Sydney

Over the past couple of weeks, we had something Australians call mid-semester break, Canadians would call this reading week, and Americans would call this spring break. It was very confusing talking about any of this as you can probably see because everyone used a different term and no one could agree on one single term. What we could agree on was my little friend group was splitting up for the break as some people were seeing family while some others needed to save some cash for other trips. I, on the other hand, jetted off to Sydney for the first half of the break by myself. I booked my flight to leave Saturday, April 20th and then booked my flight out of Sydney early on Wednesday, April 24th. This gave me three full days in Sydney to explore.

On the first day, the weather was the nicest so I uber pooled down to Bondi beach for the day. This was a cheap way to get down to Bondi as it was a 30-minute drive. Once I arrived the sun was out and shining and instead of heading to the beach right away I walked up to a path to a place called the Bondi Icebergs. This is a swimming club where you can become a member if you swim here EVERY Sunday for 4 years! I obviously could not do that so I chose to pay the $8 entrance fee to go in and spend the morning in the iconic iceberg pool. I swam some laps but mostly enjoyed sitting on the edge where the pool meets the ocean and getting splashed by the waves hitting the pool wall. Once i got tired out i relaxed on one of the raised platforms and sunbathed until the sun moved from the pool to the beach. It was a couple of hours into the afternoon when i moved to the beach and contemplated going surfing. I chose not too one because the waves were huge and I feel i would not have been safe out there by myself, second because the water was packed with surfers and I am not good enough yet for all those eyes on me, and three because I was alone and could have left my bag o the beach but I did not want to risk it as it was a very busy day and who knows what happens to your things when you take your eyes off of them. Once it started to cool down at the beach I was off to find some dinner and found a yummy looking fish and chips shop, I grabbed that and watched the skateboarders do their thing in what looked like an abandoned pool as it was very soothing to watch. Bondi Beach reminds me very much of a Santa Monica type beach area, it has the same muscle beach area, skateboard, area, surfing area, and cute little shops that line the pathway area. Only thing Bondi is missing is a pier with a midway fair on it.

The next day i got up early in order to take advantage of all the sunlight, as the sun sets at 6 pm and there is little to do after it is set. Today I had booked a ride with the hop on hop off bus tours that go around Sydney. There were 2 routes, one through the Bondi area and other small beaches. The second took me more downtown and by the Sydney opera house and other important areas of Sydney. I hopped on the Bondi one to start and began my day by riding through beachside suburbs and stopping in a place called rosebay to walk the beach and get some breakfast. Once i was back on the bus I rode it the rest of the loop then hopped off and got on the second route which i hopped on and off of as i was cute little places and then explored those areas. My last stop was the opera house which i got off at and walked the area. I found a cute park where i had a view of both the opera house and the bridge and stopped there for a bit. Then I wandered around until I found the Botanical gardens and stayed there until sunset. Then I was on a journey to find some dinner and back to the hostel for some downtime.

On my third and final full day, i took the train an hour out to North Sydney where I met my friend Karley (who was in Sydney at the same time but staying with her cousin) and we went to one of the northern Sydney beaches. This beach had lots of surfers that we could watch, it had nice warm sand, and we hung out there all day soaking in the rays. It was nice to see a bit more of the side of Sydney tourists do not normally get to see as it was mostly locals here as it was not well known like Bondi beach. We headed back in the evening and I had an early night as i had to be up at 4 am to head to the airport to get a flight to Cairns which is where I stayed over the second half of my break. The airport was not busy and I got through security with ease. After a quick breakfast, i waited at the gate until it was time to head off on the second part to this adventure.