10.24.10
Well,
I had my last tutorials this week and only have 2 lectures left before finals. I am definitely ready for this semester to be over so I can travel without stress. Once again, very little occurred during the weekdays. The only difference was that the wind symphony rehearsal got moved to Wednesday and to QPAC (Queensland Performing arts Center). This is because the actual concert was at QPAC.
Saturday, my French friend, Vivian, had a BBQ at his apartment. Even though only six people showed up, it was fun. We didn’t do a whole lot, just some cooking, eating, and talking.
Sunday was the day of the concert at QPAC. Three different groups played: UQ Symphony Orchestra, UQ Chamber Players, and UQ Wind Symphony. The concert rand for almost 3 hours, I played in about a half hour of it. It was nice to play at a state performing arts center and get to see backstage and not just be playing at a venue on campus.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Straddie take two!!
10.17.10
Well,
I had another eventful weekend, though, the weekdays…not so much. I had a paper due Tuesday and was stressed out about turning it in and everything. Once I was done with that a weight was lifted and I started relaxing and calming down knowing more stress is on the way. One of those stresses includes a “Places of Worship” paper. For this assessment, I have to visit three different places of worship and compare contrast them. While in Sydney with Erica, I went to the Hillsong church. This past weekend I went to place number 2, a Buddhist chanting service at the Amitabha Buddhist Association (AMB).
The chanting service was completely in Chinese so, I had no idea what was going on. The place was gorgeous, though. I did get a little lost trying to find it since it was hidden in a neighborhood and I could not figure out through Google maps, or the public transportation website where the bus was going to drop me off in reference to the AMB. After wandering or 10-15 minutes, I finally found it. After a little bit of an awkward introduction, I was guided around by one of the receptionists. I did have to take off my shoes in all of the buildings and had to wear a haiqing (a robe) while in the chanting space. The service was 2 hours long. The room had the Three Buddha’s at the front with two other statues. All five were covered in shiny gold clothing and adornments. There was a table at the front and a podium behind it. Most people used the cushions on the floor rather than chairs. They used a lot more percussive sounds than I was expecting. Almost the entire two hours was full of either chanting or bells and drums. It was quite an experience. On top of that, my journey involved getting soaked in the rain since I decided it would be a fantastic idea to leave my umbrella in my room instead of grabbing it when I realized there was a high chance of rain.
Saturday was a lazy day for me to work on more assignments and continue relaxing until more stress hits. I also decided to find the Southern Cross (constellation only visible in southern hemisphere) for Erica since she did not get to see it due to cloudy weather. Saturday night was the first night in almost two weeks that I could see stars and was able to find it. Unfortunately, my camera is not awesome enough to photo graph it well. I am hoping I will get into a darker part of the city and try taking a picture once again.
Sunday, I returned to North Stradbroke Island. QUEST, the international student org at UQ, planned a day trip across Moreton Bay to Straddie. Once again, I got to take the vehicle ferry. Once we got to the island, we parked and had a boomerang workshop. This included painting boomerangs and throwing them. Once we got done there, we headed out to point lookout. The views were awesome. Thankfully, it was clear and not as rainy and muggy as Friday. While there, we saw two whales breaching and 6 dolphins catching waves. It was awesome. After that we headed back to the park where we were throwing boomerangs since there was a beach there for us to swim. We were there for about an hour and a half and I continued throwing boomerangs and played catch with both a rugby football and an American football. I had a great time.
Well,
I had another eventful weekend, though, the weekdays…not so much. I had a paper due Tuesday and was stressed out about turning it in and everything. Once I was done with that a weight was lifted and I started relaxing and calming down knowing more stress is on the way. One of those stresses includes a “Places of Worship” paper. For this assessment, I have to visit three different places of worship and compare contrast them. While in Sydney with Erica, I went to the Hillsong church. This past weekend I went to place number 2, a Buddhist chanting service at the Amitabha Buddhist Association (AMB).
The chanting service was completely in Chinese so, I had no idea what was going on. The place was gorgeous, though. I did get a little lost trying to find it since it was hidden in a neighborhood and I could not figure out through Google maps, or the public transportation website where the bus was going to drop me off in reference to the AMB. After wandering or 10-15 minutes, I finally found it. After a little bit of an awkward introduction, I was guided around by one of the receptionists. I did have to take off my shoes in all of the buildings and had to wear a haiqing (a robe) while in the chanting space. The service was 2 hours long. The room had the Three Buddha’s at the front with two other statues. All five were covered in shiny gold clothing and adornments. There was a table at the front and a podium behind it. Most people used the cushions on the floor rather than chairs. They used a lot more percussive sounds than I was expecting. Almost the entire two hours was full of either chanting or bells and drums. It was quite an experience. On top of that, my journey involved getting soaked in the rain since I decided it would be a fantastic idea to leave my umbrella in my room instead of grabbing it when I realized there was a high chance of rain.
