Anyway here's my Sydney trip blog post while I'm procrastinating whether to start on my assignment.
I went there with Faezah, Justin and Lai. We went to Blue Mountains the first day we reached Sydney. We drove from the city to Blue Mountains. It was a long drive and it was tiring considering that I didn't sleep much the previous night. Oh yea, I was driving a Toyota Corolla Hatchback. Initially, there were issues with the Toyota and Thrifty (the car rental company) decides to give us an upgrade...to a Hyundai i30. haha... The guys were complaining so much about it cos it was considered a downgrade to them. So we stuck with the Toyota. So we stayed at YHA Blue Mountains. I thought it was gonna be like really ulu or something with nothing around. It was actually a small town. I was a tad disappointed actually.
We went abseiling the next day. We spent a whole day abseiling. We challenged a couple of cliffs, 5m, 15m, 30m and 60m. We actually wanted to go canyoning instead but probably the weather wasn't the best since there's swimming involved. It was quite fun, and easy of course. Initially we climbed down, then we experimented with jumping... and finally we challenged ourselves to jumping + spinning 360deg on the rope. Got a few bruises but the experience was wonderful. The downside to abseiling is... if you want to repeat, you have to climb all the way up AGAIN. We did twice for each height other than 60m, which we did 3 times. It was TIRING to climb. I've got all sorts of sore muscles after all that climbing.
That's me abseiling down a 15m. There's an overhang where I get to just lower myself down while sitting in the harness.
That's the 60m one. Insane but exciting =)The next day, we went to the next attraction in Blue Mountains: Jenolan Caves. Of course, we did caving. It was just a basic cave for beginners. Initially, we had to abseil down into the cave entry. Having abseiled the previous day, all of us were so confident. We never expected that 10m to be soooo difficult. We were abseiling down a limestone wall, so it was reaally slippery. I've got a huge bruise because I slipped and slammed against the wall (i think the bump is still there ><). Then we entered the cave. It was quite interesting but challenges a bit of our physical strength and size. They made us squeeze through holes - which proved a challenge to me cos i'm fat. Well, I succeeded =D the guide is actually larger than me so he joked that if he could go through, anyone else could. We have to climb, slide, and step at precarious rock positions. I was really afraid I'd slip again but I completed the course safely.
A couple of marine fossils we saw while caving.
That's me trying to get through the cave hole. I was struggling to push myself through ><In the morning prior to caving, Faezah and I actually went bushwalking for a while because we had time and the guys were being lazy. Great view and nice weather. We were photowhoring so much on the way we couldn't really finish the whole trail. I don't have the photos but i guess she uploaded those on facebook since she took them.
The next day, it was time for us to leave Blue Mountains for Sydney City. We visited the 3 sisters at Blue Mountains.
There's the 3 sisters. Easy to recognise right?So we reached Sydney City. Well, we were lost in the city trying to find parking spots around YHA Sydney Central (and they didn't have any). The roads were sooo confusing and forbid us from making right turns and left turns randomly. So annoying. Then Lai and I had to return the car and we got lost trying to get back to Thrifty. We finally did though and took a train back to YHA.
They have 2-level trains! So nice... We got in and sat on the upper level =DSo after that, we walked around a couple of attractions around in Sydney. Justin met up with his friend so the other 3 of us went off on our own. We walked around Haymarket, Chinatown, Darling Harbour and all the way to Circular Quay and Sydney Opera House! Woooo~ Sydney Opera House is one of my dream place. Just love the achitecture and atmosphere soooo much <3
Not an amazing photo, blurry.At night, we slept early to prepare for the World Cup Semi-finals. Apparently, Paul the Octopus predicted that Spain would win and the guys actually went to bet on Spain. So we woke up at 4.30am to watch. haha it's really difficult for me to stay awake during the match. Spain won eventually =(
The next day, we went to Sydney Fish Market =D Needless to say, we were there to FEAST!
Lobsters were yum!!
So Lai and I decided to challenge our limits and tried sea urchin. It was.....gross and fishy. The fishy taste was sooo intense I had to soak it with lots of soy sauce and wasabi to get rid of that. We were struggling to finish. At the fish market, we just went around trying other stuff. Since we could only sit at benches belonging to that particular seller, we have to wait long for benches. It's a touristy place. I eagle-eyed a bench for like 10 - 15mins waiting for those peeps to leave. When they finally did, Justin put the food down and while we waited for the prev peeps to leave, a couple swoosh-ed in (like literally!!) and sat down and started eating! I was sooo shocked. I just stared at them for a while and started reasoning with them that I was waiting there for ages and I didn't notice that they were there AT ALL! They just gave me lame excuses like, "we were waiting for long too (like wad, 1min?) and our food is turning cold (wtf, my food isn't?)". Then I requested to negotiate and the wife's like no. SUCH AN UNREASONABLE BITCH!! Then the husband spoke up and asked us how many of us there were. Well, there's 4 but only 3 were present cos Faezah is waiting elsewhere. He's like..."Only 3 of you are here so we get the seats" and they continued eating and killed the poor prawns like there's no tomorrow. that idiot! They're not even Chinese/Asian lor!! They're freaking Caucasians! Now I shouldn't really stereotype people should I? So annoying!The same day, the weather was really bad and it kept raining the whole day. Just dampened our moods totally but I really wanted to go to the Sydney Opera House's tour since I didn't get to go the previous day since we were too late. Well, we got there ultimately, trying to figure out the transport system and public transport available. I loved the tour and I got to see the Concert Hall and the Ronald Sharp Organ which took years to build and tune! Loved it sooo much.
On the last day, we just walked around the city, shopping a little, eating... and prepared to take the flight home. During our flight, we actually saw snow mountains! It was a spectacular view from the plane. I saw like Fall's creek and Mt Buller (if the steward was right). =DDDD What a great way to end my trip!
This is fall's creek I think...Updating on my mornington trip next time!
