Back from Sydney mostly whole and completely exhausted.
I'm back from my one week holiday to Sydney!!!! This post is going to be huge, just putting it out there. Some parts will be brief, others super descriptive and most likely a whole boat load of ranting.
Just some general info: we stayed we the awesome side of my family; my Aunty Glenda, Uncle Joe and my cousin Alysha. They gave us heaps of info, advice, food, lifts everything. I am so damn happy that I thought to ask them for us to stay there because they made it that much more fun. Now, onwards!
DAY ONE:
So first up was the whole reason me and Lelephant were in Sydney to start with; the Harry Potter exhibition (HPE from now on). To get there, we needed to take a very long train ride into the city. I will never complain about Perth transport again. Ever. Let me start by saying that our tickets here (concession) costs a dollar. Adult fare is two to three dollars. With this in mind it's fair to say that we didn't factor travel in as an actual cost. How wrong we were. They wouldn't accept our concession, which is bullshit since it's still an Australian concession. Our first ticket cost us $9.50 into the city with return. Big difference, ne? On day two, we ended up buying a week pass for CityRails, costing us $39.95. So not happy!
After swearing internally and a looooooooooooooooong train ride (just over an hour, I think) and we got out at Central, an epically HUGE station. It took a bit of navigating and telling Lelephant that we weren't lost, but we made it to HPE. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but damn was it well worth the money. It looked like they had taken sections of set and laid it all out for us. There were costumes worn by the actors, props, talking portraits, mandrakes you could pull out, Quiditch stuff, Hagrids hut, Great Hall, dormitories, classroom things, Dark arts stuff, Yule ball things, EVERYTHING!!!!!!! Best parts would have to be... I couldn't pick it XD it was all so good, well presented and real. Hell, there was a petrified Collin Creevy, Fwakes, Dobby, Buckbeak and it all looked real. Needless to say, I spent a LOT there. I came out with the official HPE book (which rather made up for no photography), a Slytherin scarf (Lelephant got a Gryfindor one) and a collectors item; Severus Snape's wand.
When we got out, we discovered Paddy's Markets. I wanted to bring it back! It was huge, packed and cheap. I did a lot of pressie shopping there and for myself I brought a Sydney Opera House snowglobe for my collection, a small sheep statue and an Echizen Ryoma cushion. Following that was the Chinese Garden of friendship at Darling Harbor. It was... really really hard to believe that we were still in the city. It was like they had cut out part of a Chinese temple and plopped it into the city and cost all of $3 entry. I really did love it. So peaceful. When Lelephant stopped demanding photos of us every 5 metres, we made our way to China town and like everything seems to be in Sydney, it was epically huge. Didn't really buy much there, just one thing and I was very pleased with it. I got seasons one and two, with both movies, of Cardcaptor Sakura which cost $55. Had I brought it online, I would have been looking at $150+ (and that's without postage and handling). On day one alone, we saw a total of four things Sydney had to offer.
DAY TWO:
Where to begin... this day just seemed to go on and on and on. Starting bright and early, we made our way over to Luna Park. It's sort of like an old style amusement park; certainly not the best ever, but still fun. Since school was back on, there were no cues but also less stuff happening. Best things there were the bumper cars (cause really, who doesn't love them?) and... I forgot what it's called XD but its got the word 'Tango' in it. You go really fast backwards on this train thing, and the even faster forwards. My liking for it may also have something to do with the cute guy operating who talked to me about how sad it was that we both still knew the lyrics for an S Club 7 song and kept smiling at me...