Saturday was a lazy day for me to work on more assignments and continue relaxing until more stress hits. I also decided to find the Southern Cross (constellation only visible in southern hemisphere) for Erica since she did not get to see it due to cloudy weather. Saturday night was the first night in almost two weeks that I could see stars and was able to find it. Unfortunately, my camera is not awesome enough to photo graph it well. I am hoping I will get into a darker part of the city and try taking a picture once again.
Sunday, I returned to North Stradbroke Island. QUEST, the international student org at UQ, planned a day trip across Moreton Bay to Straddie. Once again, I got to take the vehicle ferry. Once we got to the island, we parked and had a boomerang workshop. This included painting boomerangs and throwing them. Once we got done there, we headed out to point lookout. The views were awesome. Thankfully, it was clear and not as rainy and muggy as Friday. While there, we saw two whales breaching and 6 dolphins catching waves. It was awesome. After that we headed back to the park where we were throwing boomerangs since there was a beach there for us to swim. We were there for about an hour and a half and I continued throwing boomerangs and played catch with both a rugby football and an American football. I had a great time.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
10
10.10.10
Well,
Once Erica flew back to Denver, I flew back to Brisbane. Since then, I have just been working on homework and going to class. The weather has been continually getting warmer, when the sun’s out. But, summer is the rainy season and as summer approaches, so does the rain. Today is the fifth day of cloud cover and almost constant precipitation. Not a whole lot happened this past week, thus, the super short blog. This was week 10 of school. Normally, I would be getting ready for finals but since it’s a semester that I am here, I have three more weeks of class.
Time of posting: 10.10.10 10:10:10pm
Well,
Once Erica flew back to Denver, I flew back to Brisbane. Since then, I have just been working on homework and going to class. The weather has been continually getting warmer, when the sun’s out. But, summer is the rainy season and as summer approaches, so does the rain. Today is the fifth day of cloud cover and almost constant precipitation. Not a whole lot happened this past week, thus, the super short blog. This was week 10 of school. Normally, I would be getting ready for finals but since it’s a semester that I am here, I have three more weeks of class.
Time of posting: 10.10.10 10:10:10pm
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Final Days in Sydney!
10.1.10
Well,
Thursday, Erica and I planned to stay in Sydney and wander the city. First we got to the Botanic Gardens for a free tour. The tour was more specific information about different plants than an actual tour. We stayed for an hour before going off on our own to check it out. We walked around and saw loads of plants and took tons of pictures. We also found a gorgeous view of the opera house and the Harbour Bridge. After that we walked around the opera house and walked to the front to find a stage set up for “The Footy Show.” This is basically a very popular sports show that they were filming live from the Opera House later that night. We walked around hoping to find a kebab place for lunch but failed and ended up grabbing some food from a food court at Circular Quay. Then we walked through the Rocks to cross the Harbour Bridge. The walk took about 20 minutes. The bridge is 1.2km long. We walked across and back and then headed to Town Hall and QVB. That is when we met up with Cathy Lam. We walked around QVB for a while before heading to the Sydney Tower. We were hoping to eat at the bar or the restaurant in the tower but where not dressed up enough for it and just went to the observation deck. We were there at the perfect time just before sundown so we could see Sydney in the light and after dark. Once we went back down we went to OzTrek. This was a virtual reality type video at the bottom of the tower. It was about 20 minutes and went all over Australia but made me a little motion sick. At this point Erica and I said bye to Cathy and headed toward the observatory. On the way, we stopped at a place called Pie Face. We both had meat pies with faces drawn on them and they were delicious. We ate them at the observatory while waiting to go in. When we got in we walked around the exhibits before going into the planetarium. The planetarium was basically a big umbrella with the start projected on it. We had to sit/lay on the floor to see it. Then we walked up to the towers to use the telescopes. Since it was cloudy, all we could see was Jupiter. And it was cool since we could also see four of Jupiter’s moons. We got to see them both on a new digital telescope and an old manual telescope. Once we got done in the towers, we went down to see some 3D videos in a theater they had. Then we headed back to the hotel.
