Makenzie's Australian Adventures!: Halloween in Sydney

I had a great halloweekend in Sydney! Thursday I finished up classes for the semester..which is crazy..then to celebrate nearly all of my good friends and I headed to Sydney with Extreme Adventures! We all had anxiously been awaiting this trip for months. The trip began with a painful overnight 10 hour bus trip which sadly turned into about 12 hours because our bus broke down...in a TUNNEL 20 minutes outside the city. Talk about scary. Finally a new bus came to the rescue and we went to the hostel to freshen up. Friday started with a walking tour around Sydney which started at town hall, and then went to Hyde Park which also had an Anzac memorial inside the park grounds, as well as a beautiful church called St. Mary's. We then walked through the botanical gardens which were pretty and finally made our way to the much anticipated Opera House. If y'all are my friends on Facebook you will see about 100 pictures of the opera house but hey don't hate the tourist in me. We then walked around the harbor and grabbed a quick lunch. After that we made our way to the Sydney Bridge Pylon Climb. For all of you who know me well, you know I am terrified of bridges so even though the Pylon Climb is only up a lookout on the bridge I was still sweating, shaking, and nearly crying hahaha but I did it! 300 steps later we were at the top and had a beautiful view of the harbor. After a long day of walking what seemed like miles we went back to the hostel and took a quick nap and then woke up to celebrate Halloween with a booze cruise around the Sydney Harbor! We decided to go as "high school stereotypes" so there was a geek, blonde bimbo, tree hugger, outcast, goth, and princess (me hehe). We spent the night sailing around the harbor which was beautiful, and had unlimited free alcohol which was a nice treat! It really was a great time and we met lots of new friends. After the cruise we went to the bar next to the hostel..but funny story before we knew it we were kicked out. Hahaha and no we did nothing illegal, Australian bars are just extremely strict and kick people out if they believe to be intoxicated at all..plus the manager was a dick. Anyways nothing could ruin our night and we went to bed happy campers.
Saturday began by a walk to a restaurant called Pancakes on the Rocks which was delicious. I had blueberry pancakes, hash browns, and eggs. We then walked around Sydney for the rest of the day shopping at street markets, on George St., and Paddy's markets. If you are looking for souvenirs in Sydney, Paddy's markets is where its at for cheap prices! Kelsey, Julie and I also luckily got to see a lady contortionist do a free show! It was amazing how flexible she was and even fit inside a tiny box! Check out the picture...and I can't forget to mention she was actually hilarious and a great performer! We then ate dinner at the hostel and got ready for our second night out in Sydney! We were brought to a nightclub called Home which was awesome! It was three stories tall and had a rooftop bar that overlooked the harbor. We again danced the night away with good drinks and good friends. And we successfully were not kicked out anywhere :)
Sunday was beach day so you know I was happy! We took a ferry to Manly beach, where surfing originated in Australia! Although the water was cold it still felt amazingly refreshing because it was very hot and humid out. We spent a few hours catching some rays then headed to Bondi beach. We were blessed to be at the beach during an art festival called Sculptures by the Sea, and apparently people travel from all over the world to see the art that is spread throughout the famous Bronte to Bondi Beach walk. We saw some very interesting art and some very strange art too. Bronte beach was beautiful (see pictures below) but as we were walking toward Bondi winds started picking up, and all of the sudden we were stuck in a 40-50 mph wind storm that whipped sand and salt on us unforgivingly. Kinda put a damper on the walk but it still was one of my favorite parts of the trip! When we finally got to Bondi the beach was practically empty thanks to the wind! Apparently we saw Bondi at the deadest of dead because normally its so crowded you can't get a towel down because it is Sydney's most popular beach. To end the trip we ate at a cute german place that celebrated Octoberfest and enjoyed some big burgers and then ice cream at cold rock (basically our cold stone). We then faced another dreadful 10 hour ride back to Melbourne but before we knew it it was over...and luckily no malfunctions!
Overall a great trip..Sydney did not disappoint and I really enjoyed my time there!
Time to start studying for finals :(

xx Makenzie