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