Jessie and Kevin's World Travels: Sydney

I apologize ahead of time that this post may get lengthy, but I want to fill you in as best as I can from the last 3 days here. I last left off just after we arrived and were getting ready to go to the ship. We bought a 7 day train, bus and ferry pass and headed to Circular Quey. This is the stop on the train - similar to the subway system - where the ship was. Conveniently this is also the stop to the Sydney Opera House. What a sight! It certainly took my breath away when we came up from underground and there is was. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then went to the ship. We finished working within 2 hours and went back to the hotel to drop off the tool bag.

The view off the back of the ship where the wall is!

On our way to the ship we also saw this Aborigine who was playing the Didgeridoo.

They Sydney Harbor Bridge - again, off the back of the ship. Not a bad view to wake up to in the morning!

After we dropped off the bag we went for a long walk. We went to a street called Pitt Street, that has a lot of shopping and food. We just walked by, didn't buy anything, and headed to the Hay Market. This is almost the equivalent of a flea market in the states. They had tons of souvenir type gifts and things - basically a market full of very cool junk! We didn't stay long that evening because they were closing down, but we went back the following morning. We walked around some more that evening and headed back to the hotel around 6. We tried to stay awake as long as possible, but ended up crashing around 8:30.

On Sunday we went back to the Hay Market and then walked around Darling Harbor. There were lots of people out and about and we had a great time wondering. This harbor has a park, the Sydney Aquarium, multiple museums, lots of food and of course boats on the water. It was also very cool to see. We also went to an area called the Rocks and did a little bit of shopping at the outdoor market. I bought a real boomerang, made by an Aborigine. I can't wait to learn how to throw it!

The towering city skyline over Darling Harbor

We went back to hotel for a few hours and then decided to go to a beach. We hopped on the train and went to Bondi Beach. This is probably Sydney's most famous beach and it was so beautiful! There was an art exhibit called Sculpture by the Sea, that consisted of over 100 sculptures along the coastline in between two different beaches. We walked all along the coast and looked at the pieces, while enjoying the incredible scenery around us!

The beautiful and famous Bondi beach - very famous for surfing.

This is what the entire coastline looked like. It was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.

Today we went to the Taronga Zoo. It is across the harbor so we took a ferry from Circular Quey to the zoo. At the zoo we saw Koalas, Kangaroos, Wallabies, a Platypus, Dingos, a Tasmanian Devil, and poisonous snakes that were all indigenous to Australia. We saw lots of other animals too, but those were the ones that were most interesting for us. We even go to go into one of the Koala exhibits and take up close and personal photos of them and with them. Unfortunately we could not touch them, but it was still very cool. I will scan the photo we have when I get back home, so you can all see it. For now I will just show you some pictures of the very cool Australian animals we saw.

The adorable Koalas...I think they are one of my favorites! If you look really close you can see the baby on the right!

A Kangaroo

The Tasmanian Devil. Not exactly like the cartoon eh? This is also not the best picture, but you get the point.

And the Dingo

I could not get a picture of the Platypus, but I really did see it!

After the zoo we got back on the ferry and went to the Royal Botanic Gardens. We had some left over lunch so we had a picnic in the park and enjoyed the sounds of the Flying Foxes - giant bats all over the park. Here are the last few pictures for today!