Saturday I had a make up class. I refused to let class ruin my weekend and got up early to head into Sydney with Melissa. We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art which had four unique exhibits... young artists, Yinka Shonibare MBE (a Nigerian British artist with a very unique sculpture style, I wish I could have taken pictures inside), a photography display focused on a local rugby team, and video art which I had never seen before. When we were done at the museum we walked through The Rocks, and took the catwalk back to Circular Quay to catch the ferry back to Manly. It was a nice walk, and a great view of the city. I'm glad I had ambition to get up and enjoy the beautiful day.
The Museum of Contemporary Art and Sydney Harbour from the catwalk.
After class, Melissa and I treated ourselves to dinner at BenBry Burgers. I probably shouldn't have started eating out already, but I felt I deserved a burger and greasy onion rings after being one of 11 that actually showed up to class (out of 30). We went to visit Seb, Sop, Lou, and Brad before retiring early. I wanted to be well rested for the Blue Mountains.
PC (the same guy that took us for a tour of Sydney) offered to take us to the Blue Mountains on Sunday. He met us at school at 8 am and we set out for the 2 hour drive West. We stopped at some markets on the way there and got fresh strawberries, honey roasted macadamia nuts, and cashews. PC lives out that way and knew the people at the markets. They were really nice and gave us all Sydney souvenir key chains. When we got to the mountains we took pictures at Echo Point, and sang with an Aboriginal man. PC offers to show students around the Sydney area at no cost, except that he video tapes something on every trip. He puts together an end of term video and needs footage of students singing to the soundtrack... looks like I'm going to be on that video a few times. We went back into Katoomba (the mountain village) and found a nice cafe for lunch. Then we set off for our short hike through the valley.
The famous "Three Sisters" rock formation. There is a story behind three sisters turning into stone long ago, but no one we asked could seem to remember the exact story.
The view from Echo Point. The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue haze that covers the area.
We walked down the "Giant Stairwell" to get into the valley. It was incredibly steep set of uneven, rock stairs. It took us 15 minutes walking straight down to get to the bottom. We had a great 2.5 mile walk/hike through the trails. The weather was perfect, not raining, windy, or too warm. It was really nice to get away from the city and the beaches for a day and enjoy a new environment. It was beautiful, I took pictures, but it doesn't quite do the area justice. There are more on Flickr.
Amanda, Melissa, Me, Amy, Linnea, Deb, and Chelsey after our hike down the Giant Stairwell. We are under the first "sister" rock.
The hike through the valley was gorgeous. It was hard to get a good picture of Katoomba Falls through the trees, but I managed a little bit.
We made it back in time for dinner, and now its time for homework. This weekend was absolutely gorgeous. It finally hit me that I'm living in Australia. I know it sounds kind of weird since I've here for a while (I've officially been here a month today!) but it feels different. I'm getting used to the small school and suburban environment... I'll add more about that this week.
I hope everyone had a great weekend:)
3 comments:
Sounds like you had a freaking blast!!!
Those pictures are stunning.
Also, you should get a copy of that end-of-term video for your friends back home. I am pretty sure we'll all be happy for Christmas if we get to see Ruddy singing with an aboriginal dude.
P.S. You'll still owe me a birthday present though.
holy shit trade lives with me
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