Sydney

friends from clemson. chrissy and zach are making really cool faces
me and laura in our incredibly australian outfits
theres the bangs mom. they look horrible form sweat which is why i didnt add these in the first place
some angels who were in the parade
baby koalas at the Taronga Zoo
Sky Safari up to the top!
Nude Beaches
Opera House and Harbour Bridge from our Ferry

I am IN LOVE with Sydney, Australia. Seriously from the second we got there it was the most beatuiful place I have ever been. I'm already counting down the minutes until we go back (for the record its 2 weeks for the Australian MTV Awards). Here's how our weekend went...

We left here at around 7:45 Friday morning and caught a train, switched one stop away from our house and got on the Sydney train. About halfway through the trip we found out there was track work and we were going to have to get off at one station, take a bus to another, get back on another train, and finish the trek to Sydney. We also had to do this on the way back, and let me tell you: it was a lot more work than I anticipated for 8am. We finally made it to Sydney at around 10:30 am and went right to our hotel to check in. All week we talked it over, and we decided that when we check in we were going to tell them that I was getting married next week and that we were only in town for the weekend and it was my last week single. It actually ended up working and we got upgraded to a room with one of the most amazing views in all of Sydney.
We dropped our stuff in our room and headed out to see the city. after taking 300 pictures of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge we came upon a stand selling ferry tickets to the Sydney Zoo (something we all were DYING to see) which included a little tour of the Harbours around Sydney by boat. It cost 30 AUD for students which was a pretty good deal considering a ticket to the zoo alone was 23 dollars. We had a little time to kill so we grabbed lunch in a little cafe overlooking the Harbour. On the way to catch the Ferry we got stopped by a girl doing PR for the salon in the Hilton Hotel. More about that later. Once on the ferry, we got to see all of Sydney and the surrounding suburbs by boat before getting to the zoo. It was seriously so pretty none of us could stop taking pictures. We saw far too many naked old men on the nude beaches too. Not a pretty sight. When we got to the zoo we took a "skysafari" up to the top to the zoo so that we could start at the top and walk our way back down. I'm terrified of heights and even I couldn't get over how cool it was. Of course the very first thing we wanted to see was the Koalas. They were SO CUTE and sleepy. We wandered around for another 2 hours and saw everything: kangeroos, tasmanian devils, dingos, African lions, seals, penguins, fox, Asaian elephants, giraffes, goats, rooseters, deer, zebras, bears, Slivery Gibbon, Wombats, Platypus, monkeys, Pandas, Meerkats... the list goes on and on. There are pictures of all of these on my facebook. I will try to add some of the pictures at the bottem of this posting. The zoo was directly across the water from the Sydney Harbour and beaches, so walking around we got the most amazing pictures of the city. It was something that made us all stop and realize how lucky we are to be here.
When we got back from the zoo it was around 5:30 and everything was starting to close up, which we all thought was a little weird for one of the busiest cities in the world. We all still needed pieces for out Mardi Gras outfits, so we ran frantically around the city finding anywhere that was open and trying to get what we needed. Needless to say that trip was less than sucessful. We agreed that since we weren't going to drink a lot that night (so that we would be able to drink A LOT the next day) we could get up at around 8:30am and walk up to one of the biggest "malls" in the city, which opened at 9. So we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our first night in Sydney.
We got dressed, drank a little in the room, and headed out. Before we even left the Mariott we met these 3 guys from America who were living in Sydney for work. They were really nice, but complete nerds in every sense of the word. They were all a lot older than us, but we figured that since they had been living in the city for 9 months they should be able to show us around a little. Turns out, they couldn't. They were all pretty negative and couldn't tell us about where to go because they don't go out very much. After much persuading, we convinced them to walk with us to The Three Wise Monkeys, a bar where I was supposed to be meeting friends from high school who were also in Sydney for the weekend. The good thing about these guys is that they make a lot of money, hardley ever had to spend it, and therefore bought all of our drinks. The bad thing about these guys was that they bought all of our drinks. We did not make it out of the hotel by 8:30 the next morning to shop, in fact it was more like noon. We had a blast though, and ended up meeting up with a bunch of people we knew from Newcastle as well. All in all it was a really fun night, from what I can remember.
The next day we headed up to Supre, a store here that is VERY Australian, and not too expensive. Chrissy and I got what we needed to complete our outfits for the night and we headed off to our hair appointments we had booked the day before. Now I hadn't planned on doing my hair in Sydney, but Chrissy and Laura both already wanted to do it before we were approached by the girl doing PR for the Salon. Basically the deal was this: We pay $40 to book our appointment, then $60 the next day, and this is what we got:
-Style Color and Consultation
-Deep Conditioning Treatment
-Shiatsu head and scalp massage
-A personalized hair plan
-Free drinks (which we are all too hungover to enjoy)
-Strawberries
-Haircut
-Blowdry
And a choice of one of the following:
-Highlights or Low lights
-Gloss treatment
-Semi-Permanent or Permanent hair color

