Amber, Ashley, & Hillary Take Sydney by Storm

Well it has been an eventful, fun, and (semi) exhausting week! My sister, Amber, and a friend flew into Sydney Friday, March 14 and just left today to return to Texas. We had a great time exploring Sydney, laying out on beaches, and living it up in the city.We did all of my favorite "ings" : Shopping, Eating, Traveling, Laughing.... Plus it was great to have a piece of home right here with me in Sydney!

This is basically how my week went:

Friday, March 14:
Amber and Hillary arrived and we changed into our swim suits and went straight to Coogee Beach. After soaking up some rays for a couple of hours, we had a late lunch then headed home to shower and get ready for our night! We saw a show at the Opera House called La Soiree, which was a mix of a comedy show, sex show, cirque de soleil, magic, "Magic Mike" and more, each short little independent acts. It was definitely entertaining, and awesome to have seen a show in the Sydney Opera House! Afterward we had a delicious pancake dinner at the famous Pancakes On The Rocks (The Rocks are Sydney's initial settlement).

Going to see La Soiree at the Sydney Opera House

Saturday, March 15
Amber, Hillary, and I went into the city and did a free Walking Tour of Sydney. It was great!! We learned so much about Sydney and the history of Australia, and we visited tons of cool places around the city. (See photos below.) After the tour, we had fish 'n' chips in a cute beer garden on The Rocks then headed to Central Station to catch a bus to the Aussie Rules AFL Football Game, Swans vs. Giants. AFL is a very interesting sport to watch... There are so many guys on the field and they just run around like crazy, hitting and kicking the ball to each other. It took us a little while, but we started to catch onto the rules.

St. Mary's Cathedral (the largest cathedral in Australia) & Hyde Park

Hanging bird cages

Fish 'n' chips

Having a beer in the beer garden with my sister

Sunday, March 16
We watched the St. Patrick's Day Parade down George St. and saw bands, floats, dancers, bag pipers, and the like pass by. We also got poured on - this Sydney weather is crazy! (There's honestly no use in checking the weather each day; it's hardly ever accurate. It's more unpredictable than Texas, which is something I never thought I'd say!) But after the parade we enjoyed a beer (Guinness, of course) at an Irish pub, then sat and relaxed in Hyde Park for a while, where there was a big St. Patrick's Day celebration going on with live music, carnival rides and games, food, etc. Later that evening we did the free tour of The Rocks and ended our night fine-dining on pizza and wine.

Enjoying some Irish Guinness beer in honor of St. Patrick's Day

Monday, March 17
The three of us girls did the Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk today. It's a 6km walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach, hitting 3 other beaches in between, with beautiful sights of the cliffs, beaches, ocean, and true beauty of the Australian landscape. We would walk and lay out at a beach, then walk and swim at a different beach, and continue this until we reached the beautiful Bondi Beach, where we stayed for a couple of hours before heading back home. Along our walk we passed Waverley Cemetery, located right on the coast, and is supposedly the "best located cemetery in the world" with many famous Australians buried there. We also visited Bronte Beach, where Hugh Jackman has a house! Once we got back from the beach, we got a pitcher of beer to celebrate actual St. Patty's Day then went into the city to see the Opera House lit green!

Waverley Cemetery

Bronte Beach

Opera House lit green for St. Patrick's Day

Tuesday & Wednesday, March 18 & 19
Although it may not seem like it, I DO have class, which I went to on Tuesday and Wednesday. So Amber and Hillary took a trip to the beautiful Blue Mountains on Tuesday (see my blog post from when I visited the Blue Mountains for more info & pics!), and on Wednesday they walked the Sydney Harbour Bridge and enjoyed the day on Manly Beach.

Thursday, March 20
Thursday we visited 4 of Sydney's most famous attractions: The Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, Wild Life Sydney Zoo, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, and finished the day in the Sydney Tower Eye at sunset, where you can get a 360 degree view of Sydney and beyond. At the aquarium, we saw SO MANY fish and other sea life and walked through glass tunnels of sharks and stingrays. At the zoo we saw kangaroos and other Australian animals, like snakes, koalas,wallabies, and a Tasmanian devil. The wax museum was creepy because the figures looked so realistic! We took pictures of many famous people including the royal family, Justin Bieber, Michael Jackson, Albert Einstein, Brad & Angelina, Oprah, Heath Ledger, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Depp, Leoncardo DiCaprio, and more! The Sydney Tower is the highest point in the whole city, so having that bird's eye view was quite an experience!

Koala! - Not a "koala bear"

Chillin' with the Royal Family

I FINALLY MET JUSTIN BIEBER!!!!!

View from the Sydney Tower Eye

Sunset from the Sydney Tower Eye

Friday, March 21
We went back to Manly to visit the Manly Sea Life Sanctuary and then laid out on the beach. It wasn't much of a beach day though, so we came home and rested then had a nice last-evening-in-Sydney dinner over delicious food and vino. Then Saturday Amber and Hillary went to the airport to fly back home, and are currently in the air as I'm writing this!

In the tunnels. Huge stingray!

SHARKS! Eek

So that's what I've been up to. We had so much fun this week and I'm so glad my sister was able to come visit me in Australia! I wasn't able to visit her when she studied abroad in England (I was in high school and couldn't miss that much class), but it is fun to travel with siblings and explore new places. It's definitely a time I won't forget!