Earlier in the week, we decided to make Friday, ‘beach day.’ We got up and headed to Bondi Beach. It was a little depressing that it was cloudy, windy, and a bit chilly. We still got to lie on the beach and dip our feet in the water. For lunch, we kind of had a picnic of sandwiches we picked up before leaving. There was also a little aquarium that we stopped by and looked through. And when I say little, I mean little. We also walked along the shops and such along the beach before heading back into the city. Continuing with the relaxed atmosphere of the day, we chilled at the hotel for an hour before going to services. Erica found The Great Synagogue and headed there while I went to the Hillsong church in the city. It was really lucky for me to be able to go since they normally do not have services on Friday but since Oct. 4th is a public holiday for Sydney, it got moved to Friday. The mass was a lot different than what I thought it would be. The band played three opening songs, then the pastor came out and gave announcements and and such. Then, a video feed was opened that connected the city campus (where I was) and the Hills campus. Over this, the Word was given and also the sermon from a pastor from Miami.Then the videos were closed and the serviced finished with one last song before everyone dispersed. After the services, Erica and I met back up to grab dinner at Curve. This was a higher class restaurant. We both got barramundi and chardonnay. This was our final dinner together since we leave Sydney tomorrow. After packing, we went to bed.
Well,
Thursday, Erica and I planned to stay in Sydney and wander the city. First we got to the Botanic Gardens for a free tour. The tour was more specific information about different plants than an actual tour. We stayed for an hour before going off on our own to check it out. We walked around and saw loads of plants and took tons of pictures. We also found a gorgeous view of the opera house and the Harbour Bridge. After that we walked around the opera house and walked to the front to find a stage set up for “The Footy Show.” This is basically a very popular sports show that they were filming live from the Opera House later that night. We walked around hoping to find a kebab place for lunch but failed and ended up grabbing some food from a food court at Circular Quay. Then we walked through the Rocks to cross the Harbour Bridge. The walk took about 20 minutes. The bridge is 1.2km long. We walked across and back and then headed to Town Hall and QVB. That is when we met up with Cathy Lam. We walked around QVB for a while before heading to the Sydney Tower. We were hoping to eat at the bar or the restaurant in the tower but where not dressed up enough for it and just went to the observation deck. We were there at the perfect time just before sundown so we could see Sydney in the light and after dark. Once we went back down we went to OzTrek. This was a virtual reality type video at the bottom of the tower. It was about 20 minutes and went all over Australia but made me a little motion sick. At this point Erica and I said bye to Cathy and headed toward the observatory. On the way, we stopped at a place called Pie Face. We both had meat pies with faces drawn on them and they were delicious. We ate them at the observatory while waiting to go in. When we got in we walked around the exhibits before going into the planetarium. The planetarium was basically a big umbrella with the start projected on it. We had to sit/lay on the floor to see it. Then we walked up to the towers to use the telescopes. Since it was cloudy, all we could see was Jupiter. And it was cool since we could also see four of Jupiter’s moons. We got to see them both on a new digital telescope and an old manual telescope. Once we got done in the towers, we went down to see some 3D videos in a theater they had. Then we headed back to the hotel.
Earlier in the week, we decided to make Friday, ‘beach day.’ We got up and headed to Bondi Beach. It was a little depressing that it was cloudy, windy, and a bit chilly. We still got to lie on the beach and dip our feet in the water. For lunch, we kind of had a picnic of sandwiches we picked up before leaving. There was also a little aquarium that we stopped by and looked through. And when I say little, I mean little. We also walked along the shops and such along the beach before heading back into the city. Continuing with the relaxed atmosphere of the day, we chilled at the hotel for an hour before going to services. Erica found The Great Synagogue and headed there while I went to the Hillsong church in the city. It was really lucky for me to be able to go since they normally do not have services on Friday but since Oct. 4th is a public holiday for Sydney, it got moved to Friday. The mass was a lot different than what I thought it would be. The band played three opening songs, then the pastor came out and gave announcements and and such. Then, a video feed was opened that connected the city campus (where I was) and the Hills campus. Over this, the Word was given and also the sermon from a pastor from Miami.Then the videos were closed and the serviced finished with one last song before everyone dispersed. After the services, Erica and I met back up to grab dinner at Curve. This was a higher class restaurant. We both got barramundi and chardonnay. This was our final dinner together since we leave Sydney tomorrow. After packing, we went to bed.
Syndey Opera House!!!!
