MarchI

Time has rapidly flown by since the stories in my last post...

The first weekend in March I went to Sydney for Mardi Gras weekend. The trip was planned through "student flights". We took an overnight bus down... about 12 hours long. That was brutal. The weekends event started immediately when we arrived. Unfortunately, the weather could not have been more miserable. It was raining the whole entire time we were in the city. First we went on a walking tour of the city, with our rain coats and umbrella's. Saw a war memorial, St. Mary's Cathedral (which was really beautiful inside), the botanical gardens, which were very wet & green and I saw a ton of huge fruit bats in the trees. We saw the Opera house, and the Sydney Harbor Bridge (considered the biggest in the World). Didn't feel as spectacular as it should have because the weather was so gloomy. We climbed the stairs in one of the pillars on the bridge to get a good view. It was pretty cool, even though it wasn't the real bridge climb I expected when I signed up.. the one peopledo over the arch of the bridge. After the day of touring, we had like an hour to wander around back to the hostel. Didn't have a lot of time to much, but we bought some delicious banana bread from a street market. That night we had a party cruise, all inclusive food and drinks. The boat sailed around the harbor so we got to see it at night . That was a lot of fun. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early to get back on the bus to drive to the Blue Mountains. Some people considered not going so that they could spend time in the city. Christi advised me not to skip the Blue Mountains. So I went... Well I can honestly say I have NEVER in my life seen anything like it....... it was so foggy, SO FOGGY, that you could not see the mountains, or the waterfall, or anything. It was literally a white wall of complete thick white fog. I could hear the waterfall so I know it was there. It was like what looking out into nothingness must be like. Before the universe was created possibly. Our last destination was the "Three Sisters". Its three gigantic rocks, (pictures I have seen look cool) named after an aboriginal tale about three girls who got turned into stone by a witch doctor to keep them from seeing boys from another tribe until they could figure out what to do... then the witch doctor died and now they are still stuck as rocks for life. We got to climb down rocky steep wet stairs to see the one that we would be able to touch. Sadly I forgot my camera that day so I couldn't capture the nothingness, but I made Jared take a picture of me.

Here they are.. the blue mountains..

Saturday night was the Mardi Gras celebration. We went to Oxford Street, the location of the parade, and had free entry into this one bar all night. The parade... was nothing like anything I've ever seen in the states. Mardi Gras here is a gay and lesbian celebration. The parade was several hours long, hard to see becase everyone buys crates to stand on, and it was raining, but it was a lot of fun. Hours long of bright loud floats with people wearing weird outfits, or close to nothing, dancing. The city was absolutely wild that night, and I had a lot of fun.

Sunday the sun finally came out!! Just in time for our beach day! We went to two different very famous beaches. First we took the ferry to Manly beach. I loved it here, cute little shopping area and a beautiful beach. Then we went to Bondi beach, where we walked around the cliffs overlooking the ocean, and stopped somewhere to eat dinner before the miserable bus ride back Bond Uni. Overall besides the weather it was a really great weekend.



Since I haven't done anything too exciting, the Uni work finally piled up and life got a little rough in that aspect. 

But I did go to a place called Byron Bay the week after Sydney. And once again last weekend. I love it there! It might be my favorite place. It's like, real Australia. More of what I expected than touristy trashy beach city stuff up here. It's about an hour south in New South Whales, and we get there because friends rent cars and drive down. I was only going to stay one night the first time, and ended up staying the whole weekend because I loved it so much. It was a small beach town, lots of hippies, lots of good shopping and good food. Finally had my first aussie bloody mary (that I had been searching for the week earlier), at the Beach Hotel bar. Really cool bar right in front of the beach, that had live music and happy hour. Beach was beautiful. Only thing I missed out on was seeing the lighthouse which was up a hill a few miles. So this is why I could hardly say no to going this past weekend when the Northeastern boys got a house for the weekend, right by the lighthouse. The weather wasn't great, but the house was really cool! And the next morning I did the lighthouse hike. Real tiring and very worth it. I took a bus home Saturday afternoon so that I could get my work done :(
Byron is one place I really would like it back to!

Sooo with a month left.. the feeling is really bitter-sweet. I am over ready to come home to see my family and friends... but realizing that I am leaving here for good is sad. No more work until Finals in two weeks... and a couple more trips planned. I am going back to Sydney tomorrow for the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather!!! And then the following week I'm going to Cairns (for more Great Barrier Reef rainforfest fun). I'm not sure what my plan for coming home is yet, I am currently trying to change my flight so that I can stop at Fiji for a week when class is over. Trying to come home the 29th? It's going to fly by.

Pictures to follow for those of you not on facebook, I love everyone!