Sunshine Coast, Australia!: Sydney!!! (Day 2 & 3)

The second and third day was really fun as well. First we walked all the way across the city to Darling Harbour. It was the calmer less touristy side of Sydney, but it was still beautiful. We walked around the harbor and went into the free Maritime Museum which was pretty cool. From this point we looped back toward the hostel hitting up the Paddy’s Markets which is a massive building full of people selling knockoff everything. It was cool, but not really worth buying much. When we exited the opposite side of the building we were in Chinatown which was fast-paced and jam packed.

We headed back to the hostel to take a break then took off to the Sydney Tower. This is the highest building in Sydney standing 309m high. The tower sits on top of stores like Prada and Gucci, then the Westfield hotel. On the needle like section they have several revolving restaurants and a general viewing floor. We decided to go up to the viewing floor. It was really cool because before they took you up you did a 4D tour of Sydney with rattling floors, wind, water and 3D video! At the top of the Tower we had an excellent view of the entire city!

After this we went to get the best view both the Opera House and Harbour Bridge together. This vantage point was within the Sydney Botanical Gardens. The gardens were beautiful and had some really cool cockatoos. When we arrived to the best possible angle we found a spot in the shade under a tree and turned on some music and sat to enjoy the view that seem fake. It was the picture that you always see on postcards and TV.

After a few hours we headed back to the hostel to meet a friend we met at the hostel. He was a cute French guy named Guillaume (pronounced Gee-Umm). He joined us for dinner at Pizza Hut because they had a special for $5 pizzas, which in Australia is basically unheard of and they are like personal pan sized. So we grabbed pizzas and headed to the park to get out of the busy sidewalk traffic. We sat down in the grass and started to chow downed, when we find bats flying all around above us. Bats in Australia are like 5X the size of bats at home they have like 2ft wingspan! Corinne wasn’t fond of this and then I pointed out a rat running around. At this point she started freaking out. We all found it pretty humorous. Then too top it off we see this animal that looked like a combination between a raccoon and cat (the tail was fluffy). We finished off our pizzas and went to check it out. It was a possum! But not just the ugly rat looking possum we have in the USA, a cute Aussie version!

We saw some people feeding this thing and as an environmental major I should know better than to interfere with wildlife, but it was just too fascinating to not try it. So I found a granola bar in my bag and fed this thing! IT WAS SOOO COOL! Then the people started petting them and this is really crossing the line, but I had to feel this thing because it looked so fuzzy! We feed it a piece of the bar and pet it on its back and it didn’t care the least bit! It was like the softest thing I’ve ever pet! It was softer than a koala it was sort of like a chinchilla.

At this point we went back to the spot from earlier to get a few night shots of the Opera House and Bridge. Disappointingly the Opera House was simply lit this night with no special colors, but it was still an amazing view.

The third day we visited the Australian Museum which was pretty massive so it took a few hours. After that we packed up and made our way across town to the rail station. The journey home was easier because we slept well since we were exhausted from the trip. Overall the trip topped London and Paris. It was a magical city that was very clean and relaxing.