So it has been way too long since I updated last! I’ve been so busy with Renee’s visit and then I left for Melbourne the same day she left to go back to the states. I’ll start with Renee’s visit…
Her flight was delayed a whole day, so she got here Wednesday morning at 8am. I was so excited to see her! We had kinda a rainy day so we just walked around Coogee and got settled. That night we went out with my friends Amy and Espen in a place called Newtown to a bar called the Sly Fox. I forgot to warn Renee about the “no flip flops” rule that they have here…so as the bouncer is turning us away some girl walks up to us and offers to take us to her apartment two blocks away and give us both shoes! So we did it haha! Espen and Amy got tired and went home but of course we stayed out and danced all night! Thursday was a nice day, we played in the waves all afternoon and Ren laid out on our beach while I went to class. Friday was St. Patricks day and we went on a Harbor cruise in Sydney. What an amazing experience! We went with all my roommates and the views at dusk and night were just breathtaking. We had a bit of a reflective conversation about how thankful and fortunate we are that we can afford to do this kind of stuff and we hope that we can do this for our kids at some point. We had dinner on the boat, danced a lot and then got off the boat and went to Kings Cross which is like the bar area of Sydney. The city was so alive and everyone was in green! I’m seriously thinking of cheating on NYC with Sydney! I’m in love! We headed to Oxford St after partying with my roommates some more and we met up with a friend of mine, Chris, and just really had a fun St. Patty’s day dancing and wearing lots of green. Sunday we went to a rugby match – the Sydney Roosters. Now, we most definitely sounded like those dumb foreigners cause none of us understood the rules and every time the ball got thrown or kicked we asked a billion questions. But our seats were really good and by the end of the match I think we kinda figured out how you at least score! It was a perfect beach day and we went down to the beach and took tons of pictures of the sunset…had lots of “I can’t believe I live here” moments that my roommates and I have daily. Monday and Tuesday we had hoped to go scuba diving and do beach stuff but because of the cyclone that hit northern Australia we got really bad weather. So we just explored Sydney for the most part. We went to Sydney tower which you can see about 100 miles each way outside the city. We went down to the Harbor and walked around the opera house, the contemporary art museum, saw these really cool traveling bears (pictures attached, its too hard to explain!), and went to an Ice Bar! The ice bar was so cool. It was called Minus 5 because it is always minus 5 inside the bar. The bar, the statues, the seats, benches, glasses are all made of ice. It was so fun and totally worth the $30 for 30 minutes! We took it easy the last couple nights, had some excellent thai food, played pool at the local bar, sat out on the cliffs and watched the moon over the water while the waves crashed below and I really just enjoyed having someone from home around.
Wednesday I headed out with 6 of my roommates to Melbourne. Currently, Melbourne is host to the 2006 Commonwealth Games which are every two years and are kinda like the mini Olympics but with only commonwealth countries. Also, in Melbourne I got to stay with Brittany, my roommate from when I was at Fordham. She is studying at the University of Melbourne and it was her 21st birthday the night we got there. I had a blast and the city is so nice. Much more laid back than Sydney and much cleaner, but I still prefer Sydney. We went to the zoo, saw the commonwealth village, and the last day went on a day trip to Phillp Island and saw the penguin parade. The Phillip Island tour was awesome. I got to feed and hang out with kangaroos, dingoes, wallabies and emus! After we got to pet, feed and take pictures with them we headed to see seals and penguins. There were some amazing ocean views that I will post pictures of. Then at night we went to the penguin parade where approximately 400-600 penguins come out of the water and waddle up the beach to find their burrows. We didn’t see too many that night but the stars out in the wilderness away from the city were incredible. I seriously do not have a day here where I am not amazed by some natural sight or experience. If its not the ocean, it’s the mountains, the stars, the cliffs, the structures of the city, its never ending and I’m soaking up every minute ?
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