9.29.10
Well,
Sydney has been awesome so far. On Tuesday, we headed back to Town Hall to meet for a free city tour. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we walked all over the city and learned a lot. After wards, we took some more pictures of both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House since it was during the day and we were in a sweet photo taking spot. Then we walked back through the city looking for lunch and found a salad place and tried to take the free bus back to hotel. Unfortunately, it was super packed and not worth using. We finally made it back and enjoyed the food before changing for the opera. We found that there is a train station less than two blocks from the hotel that goes straight to Circular Quay with one stop in between. We took it and were at Circular Quay in less than 10 minutes. At 4:30pm, we had a tour through the Opera House. We learned history and saw the intimate theaters on the lower floors along with the opera theater. Once we got done with that we went and grabbed some calamari and wine at East Bank before Rigoletto. We sat in the balcony 6 levels back and off to the right. The opera was kind of strange but the singers and orchestra were awesome. The weirdest thing was that the bows had no music and only the main characters bowed and not the entire company. It was almost surreal that we were seeing an opera in the Sydney Opera House. We finally got back to the hotel around 11pm.
Wednesday morning came very early at 6:30am. We were supposed to meet our shuttle at 7:10 outside the Travelodge, but found out about 7:30 that the shuttle had a flat tire and wasn’t going to arrive until 8ish. When it picked us up, we were heading to the Blue Mountains. Our tour started off b stopping at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This is very similar to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane but a little smaller and a little less organized. Then we went to one of the national park to learn how to throw a boomerang. After a few attempts, both Erica and I kind of figured out how to throw it but did not throw it successfully all the way back before we left. Then we headed up to the Wentworth Falls Country Club for lunch. We had fish and chips and it was tasty. Then we were off to Scenic World. This was the rain forest in the Blue Mountains. We rode the cableway (super steep) down to the walking path. We walked up around through the forest, passed the mine and to the train. The train took us back to the top of the mountain. This is the steepest train in the world that runs at 52º. The seats in the train car were actually tilted back so when we were at the 52º mark, we were basically sitting straight up. It was cool. Then we loaded the shuttle and headed to Leura. This was a small mountain city and we did some walking and shopping. Then we took a riding tour of the Olympic site. It is still in use constantly. From there we went to the ferry station to get a ferry back to Circular Quay. The ferry got back into the harbor just as the sun went down and the city was gorgeous. After returning to land, we went and found a sushi place for dinner. Erica had three goals while in Australia: 1) hold a koala, 2) go to the Sydney Opera House, and 3) go to a night club. Since we had completed the first two, it was time for the third one. We went searching for a place called the Side Bar. We thought it was near the museum so we wandered for a bit. Upon not finding it, we stopped at the Strand Hotel for a drink. We decided to ask for directions and ended up finding it about 6 blocks on the other side of our hotel. We navigated our way that and stayed for about an hour. They had a band playing and a DJ for when they took their break. It was really loud and like every other night club I have been too since I got here.
Well,
Sydney has been awesome so far. On Tuesday, we headed back to Town Hall to meet for a free city tour. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we walked all over the city and learned a lot. After wards, we took some more pictures of both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House since it was during the day and we were in a sweet photo taking spot. Then we walked back through the city looking for lunch and found a salad place and tried to take the free bus back to hotel. Unfortunately, it was super packed and not worth using. We finally made it back and enjoyed the food before changing for the opera. We found that there is a train station less than two blocks from the hotel that goes straight to Circular Quay with one stop in between. We took it and were at Circular Quay in less than 10 minutes. At 4:30pm, we had a tour through the Opera House. We learned history and saw the intimate theaters on the lower floors along with the opera theater. Once we got done with that we went and grabbed some calamari and wine at East Bank before Rigoletto. We sat in the balcony 6 levels back and off to the right. The opera was kind of strange but the singers and orchestra were awesome. The weirdest thing was that the bows had no music and only the main characters bowed and not the entire company. It was almost surreal that we were seeing an opera in the Sydney Opera House. We finally got back to the hotel around 11pm.
