Hello everyone!  It’s been quite the two weeks…

My sister and I arrived in Sydney after a terribly long 14 hour flight at 7:30 a.m. with a full day ahead of us!  We arrived to where we were staying and immediately walked down to the Rocks and the Opera House.  It was amazing!  It’s so much more interesting up close and in person!  The Sydney Harbour Bridge was also quite magnificent.  We were hoping to do the Bridge Climb but decided to save our money and go on a cruise around the harbour instead.  All the houses on the water are beautiful!  There were so many sailboats and yachts everywhere…we even saw a few dolphins by the boat!  On the cruise, we also had our first introduction to Australian bikkies.  Lamingtons are very tasty!  Then again, I love coconut.

After the cruise, we continued to wander around and made it to the Royal Botanic Gardens.  Another beautiful place!  Australia has very different flora and fauna than the U.S., that’s for sure!  We ducked into small shops the rest of the day and immediately noticed how expensive everything is compared to the U.S.  Some of the touristy stuff was really cheap because it was made in China, but even a small sandwich is at least ten dollars over here!  Also, the accents took me quite a while to get used to.  Everyone we met was very chatty and helpful, but they talk so quickly that it was difficult to understand at first, even though it was English!

We spent another few days in Sydney and Glebe, just learning how the Australian’s do things and getting rid of our jet lag.  Everyone seems to be very fashion-forward and dressed up all the time too!  That’ll take some getting used to…no more sweatpants for me!

Next, we headed to the Blue Mountains, about an hour and a half away from Sydney.  What a beautiful place!  We stayed at the YHA there which resembled the typical ski lodge nestled in the Rocky Mountains.  It was about 15 degrees F cooler there than in Sydney.  We climbed down the Great Staircase and saw the Three Sisters.  We saw waterfalls and wildlife and saw the wild cockatoos that live everywhere here!  It was very much like a rainforest.

The next day, we wandered around the Blue Mountains more, then headed up to Brisbane on the night train via Sydney.  That was another experience!  I’ve never been on a train like that so it was pretty exciting.  It gets dark around 5 p.m. here so we missed a lot of scenery on our trip.  Arrived in Brisbane, found the YHA there (AWESOME place!!), then took a bus to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  We got to pet kangaroos and walk around with them!  And best of all, we got to cuddle koalas!!!  They are so sweet!  But heavier than you’d expect.  We saw a bunch of other native animals, like Tazmanian Devils, platapuses (platapi?), emus, dingos, and lots of snakes and birds.  This place is a must if you are heading to Brisbane!

The next few days, we went to Moreton Island.  It’s the third largest sand island in the world, and it’s so cool!  We took a big ferry across the ocean and as soon as we were on the beach, we saw tons of starfish!  There’s a big resort out there, as well as primitive camping sites in a few places along the shore.  In the middle of the island, there was “The Desert” which was literally that, a vast expanse of sand dunes.  We tried out sandboarding…quite the rush!  You can either sit or lay down on these curved boards, then slide down these huge and steep dunes!  Crashing was bad though…you get covered in sand!  But what an experience!  We also went snorkeling and 4WD-ing through the sand roads.  Saw some whales too!

Went back to Sydney, my sister flew back to the States, and I took a train to Canberra.  I’m here now and I’ll blog all about it another time!  I think this post has been sufficiently long enough…  Until next time…

Location: Sydney, Australia; Brisbane, Australia