We did finish up rather early, though, so we headed off for some sight seeing. We got a good and proper look at the Sydney Harbor Bridge as well as catching another half hour long train in to see the Opera house up close. It was a little surprising how different the shape looked up close as opposed to far away, but there you are, I guess. Since it was literally right next store, we checked out the Botanic Gardens, yet another thing I wanted to take home with me. Everything in Sydney is just so... so green and full of life because of all the rain they get and it shows in the postcard green grass and well cared for trees and gardens. The only thing I absolutely hated there was the over abundance of spiders. They were fucking everywhere and I got really paranoid about them. They were mostly Golden Orb Spiders and their webs are stupidly big. Also there was Government House and even though we missed the last tour, we were still able to check out the gardens. I really don't envy the head gardener; those gardens were beautifully kept but they just went on. Also, calling it 'House' doesn't do the place justice. It looked like a miniature castle! Turrets and all XD
So all that doesn't sound like a long day? Well, we also went out clubbing that night at Kings Cross and found it to be the kind of middle ground between Perth's Northbridge and Subiaco. We did a lot of club jumping, including Hugo's Lounge (more bar then club), The Goldfish (yeah, I went WTF? too), The Tunnel (great music, but we left rather quickly; the guys were really sleazy), The Sapphire Lounge (beautiful place, great music but basically empty XD) and finally the Soho Lounge (we spent most of our time here until it got waaaaaaaaay too packed). We got there at 9pm and didn't leave until 2am. Not too sure about Lelephant, but I had at least 9 different drinks. More then I brought because she didn't like some of her's and gave them to me. Don't waste, right? >;D So, still counting on from four places, we're now up to nine (I'll count the clubs as Kings Cross).
DAY THREE:
Just because we had a huge night out doesn't mean we slept in. Nope, we were up and at it by 8:30 all set to head over to the Town Hall Station (another 45 minutes. Yay.) to check out the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) and the shopping to be had there. Now from the outside, the place seems pretty normal sized and we felt more in our element. Not so going in. The place had five big floors and almost everything had a designer label on it, making everything basically $100+. I did end up going back to buy a cheap sheep plushie though ($12.95 XD). After spending a large amount of time thinking about what we would buy if we earned $1000 an hour, we jumped on yet another train and headed over to Bondi, most famous for its beach.
We did want to look around for more shops first and my cousin Alysha mentioned a Westfield shopping centre, so we went for a look. SIX FLOORS. And with the size of each 'floor', it may as well have been ten. That's without exaggerating. It was unbelievably huge and we only stayed on one side XD (it extended to the other side of the road) We actually spent most of our time looking for bags to hide our thank you presents for my family while there n.n""" our epic hunt for non-see through bags got interrupted when we found the pet store, though, and I discovered the four kitten Karupin's that were there!!!! The Himalayan kittens were so damn cute and I wanted to bring one home. Not too sure what customs, my family and my three cats would have said, though, so they stayed there XD
And of course, since we were at Bondi, we visited the beach. We didn't swim, bout then we could also understand why people like it so much. It's all long straight beach with yellow sand and clear water. Getting there and back, though, required bus tickets which weren't covered by the basically $40 tickets we brought, so there went another $6. And more too, when we discovered that that same $40 ticket did not cover all the rails! Pissed off? Yes, yes we were. Following another $5 and one and a half hours of train rides to get home, we rested for all of an hour before going back to Darling Harbor to see the weekly fireworks display. So pretty~! Though I got rather fed up with my travel companion at that time too. Fed up and annoyed. We were heading back and I didn't like the way her GPS was taking us and pointed out that we've been this way before and why don't we take the shorter way since I remember where to go? After much doubtful looks she agreed and we followed my quicker way, constantly punctured by her staring at her phone, loud sighs, annoyed looks, shaking her head and mutterings. Not too great for my confidence considering that she obviously thought I was getting us lost and had no idea where I was taking us and, in all the time I've known her, she's never been so damn bitchy before. After her hundredth comment of 'so where now Sarrah?' and 'well my phone says we're nowhere near the station', I got rather pissed myself and said we'd just follow her damn phone then since she wouldn't trust my direction. We were TWO MINUTES away from the station and I didn't talk to her for the rest of the ride back.
Now that's... twelve places in three days and probably nine hours of train and bus rides.