Now I've got to clean house and do homework. You know...the fun stuff. Until next time, mate.

Beaches, Beaches, and More Beaches

This wonderful continent has not yet ceased to amaze me, with its breathtaking views, beautiful beaches, friendly people...it's a dream living here.

Over the weekend I went to a different beach every day, including two beaches I hadn't visited yet! Each one is unique yet similar, and I am so thrilled to keep exploring more of them. The famous Bondi Beach was our destination on Sunday, where Madison and I laid out and swam in the blue waters for hours. It was my best beach day yet; the sun was so hot and shining (so glad it was actually out and the rain has stopped for a while!), the sand was white, the water was crystal clear...it's no wonder why it's one of the most flocked-to beaches in all of Australia. Bondi Beach and its lifeguards actually have their own t.v. show here called Bondi Rescue. Next time I go back I'll have to get a photo with one of the lifeguards!;)

Bondi Beach

On Saturday we visited Maroubra beach, which is not quite as crowded, but stunning nonetheless! This weekend I am going to do the Coastal Walk, which is a 6km walk from beach to beach starting at Coogee, hitting Clovelly, Bronte, and ending up at Bondi. (Stay posted for pictures from that walk- it's supposed to have gorgeous views!!)

Maroubra Beach

It's now been one month and one week since I arrived in Sydney (wow!). Yep, I'm settling in just fine here.

Classes Have Started But The Fun Hasn't Stopped!

Well folks, although it may not appear so from my continuous Facebook posting of various beaches, I have indeed finally started classes in Australia. It's been a week and a half since courses began, and I'm still getting into the swing of things. Firstly because it's a new university to me and I am learning how things work here, but secondly because I haven't been in class/had to study for three months!

The weekend before last, some friends and I hopped on the bus and went into the city for Sydney's massive Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras parade and celebration. It was quite the experience! Roads are blocked off, bus routes are altered, and thousands of people flock to the city to see the extravagant costumes and floats that make their way down the street, such as the ones pictured below.

I also have found a beautiful Catholic church to go to here, which made me very happy! It's very traditional, with a steeple, columns, and statues, and I am excited to become a part of its parish community!

My friend Madison and I have gone to see two movies so far at the cinema up the road, Last Vegas and Dallas Buyers Club. We like to go to the movies on weeknights- it's a good way to have a relaxing night during the week. Movies come out a lot later here than in America, and same with t.v. shows (which is part of the reason why pirating is so prevalent in Australia, because they want to see things when they are released in America, such as Game of Thrones). Speaking of t.v. shows, I see billboards around the city for Real Housewives of Melbourne and it always makes me laugh....

In other news, I've been adding to my knowledge of Aussie slang. My new Australian friends who are in a Management class of mine taught me a lot of terms after class last week. Crikey, I'm going to be sounding like a natural Aussie soon enough! (Sidenote: When someone says they "have the shits" here, that means they're drunk. My Australian friend shared with me his awkward experience in America when he said he had the shits and someone showed him to the bathroom....)

Furthermore, I've been enriching the Australian, German, Italian, French, Mexican, Spanish (and whatever else!) languages with some good ol' Texan vocabulary. I had said in conversation with my Australian friends that "this ain't my first rodeo" and they just looked at me with blank expressions. I realized the moment it came out of my mouth that they probably aren't familiar with that expression, and so I was honored to explain it to them. Naturally, our conversation progressed on to talking about rodeos and wagon racing, which one of the guys said is "like a country version NASCAR."

I know I tend to get behind on my blogging, but there will be more to come promptly!:)

-Ashley

Olympics, Rappers, and Mountains, Oh My!

Last week some friends and I didn't have any plans and found out Eminem was in town, so we bought tickets to his concert and made a day of it. We caught a train out to Olympic Park and walked around where the Summer 2000 Olympics were held. It's the second olympic park I've visited, the other one being in Beijing, and it's always cool to me to walk around the olympic grounds and see how everything is so beautifully designed and organized. Beijing's olympic park was much more impressive to me, and bigger with more things to see, but Sydney's was cool nonetheless.

After exploring the park a little, we went to the Rapture 2014 concert, opened by J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, followed by the real Slim Shady. It was good! (Well, Eminem was good....) Eminem is a scary man. And so are his fans.

Then the next day a group of 10 of us took a spontaneous three-day trip to Australia's beautiful Blue Mountains in Katoomba. That was the most physical activity I've done in a long time, considering that I've been on a three month break! Some of the hikes were so intense and steep, but it was worth it to feel accomplished in the end!

Me with the Three Sisters in the background

We hiked the Three Sisters, the Giant Stairway, Echo Point, Bridal Veil Lookout, Prince Henry Cliff Walk to Gordon Falls and Leura Falls, and took about a ten minute train ride on the third day to Wentworth Falls and hiked the Charles Darwin Walk. Backpacking through the mountains was incredible! The greenery is so lush and dense; I honestly felt like I was in the middle of the rainforest. But on the Darwin hike we were LITERALLY walking the side of a mountain. We were feet from the side of the cliff, with only a chainlink fence separating us. I, not being a fan of heights, was pretty freaked out, but the views really were amazing. We hiked about a total of 21 miles or so over the three day period!

Me with a waterfall at Wentworth Falls

One of the trails we backpacked!

The boys standing on the cliff