Wednesday morning came very early at 6:30am. We were supposed to meet our shuttle at 7:10 outside the Travelodge, but found out about 7:30 that the shuttle had a flat tire and wasn’t going to arrive until 8ish. When it picked us up, we were heading to the Blue Mountains. Our tour started off b stopping at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This is very similar to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane but a little smaller and a little less organized. Then we went to one of the national park to learn how to throw a boomerang. After a few attempts, both Erica and I kind of figured out how to throw it but did not throw it successfully all the way back before we left. Then we headed up to the Wentworth Falls Country Club for lunch. We had fish and chips and it was tasty. Then we were off to Scenic World. This was the rain forest in the Blue Mountains. We rode the cableway (super steep) down to the walking path. We walked up around through the forest, passed the mine and to the train. The train took us back to the top of the mountain. This is the steepest train in the world that runs at 52º. The seats in the train car were actually tilted back so when we were at the 52º mark, we were basically sitting straight up. It was cool. Then we loaded the shuttle and headed to Leura. This was a small mountain city and we did some walking and shopping. Then we took a riding tour of the Olympic site. It is still in use constantly. From there we went to the ferry station to get a ferry back to Circular Quay. The ferry got back into the harbor just as the sun went down and the city was gorgeous. After returning to land, we went and found a sushi place for dinner. Erica had three goals while in Australia: 1) hold a koala, 2) go to the Sydney Opera House, and 3) go to a night club. Since we had completed the first two, it was time for the third one. We went searching for a place called the Side Bar. We thought it was near the museum so we wandered for a bit. Upon not finding it, we stopped at the Strand Hotel for a drink. We decided to ask for directions and ended up finding it about 6 blocks on the other side of our hotel. We navigated our way that and stayed for about an hour. They had a band playing and a DJ for when they took their break. It was really loud and like every other night club I have been too since I got here.
SPRING BREAK!!!!
9.27.10
Well,
This was the weekend that Erica finally arrived in Australia. Her flight landed at 6:20am Friday morning. After meeting her, we took the train back through the city and a bus back to King’s. Luckily, King’s had an extra room for her to stay in while we were in Brisbane. Once she got settled in, we headed out to check out campus and the city. In campus we went to the main places I knew including: the music building, the Great Court, the books store, etc. Then we headed out to the UQ lakes. We spent a while at the lakes being entertained by the ridiculousness that is the birds of Australia. For lunch we went to the Pizza Caffé on campus and had pizza. Once we finished our campus tour we boarded the CityCat to ride to the city on the River. In the city, we had fun taking pictures with large silver hands and walking around Queen St. Then we crossed the bridge and got a look at Southbank. After this long walking adventure we went back to King’s and crashed.
On Saturday, we got up, had breakfast, and headed to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We spent about 4 hours looking around, feeding and petting kangaroos and emu, holding chicks and guinea pigs, and of course, holding koalas. Once we finished there we were hoping to get up to Mt. Coot-tha but unfortunately, missed the last bus up there. Instead we headed back into the city to walk around. We headed for the botanic gardens but were unaware of the music festival that was happening and instead walked back to Queen St. There we went to O’Malley’s Irish Pub for dinner and had some steak. Once we were full, we went back to King’s and watched The A-Team on my computer. Once again, due to exhaustion, we crashed.
Sunday came and we were able to make it up to Mt. Coot-tha. Thankfully, the weather cleared up a bit and was not cloudy and gloomy like it had been. We took in the gorgeous view and headed back to King’s. For lunch we ate in the Vil at La Porchetta. We both had some pasta and it was delicious. Now, it was finally time to head to Surfer’s Paradise so Erica could see the beach. Our journey was supposed to only be bus-train-bus but that was not the case. Due to construction and repaving across the tracks, we had to transfer to a bus halfway to Surfer’s and bypass the construction. Because of this, the hour and a half trip took about 3 hours to complete. At around 5pm, we finally were at the beach. We both dipped our feet in the ocean and played some Frisbee for a while. Then we walked around the little malls and adventured. We had dinner at a Chinese and Malaysian Cuisine place called Ocean Seafood. We had Mongolia beef, honey sesame chicken, and fried rice. It was really good. We then get back to the bus station for the journey home. Once again, we were hoping for bus-train-bus but, again, were wrong. We managed to easily get back to the train station we started at but the buses that went back to UQ stopped running 3 hours before. We then went adventuring and managed to walk back. When we got back, I went to do laundry and pack my suitcase for Sydney while Erica packed stuff and cleaned up here room. Once everything was done, it was time for sleep.
Monday Morning came bright and early so we could catch our 10am flight. We grabbed some food and Erica said here good-bye’s to King’s. We managed to time the bus to train transfer perfectly; we had no layover or wait at the train station. On the way to the airport, we talked with another train passenger and found out that Virgin Blue had a computer failure of their flight schedules and everything. Therefore, we transferred to Qantas. Because most of the Qantas flights were full from the Virgin Blue crisis, Erica and I were booked on two different flights an hour apart. She flew out at 3:15pm and I flew out at 4:15pm.
