Sydney Australia

The City/Circular Quay/Madame Butterfly

 Well here is where my adventures all begin! We woke up at the crack of dawn on the eighth of April and headed to the airport. When I say crack of dawn , this time, I really mean the crack of dawn! We were picked up from our house in New Zealand and four o’clock in the morning! It was so early! Anyway, we got to the airport, and James was there to say goodbye to us! This made it very hard, but we managed to say goodbye and then we were on our own. Hannah, Neeley, Emily, Nicole and I were off on our adventures in Sydney Australia. We were going down under.

                 We got on the plane and we were all a little bit nervous! Everything associated with the airport is a little bit scary. Scary to see if your bags will be under on weight, scary to see if you will clear security, scary to make sure you make your flight, scary that you are flying in the air over an ocean, and then scary for the landing, then extra scary to make sure your luggage gets there with you. So I’ll be honest and say that I was a little bit nervous.  No worries though, the flight was pretty decent. The landing was a little bit rough/one of the worst landings I have ever had! But it’s okay, because we made it and good news all of my bags did too! Anyway, we got off the plane and got our bags, and then we got a shuttle to take us to our hotel.

                Guess what! Our hotel was so much nicer than anything we have been staying in for the last four months! This was so nice! Also it was in the perfect location. We were about a five minute walk to a train station, or about a fifteen minute walk from Circular Quay and The Rocks, or about a five minute walk away from the city and Darling Harbor! We were in the center of everything! We couldn’t have picked a better location for the base of our adventures.  We got to our hotel and we had heaps of bags, so we couldn’t quite check in, so they let us store all of our bags in the conference room! Once we had all of our zillion bags done, we were off to explore the city! 

                We set off up the street because we were told we could walk into town! We had no idea how close we were! We walked in and the first thing right across the street from us was Hyde Park! There was a little pasta place on the corner, so we decided we would walk to the pasta place get food then eat a picnic out on the grass of Hyde Park! I had some really good pasta! Botticelli I think is how you spell it. It was delicious. 

               After lunch we walked a little farther into Hyde Park! This park is huge! I had no idea how big this park was! It was incredible though! I loved it! Here they have some of the craziest birds! At first we didn't know what they were called, but they have long curved beaks like the kiwi, so we called them the Aussie Kiwi. Well later we found out they were really called Ibis....but these birds were not scared of you at all! They came right up to you! They were a little bit freaky! I couldn't believe how close they came to me! 

                   We sat in the park for a while and wandered then we came to the center and saw the fountain and one of the Cathedrals. It was really so pretty! We were a little bit tired, so we just sat on a park bench for a little bit and enjoyed the view! It was incredible! 

                  After about fifteen minutes of just enjoying it, we walked down and did a little bit of shopping! It was incredible! I am inspired to have a new style! When I get home I am going vintage! It's so adorable! Oh how I loved the shopping! It's incredible! I got the cutest pair shoes! I am not exactly sure how I am getting them home but I'll figure something out! Anyway, after shopping, it was time we could check in. So we went back to the hotel, and got our rooms and moved our luggage up. I was on the 15 floor! Neeley and I shared a room! We are great roomies! After we quickly got ready and we were off to the Opera house!

               We got ready and we went to the train station. We got our ticket and we had about a five minute train ride down to the Quay. We were a little bit nervous since this was the first time we had taken the train here, but it went very smooth. The train system over here is very good! I am so impressed by it! I swear you could get anywhere by train! 

                  So we got off the train and we were off to explore Circular Quay and the Opera house! We walked along the harbor and took tons of pictures! I loved it! It was gorgeous! You could see the bridge, and the opera house, all the ferries, and it was just the such a fun place! We started out and walked all the way down the Opera house to pick up our tickets and this was incredible! This building is amazing! It's incredible how it looks like sails off of a boat! It was incredible! 

 

                 The views are incredible right? Such an amazing place! Anyway after we had finally taken all of our pictures, we were kind of getting hungry, so we decided we wanted to find dinner. Since we were all dressed up we wanted to go to a little nicer restaurant! We chose to go to this cute chocolate factory cafe on the harbor. We sat outside and ate looking out onto the view of the bridge and all of the boats! It was incredible! I had a salmon salad! It was delicious! Then for dessert, I had a pineapple cake. It was incredible. It had pineapple, chocolate, and raspberries on the inside! It was amazing! I loved it! It was such a fun dinner! We felt very fancy! 

                It was now time for us to go to the Opera house. We were seeing Madame Butterfly! It was a ballet! I must say this was incredible! I couldn't take my eyes off of the lead dancer! She was gorgeous! I couldn't believe how amazing she was! Not to mention the building was incredible inside! I didn't know what I thought it would be like, but it was spectacular! The walls were amazing, and the whole set up just took my breath away! I was in love with everything about it! It was an incredible show! After the show we just went back to our hotel, but don't worry we stopped to get some pictures of the Opera house at night, because of course that was phenomenal as well! All in all this is one of my favorite things I have done on this trip! It was a great first day in Sydney!