Flying Cats and Irish Duos

Yesterday some friends and I took our first adventure into Sydney. We hopped on the train and rode north for about 1½ hours. The train ride was beautiful because we followed the coastline the entire way. Once we got to Sydney we decided to get all of our “tourist tendencies” out of our system. We took tons of pictures and walked a LOT (we estimated at least 6 miles). We saw the Opera House which is one of the most well-known sites in Australia. We also saw the Sydney Harbor bridge, the New South Wales Parliament building, and the Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden was absolutely beautiful and was filled with an assortment of flowers, ponds, and birds. Also, to our dismay, the Garden was a hot spot for bats. At any point along the path, you could look up into the trees and see dozens of bats sleeping. I have to admit that I was a little disgusted. A local Australian woman told us that around 4:30 (when it starts to get dark), they all swoop down in search of fruit. She said it is a frightening sight because, “they’re like cats with wings.” Needless to say, we steered clear of the Garden after dusk.

After a lot of walking, we went in search of food. Earlier in the day every other store front had been a restaurant, but now we could not find one. We searched for nearly 45 minutes and finally stumbled into a mall food court completely famished. We had dinner and then continued our adventures. We found a delightful little Irish Pub and settled in to listen to an Irish duo. After enjoying the music, we spent a little more time in the city and then caught the train home.

We start school on Monday and it is pretty hard to believe! I am kind of looking forward to having a schedule again though. So far I am loving Australia and I hope you are all doing well back home!