After we both landed in Sydney, we grabbed a cab to the Travelodge. We dropped off our stuff and started walking around the city. By this point, it was dark so the city was lit up. We passed Town Hall and continued walking to Circular Quay and to the Opera House. We spent a long while walking around and taking pictures of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Seeing the Sydney Opera House has been one of my life goals that I am happy to say I have checked off my bucket list. Then we figured grabbed a train back to Town Hall to the Woolworths to shop for dinner. We ended up getting some Ramen noodles, pitas, and hummus. It was delicious.
Well,
This was the weekend that Erica finally arrived in Australia. Her flight landed at 6:20am Friday morning. After meeting her, we took the train back through the city and a bus back to King’s. Luckily, King’s had an extra room for her to stay in while we were in Brisbane. Once she got settled in, we headed out to check out campus and the city. In campus we went to the main places I knew including: the music building, the Great Court, the books store, etc. Then we headed out to the UQ lakes. We spent a while at the lakes being entertained by the ridiculousness that is the birds of Australia. For lunch we went to the Pizza Caffé on campus and had pizza. Once we finished our campus tour we boarded the CityCat to ride to the city on the River. In the city, we had fun taking pictures with large silver hands and walking around Queen St. Then we crossed the bridge and got a look at Southbank. After this long walking adventure we went back to King’s and crashed.
On Saturday, we got up, had breakfast, and headed to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We spent about 4 hours looking around, feeding and petting kangaroos and emu, holding chicks and guinea pigs, and of course, holding koalas. Once we finished there we were hoping to get up to Mt. Coot-tha but unfortunately, missed the last bus up there. Instead we headed back into the city to walk around. We headed for the botanic gardens but were unaware of the music festival that was happening and instead walked back to Queen St. There we went to O’Malley’s Irish Pub for dinner and had some steak. Once we were full, we went back to King’s and watched The A-Team on my computer. Once again, due to exhaustion, we crashed.
Sunday came and we were able to make it up to Mt. Coot-tha. Thankfully, the weather cleared up a bit and was not cloudy and gloomy like it had been. We took in the gorgeous view and headed back to King’s. For lunch we ate in the Vil at La Porchetta. We both had some pasta and it was delicious. Now, it was finally time to head to Surfer’s Paradise so Erica could see the beach. Our journey was supposed to only be bus-train-bus but that was not the case. Due to construction and repaving across the tracks, we had to transfer to a bus halfway to Surfer’s and bypass the construction. Because of this, the hour and a half trip took about 3 hours to complete. At around 5pm, we finally were at the beach. We both dipped our feet in the ocean and played some Frisbee for a while. Then we walked around the little malls and adventured. We had dinner at a Chinese and Malaysian Cuisine place called Ocean Seafood. We had Mongolia beef, honey sesame chicken, and fried rice. It was really good. We then get back to the bus station for the journey home. Once again, we were hoping for bus-train-bus but, again, were wrong. We managed to easily get back to the train station we started at but the buses that went back to UQ stopped running 3 hours before. We then went adventuring and managed to walk back. When we got back, I went to do laundry and pack my suitcase for Sydney while Erica packed stuff and cleaned up here room. Once everything was done, it was time for sleep.
Monday Morning came bright and early so we could catch our 10am flight. We grabbed some food and Erica said here good-bye’s to King’s. We managed to time the bus to train transfer perfectly; we had no layover or wait at the train station. On the way to the airport, we talked with another train passenger and found out that Virgin Blue had a computer failure of their flight schedules and everything. Therefore, we transferred to Qantas. Because most of the Qantas flights were full from the Virgin Blue crisis, Erica and I were booked on two different flights an hour apart. She flew out at 3:15pm and I flew out at 4:15pm.
After we both landed in Sydney, we grabbed a cab to the Travelodge. We dropped off our stuff and started walking around the city. By this point, it was dark so the city was lit up. We passed Town Hall and continued walking to Circular Quay and to the Opera House. We spent a long while walking around and taking pictures of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Seeing the Sydney Opera House has been one of my life goals that I am happy to say I have checked off my bucket list. Then we figured grabbed a train back to Town Hall to the Woolworths to shop for dinner. We ended up getting some Ramen noodles, pitas, and hummus. It was delicious.
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