SyDnEy TRiP III

I have a lot of things to say about this trip. I had much fun there. Beautiful places, delicious food, great shops, what else? Everything was so perfect, except for one thing: the weather! It has been raining all day since we arrived on Thursday, 8th of July 2004.

Liz, the career & activity counsellor in the college, became our tour guide in Sydney. She arranged the upcoming activities before we departed from Brisbane. The first day was the most important place to go before anything else: Opera House. It was so amazing to see that ‘building’ after u saw it for so many years through the postcards, pictures, or even tv. We also saw the Harbour Bridge and took pictures. Then we went to the Taronga Zoo by ferry. I’m not an ‘animal person’, so I wasn’t really like it. But after all, it was ok.

The next day was a shopping day!! We went to Birkenhead Outlet Shopping where u can find branded clothes & accesories, and the famous Paddington market. The market was nearly close that day, so we headed to the shops near the market. I was so happy to find every shops were offering discounts. I bought a $10 pants which was used to be 50 bucks! Can u imagine that? Yeah, baby! I love shopping!
After having a dinner (which has a special theme: Italian), we went to the Bondi beach to see the market (again). We arrived at 10.30 pm, and we saw no sign of crowded or night markets that Liz told us. Unfortunately, the markets were closed 30 minutes before we arrived. We couldn’t do anything besides looking at the quiet beach. And again, it started raining. So we decided to go home instead of do nothing there.

On Sunday, we went to the Manly Beach which was quite far from the city. We took ferry from the Circular Quays, passing the Opera House. We walked around the beach and the shops nearby, then had a lunch in -according to Liz- ‘the best seafood restaurant in Manly’. After that, we went to the Sydney Aquarium in Darling Harbour which was close to the hostel. It was a great aquarium! I saw different kind of fishes, including the unique baby shark, called Mango which has a yellow skin. I also saw fishes in Finding Nemo, I was so surprise to find out that Nemo (the clownfish) is so damn small!

Sunday night would be our last night in Sydney. So Liz told us that we will have dinner in Newtown. We all dressed up for this ‘exclusive’ dinner. After we walked around looking for the nice restaurant, we went up with 3 choices: Vietnamese, Indian, and “mixed” restaurants. Fortunately, we all chose Indian. There were several reasons why we chose Indian. The restaurant looks comfortable and clean. We’ve also got our Indian food’s expert: Shrikesh and Omar, who were able to tell us whether the food is nice or not (yeah, bcoz they’re Indian). While we got busy ordering the food (I ordered Garlic Nahn and spicy chicken), Liz, Jenny, and Karl bought two bottles of wine. Then we all tossed for the great and successful trip that Liz had arranged (those who don’t drink alcohol could only use the empty glasses :)).

After having dinner in Newtown, we decided to go to the cafe in Circular Quays. We really didn’t want to go home that early, so we stayed there till late. We laughed, shared gossips :p, and had coffee.. Then me, Jenny, Omar, Kelly, Karl, Han, and Shrikesh went to Opera House (again), while the others went back home.

On our last day (Monday), we went to the Centrepoint Tower, which is 250 metres tall and has over 1500 stairs. Then in the evening, we headed to the airport to go back to Brisbane. Bye, Sydney!