Sydney, Australia, Australia

Today was a very eventful day! I woke up and checked out of my hostel by 8:30am and headed over to Oska’s on the esplanade for breakfast. Sheree from the Pacific Sunrise was cooking up a storm over there and I wasn’t going to miss one of her meals if possible! I had some awesome pancakes and bacon and then said good bye before catching my shuttle to Shute Harbour.

I had booked my flight to Sydney out of Hamilton Island, so I had to get a ferry from Airlie Beach over to Hamilton Island, and what seemed like the world’s smallest airport. The good thing about being at such a small airport was that check-in took all of five minutes, and it was only two more minutes walk to the gate. Keep in mind there are only six gates in total, two for each airline (Virgin Blue, Jetstar and Qantas). I also hadn’t noticed until I got on the plane that I stupidly requested an aisle seat, and hadn’t considered how amazing the view would be out the window. Luckily the woman sitting next to me was nice enough to take a picture with my phone so I have some way of remembering it.

It was a very easy flight down to Sydney. Yesterday I had downloaded UFC 127 which had just taken place in Sydney so I had that to watch on the plane. Not the greatest fights I’d seen, but it kept me entertained for a couple of hours. I got down to Sydney around 3:15pm and hopped on the Airport Express train for the city. The YHA Hostel website said that the quickest way to walk to the hostel would be to get off the train at Circular Quay and walk up a series of stairs. I didn’t count, but I’m pretty sure it was over one million stairs to get there. Maybe it was just because I was carrying my two backpacks and it was hot, but that was a heck of a trek!

I was happy to see that I had chosen the nicest hostel in the world to stay at though! It is like a brand new college dorm, and it reminds me of my days in RVA at ECSU. Of course, this place has a much better view. I’m on the third floor and right outside my room is the roof terrace which overlooks the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Circular Quay and the Sydney Opera House. It is absolutely amazing! Not bad for $42 a night!!

I am sharing with three other guys, an older gentleman from England and two twenty-somethings from Holland. They all seem very nice, but everyone was off doing their own things tonight. I decided to take a walk around and see what was nearby. Of course as soon as I stepped foot outside it started raining! I went to a pub close by called Pub Metro and got a pizza for dinner. I was hoping that my time spent in the pub would have been enough for the rain to stop, but it wasn’t. I walked down to the Opera House anyway hoping that I would be able to catch the sunset over the Harbour Bridge, and I just did. It was a beautiful sky behind the bridge, even though it was raining. And it was very cool to see how the color of the sunset reflected off the Opera House tiles. The whole building changed color in seconds.

I hung out down there for about an hour as the rain lessened, and then headed back toward the hostel. I walked through some of the streets in the area of my hostel called The Rocks. This seems to be a very historic area, but of course all museums and shops were closed by this time. I’m back at the hostel now and just had a chat with some of my roommates and am going to just chill here. You really can’t beat this terrace for a view!