When you add up what we got there and convert it to American Dollars it was a really good deal. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I figured that since I was paying for it I might as well get a crazy color or a fun cut. After my consultation (with a stylist who was actually from the Midwest US and hadn't been home in 3 years) we agreed a lighter color was a bad idea, so we decided for a fun cut and a shade or two darker than what I had on my hair now. And I ended up with bangs! (Yes Duck I feel like a complete copycat). But I LOVE my new hair. It was just what I needed: something different but easy to grow out if I get sick of it. One thing I forgot to factor in: it is summer here and I sweat. A LOT. The bangs don't look so good when plastered to my forehead, but I'll learn to deal with it.
After our appointments, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for MARDI GRAS!! When we got into our room, there was a bottle of champagne chilling for us. We still cannot figure out who sent this to us, but we enjoyed it anyways.
We started walking up to the parade route and met some random people who said they knew where to go to see the whole thing. By the time we got there we had missed a few floats, but got a pretty good view once we stood on top of their stacked crates they had brought. I stood on the double stacked crates for about 5 minutes getting to see a lot of the parade when a girl walked by and kicked the crate out from under me. I fell pretty hard (but apparently it wasn't my first fall of the weekend). After that I had no interest in getting back on those crates, but we were so far back I couldn't see anything, so I shoved my way up to the front and watched the rest of the parade with a bunch of obnoxious Asians.
The parade itself was unlike anything I have ever seen. Nothing like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and definetely the gayest thing I have ever seen in my life (not that there's anything wrong with that). There were handicapped gay people with signs saying "Were horny too!", there were Highschoolers against Homophobics, there was a group representing many places in the world (the US' representation was pretty pathetic compared to some of the other people there) there were all types of religions represented, gay popes in huge dresses, the Sydney firefighters, the Sydney lifeguards (in speedos), and everything else you can imagine. Most of them had little dance routines that looked EXACTLY how you are picturing them to have looked. It was an experience I will NEVER forgot as long as I live. I actually kind of hope I can come back and be part of it because it looked that fun.
After the parade we all agreed we needed some drinks. We went to one bar not too far off the parade route, but it was a little overwhelming for me so we decided to go to Kings Cross, another part of Sydney we had heard about. It was about a 5 minute train ride outside of Sydney, and this part of town was absolutely insane. People were PACKED in the streets, huge lines outside of every club. This is a little description I found of how to describe where we were:
"The lights are on 24/7 on The Strip. The bars, the clubs and the live shows along Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, have always been a popular entertainment destination for Sydneysiders and visitors alike. Everyone who’s been here seems to have a tale to tell. It’s busy, it’s noisy, it’s even slightly crazy. Part Amsterdam’s Red Light District, part London’s Soho, The Strip is hard to label but surprisingly easy to enjoy." That is pretty acurate. We went to one bar where friends of ours had been all night, but by the time we got inside they were gone. We decided to hang out for a drink, but after watching a girl faceplant on the floor and have people check her pulse and drag her away (I'm 97% sure she was dead for a few minutes) we decided we didn't want to be there anymore. We met up with some new friends who go to Clemson (and also our University here) and headed out to try and find somewhere else to go. We went into Moulin Rouge, but decided not to pay the $20 cover to get in, so I have no idea what we missed out on. Finally we settled upon a little sports bar that was a lot less crazy than anywhere else in that part of town, which is something I was really happy about. We were out until almost 5am that night, but it was an amazing experience I will never forget.
We spent yesterday getting souvineers after the cloudy weather ruined our plans of going to Bondi Beach then headed back to Newcastle to get ready for our week. I had so much fun in Sydney, and it gave us a good taste of the little weekend adventures we are planning on taking while here, so needless to say I am anxiously awaiting our next trip.