Syyyyydddnnneeeeeeeeeyyyyy!

Well, the end of my journeys are coming to a close, and the last glorious week of my backpacking adventures brought me to the beautiful city of Sydney. Now, for a farm girl I can tell you straight up that I'm not a huge fan of cities. I've enjoyed spending a couple days here and there, however I appreciate a city that is well planned, put care into it's architecture and has tons of greenspace.

For instance, Adelaide was one of my favorite cities in Aussie, especially because of the amount of green they've left around the CBD. Melbourne, on the other hand, is an extremely crowded and claustrophobia triggering city. As many good things I had heard about it, for the few days I spent there, I was extremely anxious and couldn't wait to see some bush.

Sydney is absolutely gorgeous. Hyde Park and the Botanical Gardens allow one to escape the concrete and enjoy some fresh smelling air; the architecture is astounding; and the historical planning of of the city, even with it's convict colony beginnings, is truly incredible.

We flew from Melbourne to Sydney on the 21st, leaving Victoria's rain to hit up a few days of sun in New South Wales. Thursday morning, we took the "I'm Free" walking tour of the CBD, The Rocks, Circular Quay and the Harbour. It was interesting to learn about the history of each street, as well as some of the old buildings, from a resident! I would definitely recommend doing the tour if you're in Sydney - and it's FREE!

On Friday, we checked out the Chinatown and the Paddy markets - definitely a great place to go for fresh produce or cheap Chinese made souvenirs. This is also the day we at KANGAROO KEBABS! Oh my goodness, you have no idea how excited I was for this. Surprisingly enough, the 'roo didn't bounce around my guts, and it tasted fairly similar to very lean beef or bison.

After getting ridiculously drunk on goon (cheap Australian wine that comes in 4 liter boxes) with some other people from our hostel, we slept in on Saturday morning, and headed out later in the day. We took the ferry to Manly, and hung out on the beach for a couple hours; soaking in the sun and watching some surfers try to catch some very delicate waves. Gorgeous beach, pretty packed but not too bad.

Sunday Funday included NRL! We caught a National Rugby Football league game at Olympic Park - the Cantebury Bankstown Bulldogs versus the Newcastle Knights. It was a Bulldogs home game, but to tell you the truth I cheered for the Knights for the singular reason that they were far better looking. The game was pretty intense, definitely is quite the manly sport. There were two 40 minute halves, of completely non stop time. The clock never stopped - consequentially the game only lasted a little over 90 minutes! Probably the shortest sporting even that I have ever been too, but super fun to watch. Beer, sun and rugby resulted in a great afternoon!

My last day in Sydney was quite chill. I checked out the Australian Museum while Brandon figured out some stuff for the car he was buying. We then met up and toured the Hyde Park Barracks - a convict prison that was built when Sydney was colonized to hold some of the more dangerous convicts, as well as some that were on working sentences. It was fascinating to see the living arrangements, as well as hear some of the stories about each convict and how they were treated. Very shocking! I recommend searching on Google for some information on Sydney as a convict city, pretty neat history.

Early this morning (Sydney time) I hopped on the train and headed to the airport, flying back home. I'm sure gonna miss the heat, meat pies, kebabs, cafes, markets, driving on the wrong side of the road, Aussie hospitality, and of course the ocean. Such an amazing country, full of some of the most amazing things I've ever seen, and some of the coolest people I've ever met. Cheers, Australia! I'll see you again soon!