Feelin' Fancy at the Opera House

I haven't written in a while, and with the semester winding down here in Sydney, I've started to make my preparations for my final week here! It's very exciting to think that I'll be going home soon. I miss everyone very much, and I feel very disconnected with home. I've had so much fun this semester, but it will be nice when I can hug everyone and see my family and friends in person.

I had a break from school and my internships last night, however, when I went with my roommates to the Sydney Opera House for an evening showing of Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing"!

Before I tell you about that, however, my day before going to the Opera House was spectacular as well! A couple of girls and I decided to talk a bus down to Circular Quay (the harbour that boasts the Opera House and Harbour Bridge) so that we could FINALLY walk the Harbour Bridge on foot! I am one of the lucky few of my program that is able to travel to northern Sydney everyday for my internship, and so cross the bridge daily on my busride to work. We've all heard, however, that walking the bridge is a different experience, which it definitely was! We walked up one of the towers on the side of the bridge called the Pylon Lookout Point. It was 9 dollars to scale the 200 steps to the top, but it was worth it for the amazing, peaceful view of Sydney Harbour and the Opera House from the top. As a country girl, I always enjoy the view of looking at the city from the outside in- I would much rather observe the hustle and bustle rather than be in the middle of it.

From there, we walked the bridge, finding Luna Park on the opposite side. A Sydney tradition, this free carnival is open year round, and is famous for the entrance- A GIANT clown face, which you walk through the mouth of to enter the park. It was incredible to see this landmark, however, we were extremely creeped out by the 5 foot wide eyes that bugged out of it's head. We walked the park for a bit, taking in the carnival music and atmosphere. It was fun to notice the cultural differences in the foodstands- specifically what they call their stereotypical carnival food. Cotton Candy is "Fairy Floss". A corn dog is a "Pluto Pup". And the all too common "Chips" is used for french fries.

We took the train back over the bridge from there and went back to our apartment building to get ready for the Opera House! We all got dressy and pretty, and took the bus back down to Circular Quay. After taking pictures outside the Opera House, we were finally in! Our performance was in the Drama Theatre. There are a few theatres, which I will be able to speak more about after I take a tour of the Opera House this week, which I'm planning on doing :)

The stage was set for the play, and the seats were comfortable, so we settled in for the play. A romantic comedy set in Italy, the play followed a few charachters through love and all of it's ridiculous ups and downs. The witty banter was often difficult to follow, but the play was constantly moving and active and visually beautiful, so it was a perfect choice for myself and my roommates. During the intermission (the play was 3 hours long), I walked out to the lobby for a coffee. I felt so sophisticated using my Australian-learned lingo in going to the counter and just saying "one flat white, please", which is just what they call a normal coffee with milk. My coffee came out in a ceramic cup and on a saucer. I took it outside onto the terrace overlooking the Sydney Harbour bridge and skyline, all lit up against the night sky. There was a cool breeze, but was otherwise comfortably cool. It was an amazing, cultural, relaxing evening, and I had so much fun playing "fancy"!

Can't wait to be home- only 10 days away! All my love-

Bushwalking

I went bushwalking today! Technically, although I didn't leave Sydney. It's one of the great things of this area- because the majority of the population is densely centered around a few areas like Sydney, everywhere else is just wilderness and the outback. So technically, what I did today would be called an easy hike in the states, it's technically "bushwalking" here. I took a bus with two boys from the program- Evan and Dan- and went outside of Sydney to the Manly Scenic Walk, which was only about a 30 minute busride away. The walk itself was 9km, so about 5.5 miles long, so we knew it would take us all afternoon. It was a well beaten path, with staircases and bridges, but the wildlife and scenery we saw along the way couldn't be beat!

We had only been walking for about 10 minutes when Evan turned off the path towards a waterway and shouted for us to come with him. The off track path led to a giant inlet that was all mud since the tide was low, but there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of tiny blue crabs! We jumped down onto the mud and played for about 20 minutes with them, chasing the giant groups of them and corralling them together. A passerby let us know that they were called "Soldier Crabs", because of the way that they move together, change direction as a group, etc. They ranged from the size of my palm to the size of my pinky fingernail! Groups of them would scuttle away from us, making a surprisingly large amount of noise for being so quiet individually. They would bury themselves in the sand when they were too frightened, but they were so much fun to play with while they were there!

After a while with them, we decided to move on and find more fun things to play with. We found a few lizards along the way, one while I was munching on some carrot sticks I had brought. He was on a cliff below us, so I dropped a piece down to him, and he munched it right up!

Besides our animal encounters, the view of the harbor and surrounding cliffsides were spectacular. The blue/green water was perfect, sparkeling and shining around the green hillsides and rugged cliff edges. The walk took us around historical Aboriginal grounds, where there were carvings of fish and kangaroos and boomerangs in the rocks.

We made it to Manly beach after about 4 hours of walking and mini-adventures such as the crabs and the lizards, and spent a bit with some smoothies at the ocean. By that time, the sun was starting to set, so we continued on up the other side of Manly on a different scenic drive that I had read about. I hadn't, however, found how to get there. We wandered through a suburban area until we found a "nature sanctuary", however, took a wrong turn at the entry, and somehow ended up on an abandoned army base barracks and grounds. We wandered around there for a bit, following the ocean side and setting sun, and finally came out at the cliff edge of the scenic drive that we hadn't followed. The view from the top was amazing. It was calm and quiet at the top, with a few small groups gathering to watch the setting sun. We had a perfect view of the city skyline as it turned gray against the orange of the sunset.

When it turned chilly, we decided to head back to Manly for dinner. We grabbed burgers and hopped on a ferry that took us back to Sydney Harbor, where the city skyline at night was equally as beautiful as during sunset. It was a great end to a good weekend here in Oz. Only 25 days left until I'll be in VT again, and I'm glad that I can still find something exciting and satisfying here.