And once again.... SYDNEY!!

A free weekend, a bunch of people going to Sydney... you know I couldn't say no.

So here are the weekend's highlights (in usual lengthy Lindsey style):

I was totally spoiled by last weekend's hostel. This one was in Kings Cross and more of what I expected from a hostel (less hotel-ish and more old house-ish). In an area with several adult shops. Bathrooms that smelled like a public pool. Weird drain noise outside the window. $7 less a night really makes a difference. It wasn't bad; the difference was just stunning.

The first night there was a free BBQ. Which, consistent with every other (like 4 or 5) free BBQs I've been to, means sausage (which I like! Gasp!) on a slice of bread, and (if salad is provided, which it was) no plates or utensils. WHY NEVER ANY PLATES OR UTENSILS FOR SALAD? Last time this happened I opted for eating salad by hand out of a napkin folded into a cone. This time I went for the good ol'e salad sandwich. And because I was starving, it pretty much tasted like the best meal I ever had.

Luckily everyone agreed to hit up the aquarium, which was my #1. It had some cool parts, like tunnels going through the tanks of sharks and things, and was clearly a good aquarium, but like any aquarium, I left feeling like "that was it?"

We took a harbour cruise. I learned there are advantages to traveling in a group of 8 females, especially if your group contains one hot Swedish chick, because the captain invited us into the cabin and let us steer the boat.

By the way, the captains name? Honestly... Captain Studly.


We went out the first night and had fun, but we had a little trouble finding places to go since we 1. didn't want techno (damn Australians and their techno beats) and 2. we didn't want to pay a $20 cover charge 3. Amanda was wearing flip flops. Problem 1 we ran into at a very crowded but nice place. Problem 2 at the hip hop club. Problem 3 at the gay club that was playing great music that taunted us from the street. What a night!

The walk through Botanical Gardens was nice because we didn't go down any paths that I had been down before. We climbed a lot of old, big trees.

Some of us quickly did the Museum of Contemporary Art, which like any art museum had some really cool stuff and some really weird stuff.

Dinner in Chinatown! We picked the nice looking place on the corner and it was DELICIOUS. Fried rice, veggie dumplings, beef, chicken. And Spicy & Sour soup. Which contained an ingredient that I assumed to be sprouts until Brankica pointed out that they had eyeballs. She refused to eat it, but I persevered.

After eyeball soup, we went to the bakery and had amazing, warm, tasty, 5 for $1 cream puffs.

That night, while some of the girls went to a Croatian party followed by the house of a guy from Canberra and didn't return til 7:15am, the rest of us planned to go but instead hung out in the hostel all night. It was actually a really great time, definitely enhanced by the fact that Stephanie is German and this English guy Greg came by. It kept the conversation (about everything, including universities, work vacation, Iraq, restaurants, transportation) really interesting.

I LOVE THE ROCKS. We had breakfast at this highly recommended place called Pancakes on the Rocks. Mine were chocolate pancakes with chocolate ice cream and cherries. DELISH. And then we went shopping in the weekend market there. So much cool stuff on sale - bags, jewelry, trinkets, artwork, most things imaginable - plus it was the first place in Australia I've seen real lemonade (instead of lemon-lime soda) being sold. And there was a jazz band playing outside one of the restaurants which totally made the atmosphere. After the market, we looked in some of the other shops in the area, found more cool stuff, tasted kangaroo jerky (yum. croc jerky is next on my list). Really, I want to go back to Sydney just for the market. Plus, it looks like there are lots of cool restaurants and bars in the Rocks too (this is where I had pizza last week). So yeah, definitely hitting all that up next time!

We took the ferry to Manly beach and could only stay for 40 minutes, but we wanted to see what it was like. Definitely a place that will be fun when it's warmer! We ran into the water and took some adorable pictures and just scoped out some of the shops (but didn't go in, since we spent it all at the market...)

So sad to leave Sydney again! We met up with the 7:15am girls (who attempted to sleep in the gardens all day) and got on the bus, while it was 14 degrees celcius. When we arrived in Canberra it was 1 degree. :( No wonder I'm sick...


(me, Brankica, Amanda, Nell, Jessica, Madeleine, Meghan, Stephanie)

Here are addresses to my facebook photo albums for those of you NOT on facebook:

http://gmu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2084725&l=abbea&id=15600311

http://gmu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2087852&l=26c59&id=15600311