Trip to Sydney!

Posted by Prashant Katwa

Yes, yes, I know that its been a month since I updated my blog. For that I apologize but I just get busy. I have like 5 blog posts that I’ve been meaning to write. Hopefully I have time to write them all before I forget.

Also, if you didn’t notice, I changed the default image that was at the top of this blog template to reveal a series of real photos from my trip! Every time you refresh the page, you should be able to see some of my favorite photos that I’ve taken while here. In total, there are 15 possible image. Enjoy!

Now, on to my post.

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So about a month ago, my sister came to visit me here in Australia for about two weeks. It was good to have family around for a while again. It was around the time that I started to miss home, so I guess it worked out well.

When she got here, we decided to make a trip to Sydney because of course if you’re coming to Australia you have to go to Sydney, famous for its Harbor bridge, the Opera House, Hyde Park and many other landmarks. My friend Timur came along with us as well. Being all students, we obviously looked for the cheapest way to get there and back. Not surprisingly, we found that mode of transport to be a passenger train. Countrylink is an Australia railway that has trains that run from state to state. [The other two railways here run locally (between suburbs - MetLink Melbourne) and regionally (between towns/cities - V/Line Victoria).] We also booked a hostel through STA Travels before we left.

View of Darling Harbor from the Sydney Tower

We took an overnight train and left on a Wednesday night and reached on Thursday morning. The train ride wasn’t too bad. It was like sitting in a plane for 10 hours, except the seats weren’t as cramped. However there was an annoying squeaking noise that came from the bottom of the train car every time it turned. lol. We got there and checked into our hostel, the Maze Backpackers. The room that we got was honestly pretty ghetto. I was half expecting something slightly more accommodating. But whatever, it was a hostel and it had a good location, right near the middle of Sydney’s central business district. We spent the first day roaming around the city. In the morning we found this cool little cafe that all of us liked near our hostel where we ate breakfast. It was a tiny place but had pretty good food. We visited the Sydney Tower and went up to the observation deck. That was pretty cool; we were able to get a 360 degree view of the entire city of Sydney from up there. Later we went down to Darling Harbor. We visited the National Australian Maritime Museum. That was pretty fun because we were able to go onto a retired Australian submarine, the HMAS Onslow and a retired Australian battleship, the HMAS Vampire. In the evening we walked along the harbourside promenade and had dinner.

My Sister and I at Kings Table in the Blue Mountains

Kangaroos in the Blue Mountains

On Friday we also took a stroll in Hyde Park. It wasn’t as big as I thought it was going to be, but it was still nice. We took a look at the ANZAC memorial that was there, as well. After that we visited the world famous Sydney Opera House. It was really nice. We were able to take a tour of the place and visit inside the two large theaters. Unfortunately we couldn’t take photos inside of them. We had dinner another cafe on the way back, before it started to rain. It was a pretty chill day. haha. I think in the evening we met up with some of our French friends who we had met the day before in our Hostel. We hung out with them for a couple hours at a nearby pub.

Saturday was I think the best day we had there, even though “there” wasn’t really Sydney. We went on a trip to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney with a tour company called OzTrails. It was a whole day experience. They came and picked us up at our Hostel at like 8:30 in the morning. We got on a bus with like twenty some other people and drove out into the mountains. Our driver was also our tour guide and let me tell you, he was like the funniest guys. haha. Me and Timur like laughed at like every other thing he said. Not necessarily because he was telling jokes, but because he was one of those people who comes out funny without trying too and he laughs at his own jokes which most people didn’t understand half the time. He seemed to be one of those outdoorsy Steve Irwin type guys. He told us so many stories during the trip, half of which I think he made up. lol. Anyway, we saw all sorts of things – Kings Table, Three Sisters, Eagle Hawk Lookout, a waterfall (forgot what its called, but there’s a story behind that too). We also went down the mountainside on a cable-car and went back up on a miner’s railway car at a 52 degree angle. We went on a nature walk somewhere in the Blue Mountains. One of the best parts of the trip was when we saw real Kanagroos! It almost compared with the amazing hot chocolate that we had at a little cafe where we stopped. lol. But really the Eastern Grey Kangaroos were amazing. Not only because we were like ten feet away from them, but also because they were in the wild. The trip ended with a ferry ride in the Sydney Harbors at dusk. During this trip to the blue mountains we met this guy from Belgian with whom we became friends. After we got back from the trip we went to a local pub called like the Three Monkeys Pub or something.

View of Sydney Harbor Bridge from near the Opera House

On Sunday we checked out of our hostel and went out into the city again. We visited the 2nd largest APPLE STORE which is in Sydney! =) I was excited as you can imagine! It was three floors of ‘applicious’ stuff. We also walked on the Sydney Harbor Bridge. I wish I could’ve climbed the bridge. Its pretty expensive to do and we didn’t have much time. Eventually our day wound down and we headed back to the train station. We took the overnight train back to Melbourne and arrived back Monday morning.

It was fun to hang out with my sister for a while, although it did also reminded me of home and UNC. But I think i’ll survive. After i’ve been two months now.

Posted in: Australia Comments(3) September 2008