This blog is long overdue.

About two years ago, I was given the chance to travel to Sydney, Australia for the very first time. My long time friend, Megan agreed
to go with me so we booked our trip and two months later set out on our 20 hour trip to Sydney. Of course, we had about 4 lay overs
on the way but once we saw what Sydney had to offer, it was well worth it.

Sydney offers a unique combination of natural beauty, vibrant culture and breathtaking adventure.

We were picked up by my good friend Rebecca (originially from Scotland). We dropped our bags off at her cute little apartment,
met her 3 room mates and took off for some fun.

As I started to write this blog, I realized how long it would be if I did a step by step piece of what we did. We were there for 2 weeks!
So I’m going to do a quick synopsis.

We rode the ferry from Manly over around the Sydney Opera House, and me with my camera snapping away hundreds of pictures. I read in one of many sites before I left that people take trips up the side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We saw people walking up there and I was wondering how beautiful it must have looked, then thought, must be scary! Being out on the ferry made me quickly realize, I didn’t bring sunglasses to AUSTRALIA!! Oh well, I picked some up from a local shop and off we went to walk the interior of the Opera House. We took a quick tour and were able to go inside and see a few ballet dancers practicing for their upcoming show that night. No, I didn’t take pictures of the ballet dancers, haha okay okay, I did try (no flash). There were some great little vendors set up around Manly Beach. I was able to snag a really neat necklace that had a domino face on one side and a cute little bird outline on the other. Two necklaces in one! haha I ended up getting a pearl necklace and bracelet too. They were just too pretty to pass up. We relaxed by the Harbour looking over the water and took in the sights and sounds of Manly. By the way, Manly beach is where the big surf contests take place! We had missed it by a few weeks which is a big bummer! We also visited Bondi Beach which is well known for a famous Soap Opera in Australia. Two of the main guys in the show happened to be on the beach at the time. I guess their second job is lifeguarding. 🙂

We took a full day and visited the Taronga Zoo. WOW! I’ve been to some Zoo’s but this was really neat. First of all, just the view of Sydney was AMAZING. It was the best we had seen since we arrived. As soon as we got there, we decided we wanted to feed a Koala
bear BUT everything was booked up so we decided to feed some giraffes! You should have seen the tongues these Giraffes have! They
wrapped their tongues around our arms trying to get the carrots out of our hands. Half the pictures taken were of me freaking out. 🙂
But it was a lot of fun and a really neat experience. Along with the giraffes, we saw Koala’s, Kangaroo’s, Wombats, Emu’s, etc.

A few days after we traveled the area and met some great people. Off we went to Townsville located at the end of the Great Barrier
Reef in Queensland. We had booked a Scuba Diving class. You can’t go to Australia and not dive the Reef! It was my first time! We had a boat ride out to the reef that took 2 1/2 hours. We didn’t forget the sunscreen! Australians remind you over and over how intense the sun is and how vital it is to protect yourself! And I knew my blue eyes, freckled self needed it. The water was incredibly blue. I’ve been
to plenty of places around the Caribbean and Mexico but this water was breathtaking. And it was a great back drop for our pictures!! I borrowed my brothers underwater camera so we went under to actually dive and look around, I could get some great shots of the coral and fish we came across. Now, I’m not going to lie. I am a HUGE wimp when I see a shark. I’ve never seen one and I knew my chances were great to come across one while down there but WE DIDNT! I didn’t focus on anything large moving around but the coral was so sharp and there weren’t any large gaps so I couldnt imagine this particular area was popular for them. It was a great experience, something I’d love to do again and maybe, JUST MAYBE see a shark or two.

There is an island off the coast here, so we decided to take a day trip over there and rented some Scooters. SO MUCH FUN! We zoomed around that island stopping at every nook and cranny to take in the sights and get some great photos. Towards the end of the day, we stopped in a stop that was known for Wombats coming out and taking food from your hand. We got food and proceeded to feed them. They were the cutest little things. They were a little skiddish but then again, so were we. We wanted to stay and get more
pictures and videos but we had to return our scooters and get back on our ferry over to the mainland of Queensland. IT HAD BEEN A
GREAT FEW DAYS!!!

Food in Australia

Its expensive but very good. The girls we were staying with liked Indian and Thai Restaurants so we had plenty, which suited my
taste buds just fine. I remember getting this one carry out dish from a swanky restaurant in Manly and it had me sweating and
yearning for more. It was Indian food and I wish I remember the name of the dish but man it was good!

There are a great number of little shops to grab a sandwich to go. They had some great healthy options too! To be honest, I never
really focus too much on the food because I’m always wanting to spare my money so that I can do more on my trips.

Unfortunately this blog would be pages and pages long if I were to mention every small detail and thing we did but those were the
main tourist attractions we hit. Two weeks is simply not enough to appreciate and know the Land Down Under.

I definitely recommend a trip to Sydney to marvel at the iconic silhouette of the Sydney Opera House, visit local Bondi beach and
Manly beach, and discover everything that makes Sydney so…Sydney.