a French coffee shopped called La Renaissance for some drinks, where I got the most delicious hot chocolate of my entire existence. The place was super cute and had a gorgeous back patio, but unfortunately it was too rainy for us to sit there. From where we were sitting we could see straight back into the kitchen where they were making all the desserts, and it was seriously difficult not to get something. We want to come back on a sunnier day and try out some of their stuff for sure though.
We then crossed over the harbour to go to the Botanical Gardens, which we'd been wanting to see for a long time, but always got out of class after it closed, so hadn't gotten a chance. Despite the fact that it was a rather horrid day to be outside, the Gardens still managed to be absolutely magnificent. We had no idea just how big the Gardens were, and were shocked by how many paths there were to choose from. You could spend a whole day wandering around and wouldn't see everything they had. It was especially cool because the area we walked around in first, The Palace Gardens, looked very tropical and rainforesty, and made us completely forget we were in a city. We then wandered down to the Lower Gardens, where we found a Wishing Tree. As the story goes, if you walk three times around the tree forwards, and three times backwards, and make a wish, your wish will come true. It took us longer than expected as we had to walk around all the plants around the tree as well, not just around the base of the tree which would have made it much easier. There's a picture of the wishing tree in the slideshow, so be sure to take a peek!
Now listen up y'all, cause today I had my very first Australian creepy crawler nightmare situation happen. Over here on your left you can meet Boris (all credit goes to my dad for the name, you should go look up the song about him). Boris is a terrifying large and scary spider who can be found in the Botanical Gardens. I do not like Boris at all. I feel much less safe in this city knowing that Boris is here. Don't even pretend like you can't see him hanging out over there because he is that GINORMOUS black blob in the center, with the creepy yellow stripes on his disgustingly long legs. How. About. No. And not only was it just Boris here, but there were many more like him throughout the rainforest section of the Gardens. Ew ew ew, I want to cry just thinking about him. I have no idea what type of spider Boris is, but I bet he's deadly. Gross. You can see a picture of my reaction to him in the slideshow, and as you'll see, I was very disturbed.
In happier news, once we were once again safely away from Boris, we managed to get some great pictures of the Harbour. Even the rain couldn't make the harbour look anything but beautiful. We can't wait to come back on a sunnier day and get some proper pictures, as this spot would be absolutely gorgeous on a nice day. We walked around the harbour area for quite some time, as there were lots of paths that went straight up next to the water (many without handrails, another thing we've noticed Australians aren't very fond of). However, then the rain really started to come down, and not even our umbrellas or rain jackets seemed to be helping, so we started heading back for home (unfortunately we had to pass Boris again, as well as an Ibis and some other freaky bird with dead eyes that definitely looked evil. But we also had to walk through the Rose Garden which was quite lovely, and smelled great. By the time we made it home we were soaked through, but had had an absolutely amazing time out and about!
Once back, we all tried to figure out exactly what our travel plans are going to be, and I think I finally have it all figured out. It will go as follows:
That's my ideal version of things for now, anyway.
Now I have to actually go do my readings that I never got to do last night, but I've put some pictures up in the slideshow below!
- Home this weekend with a possible day trip to the Blue Mountains and my Bridge Climb on Monday
- Home all next week, including the weekend, with a possible day trip to the Waterfall Park right outside Sydney, and maybe a Rugby game. Also might meet up with my Australian friend for the first time! Woo! (June 8-15)
- For the next two weeks (June 16-29), away on my class roadtrip (which I now have a schedule for up on my about page).
- Spend July 4-7 in Uluru near Alice Springs, learning more about Aboriginal culture and seeing the Outback. This was hard to decide between this or seeing the Great Barrier Reef, but my Australian friend managed to convince me Uluru is much more important to the culture of Australia, and has more to do than Cairns, which is much more party oriented.
- Then I'll be in Port Stephens July 11-14.
- Then I'm in Sydney for the remained of the program.
- Stay on an extra week until Aug 1 to travel to New Zealand, possibly Melbourne on the way back to Sydney, and then return home!
That's my ideal version of things for now, anyway.
Now I have to actually go do my readings that I never got to do last night, but I've put some pictures up in the slideshow below!