DAY FOUR:
Let it never be said that I'm the type of person who can have company basically 24/7 and still be nice. Cause I'm not. Friendly, yes I am, but I can not be with out me time. I can become a rather sarcastic and anti-social person if I'm not alone sometimes and I'd just spent three (four if you include the flight over) days with the same person near by almost constantly. I was well over and was looking for any excuse for quiet and relaxing time. Thank god for day four. Late morning start, with a visit to some other members of the 'nice side' of the family. I saw my aunt and uncle, Suzanne and Danny, for the first time in years and their two tiny dogs Elvis and Priscilla and had a great relaxing time with them for a few hours. After that, Alysha dropped me and Lelephant off at Hyde Park so that Lelephant could go up the Observation Deck. Can't remember how high up it is, but it's double the height of the Bridge. I was basically broke by that point thanks to the money spent on transport and presents for family that I couldn't afford the 20 something dollars to go too.
No complaints from me though. I quite happily wondered into Hyde Park, found a shady spot, laid down on the lush green grass and chilled with my camera and mix of classical and piano music. Beats being swarmed by people while trying to see all of the city any day. After a lovely hour of that, we met up again and walked around the park together before heading back to St James' Station to catch 2 trains home. Total is fourteen places and I don't even want to think about the total travel time right now.
DAY FIVE:
THIS right here is when things got super packed in and fast paced. Very early start (I think we were both up by around 6:30) to get ready for one of the best things about Sydney; Taronga Zoo~! Another hour long train ride into the city and then catching the ferry ($52 including zoo ticket) to the zoo. This place WAS ABSOLUTELY HUGE and we got to use a cable cart to get to the top. Freaking Awesome. I brought a white tiger plushie (I was loaned another $50) and looked around the rest of the shop part. So much better then Perth, as was the whole zoo. Briefly, there was; deers, lions, tigers (normal and white), bears (oh my XD), mountain goats, seals, penguins, zebras, giraffes, elephants, emus, kangaroos, koalas, hippos, crocs, reptiles, farm animals (we're guilty of skipping parts of the zoo to feed the goats and sheep XD) and so much more! That took up a good half of the day before we went to do a bit more shopping and then going to the city aquarium.
Word of advice? Never go to that aquarium. Go to the one up at Manly (the only place we didn't go) because it was putting it nicely, shit. Perth has a better aquarium then they did. I got more excited over the giant statues made of Lego then I did the fish. I'm so glad we brought cheap online tickets or I would have felt really ripped off. So... sixteen places now?
DAY SIX:
Last day and it involved the most effort. We did The Climb. Meaning we climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge with cars and trains on the busiest freeway beneath us and on the largest single arch bridge in the world. I loved every second of it. We were the only Australian's in the group XD We had four people from Ireland (Dublin. I loved their accent!), three from England (Oxford), two from Japan and Two from the States. With 1000+ steps to climb, this thing was epic, huge and made as safe as possible. We wore jumpsuits, harnesses and had other things just in case. We also found out a few things that we really didn't want to know XD;;; For instance, the huge pylon structures on either side? They don't support the bridge in any way what so ever and are basically there to make it look secure. And the amount of rust that we saw... I don't care if it's only surface rust. Rust is rust. That aside, our climb leader was funny and awesome~
After some more family gift/thank you shopping, we brought the ingredients need to create our thank you dinner for the night. Yeah, we went full out and made Surf and Turf for them complete with mash, asparagus, steak and prawn sauce. That did a number on us and yeah. Won't go into detail but Sylvia acted out of turn, I was beyond tired, had enough of people being always with me, had my period and was stressed. I broke a little after that but dinner tasted great none the less. Everyone enjoyed their presents and were all very surprised by the amount we spent on the and the effort we put into it. Genda got a book on cake decoration (she designs and makes cakes like you would see on Ace of Cakes) and chocolate, Joe got WA wine and a tea set (he loves his tea) and Alysha got a pair of silver earrings with a blue gemstone and chocolate. As well as a thank you card.
So all up, seventeen places in six days, little sleep, too much public transport but a very nice, very enjoyable time. Can't wait to save up and go back!
Now, the lack of pictures... I have over 500 to shift through, and I'll also be making a movie out of them, so you'll see that when I'm done ^______________^~