Sydney, Australia

I didn't get to spend much time in Australia, but that's because it wasn't actually in my plans. Since the ticket was cheap, I decided to fly over there for five days and hang out with Brit boy. We stayed in King's Cross, which apparently is a shady part of town. I always felt safe, because I was with a guy, but there were prostitutes and adult nightclubs throughout the neighborhood. I felt safe in our hostel, The Jolly Swagman. In fact, it was a pretty good hostel with several small rooms of four to six guests and some of the rooms even included their own shower.

I wasn't as prepared with sites to see in Sydney, so on my flight there I asked the man sitting next to me what he thought we should do. He gave us plenty of good ideas (I'm so thankful to nice locals). Unfortunately the weather wasn't perfect for us. I think it was frustrating for Brit boy to be on vacation in the rain, but I didn't mind so much because it wasn't as cold as New Zealand. So we looked for things to do indoors on most days.

We traveled to the top of Sydney's center point, their sky tower. On our first attempt we found out that the clouds were covering any view so we had to return on the next day. We were fortunate enough to have a clear view. We goofed around looking for stadiums and nearby beaches. Then we must have spent almost an hour in the gift shop trying to decide what pointless souvenirs we would buy (I bought a cute postcard for two girls back home and a kangaroo shaped manget). Although our view from the top was great, when we got back down it started raining. It pretty much ruined our plans of walking in the park, so we saw a movie instead. We saw the Pirates of the Caribbean. I must say, I don't normally go to the movies at home so it is always weird when I travel somewhere and I go to the movies. I know there is so much I could be doing there, but it was a nice break to sit in a movie theater and dry off.

When we left the theater it had stopped raining again, but it was almost dark. So we decided to walk around. We found ourselves walking through the park which was filled with bats. I had never seen so many bats hanging upside down in the trees before. I found out that Brit boy had a fear of bats, which was almost cute. When one of the bats flew over our head in Singapore's Night Safari he jumped and even yelped. So during our walk through the park he hurried me along, so we weren't there when it got completely dark!

I'm glad we hurried though because we found ourselves next to the Syndey Opera House. It is such a famous landmark, but most pictures of the Opera House are from afar. It is an amazing structure to see up close. I had no idea it was made out of tiles and the shape is structurally beautiful. No wonder it is a famous architectural landmark. It was a nice walk as we traveled around the pier and we enjoyed the city skylight.