Day 7: Sydney

Well I've been here a week now and I've been up to some interesting things over the past few days...

Last Thursday Christina (cousin) and her friend Anna arrived from Toronto via LA as well. They're staying with their friend Joe and his g/f Jen who is visiting from Canada. Sarah had the day off from work so she decided to become a tourist with us and check out some of the city. So her and I took the ferry in and met up with Christina and Anna. From there we headed to the market in Chinatown, basically like a flea market back home, that runs thurs. through sunday. I'm not much of a souvenir buyer, so I didn't pick anything up, but I did see some sweet shades that had hologram eyeballs for lenses for $4. Then we grabbed a chinese lunch from 'Eating Wold' (self-explanatory) before moving on to the Chinese Garden of Friendship, a peaceful oasis in the city with some sweet waterfalls, lakes and bamboo. Then we remembered we were in Australia, not China, and headed to Darling Harbour for a stroll and ferry ride under the harbour bridge. Sarah took off at this point and the rest of us went into New Town for a dinner with Joe and Jen at a cafe named Citrus. The interesting thing about establishments in New Town is that most are housed in older buildings that were built with their toilets out in the back way back when. The interiors and exteriors have been upgraded but the toilets are still out in the back, about a minute walk down a sketchy alley way and around the corner (well, at least at Citrus). Christina recommended that we use the buddy system when going for a pee :)

Friday I cruised into town again to check out "The Rocks", the oldest part of Sydney nestled somewhat under the south end of the Harbour Bridge. It was cool to walk around and check out the old buildings and little alley ways that make up this part of the city and I checked out the Sydney Observatory that had a bunch of old astronomy equipment on display. Next I met up with Christina and Anna (who of course slept in a long time and were late showing up) to check out the Botanical Gardens beside the Sydney Opera house, which is an expanse of trees and park just outside the city center, with some pretty interesting tree species brought in from all over the world it seems. We spent the afternoon hanging out there, stopping every once in a while to eat some Tim-Tams (addictive cookie with two chocolate wafers with a chocolate center covered in chocolate) and watch the birds causing a ruckus. Next we met with Jen and Joe to catch a ferry out to Manly and grab a dinner + sangria at Montzuma's mexican restaurant along the beach. It was some good food with some damn good sangria, so a few of us got a little giggly. At this point, Christina and I somehow decided that a "cousin challenge" would be a good idea, so after dinner and along the beach we had contests for armwrestling (me), getting covered in sand (Christina), getting wet (Christina) and pushups (I think me) to determine who was the better cousin... I think we'll be having some more events over the course of the trip, so stay tuned to see who triumphs in the cousin challenge!

Saturday and Sunday saw us enjoying some of the national parks around Sydney. On Saturday we (me, Christina, Anna, Joe, Jen) started off by packing up a picnic lunch (Christina, don't forget that your first Australian grocery store experience involved dumping a dozen buns all over the floor and kicking them under the shelves!!! "I walked into the grocery store, picked up some buns and dumped them all over the floor" -Christina. True.) and heading out to Garie beach in the Royal National Park just south of the city. It has an amazing beach (no swimming for us though, remember its chilly down here and the water is the same temperature as what you get out of the tap when you run cold only for a minute), that is nestled between hills and cliffs on either side. We saw some surfers and body borders doing their thing. Christina and I defaced the beach by playing an oversized game of Pictionary, tracing out Canadian flags, koalas, umbrellas, McD's logos, and a huge "ICUP" sign (Christina gets credit for that one) using our feet in the sand. Next, Christina, Anna and I took a train up into the Blue Mountains from Sydney into the town of Katoomba. We were entertained by four girls a few seats over who wouldn't stop singing the whole ride up... thats right, 2 hours worth nonstop, we're talking Britney Spears, Old Mcdonald had a farm, all the classics, including Jesus songs from church too, I don't remember having that much energy as a kid and I'm surprised these kids didn't burn themselves out. We were getting such a kick out of it we basically came to tears laughing :) The ride ended in Katoomba, and we stepped of the train into the freezing cold (yep, I left behind the 30 degree weather to wear a ski jacket plus gloves to seek out places that just had snow a week ago). We went to a pub in town to grab food and beers and listen to a local musician cover all the songs from back home. The way they serve food hear is interesting, its like Harvey's breakfast where you go up and make your order and pay, they give you a number that you put on your table, and after awhile they bring your food to your table. Tipping is somewhat optional here, so you can get by being cheap. Geoff had some persuasive words emphasizing this point: "Do not tip under any circumstances!!!". I couldn't have put it better myself :) Of course the cute bartenders get an exception to the rule if they flirt a bit. Well Anna and I got a bit drunk at the bar there and were greeted with a free beer each when we returned to the hostel by some english guys who had won a 24 of VB in a pool tournament. I stayed up with the people at the hostel a bit too late for a bit too many drinks, but thats the way she goes sometimes...

... so naturally the next morning was a headache and a half when waking up at 8:30am to go hiking. We had a deadline to be on the train at noon, so Christina, Anna and I got up and out as quick as possible onto a trail with not really much food in our systems. We went on a nice 2 hours or so loop from one end of Katoomba, down into a valley in the Blue Mountains, past some nice waterfalls and streamlets (a small stream, not too much water indeed) and then to the "giant staircase". The Blue Mountains seem to be made up of sheer cliffs for the most part, and this staircase is basically a route that takes you up one of these cliffs. 900 steps, so its a pretty substantial climb. I was having problems fighting my hangover, Christina for some unknown reason brought her whole backpack on the hike so she was weighed down, and Anna experienced some vertigo and felt sick climbing, but despite these problems we made it up, got some sweet photos of a rock formation called the 3 sisters (most famous site in the blue mountains) and tried to catch our train. We ended up missing it, but did meet up with Geoff, Sarah, Joe, and Jen in Blackheath (just a bit further into the mountains) soon after for some grub (I got to drive Geoff's rental car a bit, and experience what itslike driving on the wrong side of the road... the basic things to remember are that you have more car on your left, so avoid sideswiping parked cars! and that the turning signal and windshield wiper switches are swapped, simple stuff) and another hike. This hike was to Pulpit Rock in the Grose Valley, and we basically worked our way around this valley on the top of the cliff. Again we saw some waterfalls and spectacular views before reaching our destination. As well, we saw the slight bluish haze that the mountains were named after, some sort of residue given off by the eucalyptus trees, that fills the valleys in the mountains. At that point we left Anna and Christina to fend for themselves in the mountains (they wanted another night and morning there) and the rest of us returned to the city.

I'll continue with the tale of my adventures later on... I'm in the process of uploading photos, so check them out in a few hours (this afternoon):

Sydney (updated!): http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/639693
Blue Mountains: http://jarema.smugmug.com/gallery/651578

Bye for now!