Just when I thought my experience down here could not get any better, Australia steps up its game. We had been planning on being in Sydney for Halloween for a few weeks. When I mentioned my trip to a few Aussie friends, they talked about meeting us down there. That decision made our trip.
We were greeted at the Gold Coast airport by a fire alarm. Great. This sets a good tone for the trip... Turns out it was just a false alarm. The flight went smoothly. For those of you who have never flown Virgin Airlines (particularly the young men out there) I'd recommend it. Something about it just makes the flight seem more comfortable.
Anyway, we arrived at our hostel on Thursday and were immediately told that there were free drinks on the roof. Roof party? Cool. We dropped off our stuff and headed upstairs. The free drinks ended up being boxed wine, but the views were incredible. From our roof, we had a perfect view of the Sydney Skyline and the Harbour Bridge. Welcome to Sydney! We hung around the roof for a while and eventually walked about the town, soon to realize that we were in the Red Light District of Sydney. Welcome to Sydney! We kept our eyes down and mouths shut and ended up having a great time that night.
A few of our friends were coming in later on Friday. I got up early, actually was woken up early by a friend saying "C'mon Man! We're in Sydney!" Thanks Pat, it's 8:30am. Regardless, I got up, took a quick shower (very quick considering there was no hot water and the shower head was at the height of my neck), and joined the guys on a walkabout of downtown Sydney. Opera house picture, Harbour Bridge picture, Opera House and Harbour Bridge picture, walking across the bridge, all done. I told my mom I got a great picture for the Christmas card only to hear that it was already completed. For those of you that are not aware, the making of the Schwendeman Christmas Card is like the construction of the Taj Mahal. Many of you know that the day after Thanksgiving you are greeted with a poem about the lives of the Schwendeman family and wishing you a Merry Christmas season. It's kind of a big deal to Jane. So despite my efforts to make the Christmas card with a stereotypical Australia picture, I'm sure I'll still make Mom happy with all my pictures.
When it came time for our friends to arrive in Sydney, we got a call from them saying their flight was cancelled. They chose to fly a cheap, less reliable airline and arrived at the airport to hear that there were no more flights on the airline going to Sydney that day, they would be refunded in 4 to 6 weeks, and if they wanted to get to Sydney that day they would have to pay full price for a ticket on another airline. The Gold Coast airport is just not very hospitable. Fire alarm and cancelled flights...
They paid for a new flight and met us at happy hour where we had the pleasure of watching the World Series. That night we just took it easy knowing that we were getting up early tomorrow to go sailing. We got up (some quicker than others) around 7am to catch a taxi to the Marina. We got there on time, and got out onto the Harbour around 10am. We spent the entire day sailing around the harbour on a 70ft sailboat. One of the coolest experiences ever. Check out Facebook for pictures and I'll try to post some on the blog. We sailed right past the Opera House, under the Harbour Bridge, stopped in a cove for a swim, unreal. Somehow Sydney trumped the flight from last weekend.
Andrew told me that me and a few of my mates could spend the night on the boat. We had a great time anchored in a quiet cove, enjoying music, conversation, a great dinner, cigars on the boat deck, and initiation into the crew of the boat. Andrew and Mike (boat captain) had been talking about initiation all day. It was something everyone who spent the night on the boat went through. All of us were convinced we would be climbing the mast or something crazy. Initiation began by all of us putting on goofy hats. I was in a Santa hat, there was a Scottish wig, a ninja headband, and many more. Andrew and Mike walked around the cabin gathering things for initiation. In order, they went: Fire extinguisher and bowl, flashlight, a giant knife, a tomato for every person at the table, a power drill, a bottle of rum, and a box of Tim Tams (Australian cookies). Oh Lord, what on earth are we going to do? After an elaborate speech by Mike, he demonstrated the initiation. Cutting off the corners of the Tim Tam, he proceeded to fill up the bowl with rum, and suck the rum through the Tim Tam. The technique was to just suck until you feel the rum on your lips, and then you consume the cookie. Somehow this came as a relief to all of us who were thinking of how we would be sprayed with a fire extinguisher while eating a whole tomato covered in rum with a power drill against our chests. It was all in good fun and we spent the next few hours having some great conversation and hearing stories about Mike's adventures in Eurasia. Throughout the entire day, my friends and I were talking about how we were going to remember this day/night for the rest of our lives. It did not disappoint.
We got back into dock around midday Sunday. The 4 of us that were left just went down to Bondi beach, a popular beach in Sydney. It started raining as soon as we got off the bus, but we were unphased, still on a high from the day before. We sat down to a nice dinner and made it back to the hostel to enjoy our last night on the roof. It was truly a great weekend that we will never forget...
As for this week, we are booking our trip to Cairns (pronounced Cans) to snorkel and scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef and do some "Xtreme Whitewater Rafting." Yea, we're Xtremely Excited for that trip. That will be the third weekend in November. The previous weekend we are going up to Brisbane to celebrate my friend Adam's birthday. Midterm grades are coming back relatively well. No real complaints so far. Tonight is the Student vs. Staff golf challenge. The first inaugural tournament. Winner gets a trophy, so you know it's legit. This weekend a lot of my friends are going to Byron Bay to sky dive. They got rained out their last attempt so they all have vouchers they are redeeming. I decided to skip out, save some money, and attempt to get ahead on some work. We'll see how productive I actually am. I registered for classes in the Spring which was the first reality check that this semester abroad is not forever. I'm trying to enjoy each day, and so far Australia is making that pretty easy...
No comments:
Post a Comment