Sydney Now, New Zealand Later.

G'Day, Mates!

Okay cheesy I know, but I can't help it...I'm in freaking Sydney, Australia!! I know you may not want to know every single thing that has happened in the past 24 hours +, so feel free to skip over some stuff :) I'm apologizing in advance. I just have so much to talk about!

On Tuesday night at 7 p.m. our journey began. My mom and my aunt tagged along to wish me off. They're great. We first flew from Chi-town to L.A. which was a piece of cake. After a close call of not getting on the flight due to us flying standby and the airplane being at maximum weight (uh oh) we ended up leaving the Los Angeles Airport at 10:00 p.m., enduring a 14 hour flight to Sydney. Now, I don't want to complain too much because we DID make it on the flight, but everyone (a.k.a little children and babies) that would cause me not to sleep on this flight happened to sit right behind me and beside me. Kicking my seat, putting the tray up and down and crying all through the night occured almost the entire time. I couldn't believe it either... it was right out of a movie. Eventually we made it and touched down in Sydney. I was already freaking out because we had a met a family on the plane who were from Melbourne and were coming home. I'm obsessed with Australian accents so I was hooked on this place before I even stepped off the plane.

We then went through customs (drag) and then went to go pick up our luggage that apparently DIDN'T make it on our flight. Woo hoo! Another great travel moment that everyone wishes they could have. So, our bags are coming tomorrow. Luckily we packed a pair of clothes or else that would've not been fun.

We got on a shuttle and went to our hotel, which is near Chinatown which is pretty sweet. We hit the ground runnin' and began to see Sydney. We walked through Hyde Park, which is a really pretty park with so many trees and grassy areas and tons and tons of runners. It's like noon and soo humid and there are people jogging EVERYWHERE. I guess these Aussies want to stay in shape. It's cool because it's easy to blend in here if you don't have a map and camera in tow. They dress very similar to Americans, very casual. It's summer here so there a lot of really cute floral dresses or cute tank tops and sandals. Anyways, there are so many birds everywhere and it was cool to see Aussie's go about their day in this park area. We then went to the Botanic Gardens, which once again were beautiful. So many flowers, trees and bats. Yes, BATS. Hundreds of them were randomly in this part of the garden flying around, screeching and hanging upside down in trees. I heard a tour guide say that they are some of the largest bats in the world. It was kind of creepy because they were really close to my head. We then kept walking until we reached the Sydney Opera House where we saw the Harbour Bridge in the background. The Opera House is gorgeous and although we didn't go inside (too much money for a tour) it was so neat to see such an iconic symbol of Sydney. The Harbour is beautiful and with the sun out it made the scene perfect :) There are so many cute shops and outdoor cafes around the Opera House. It's beautiful and quaint. We then went to a section of the city called "The Rocks". I'm not really sure why it's called that but it is. It's very sweet and there is a market where they sell food and artwork and stuff, so we will probably go back tomorrow. There are shops and restaurants, including a Belgian Chocolate cafe. We didn't stop there but I wanted to so badly! Right up my alley! We did end up stopping at a place called "Wombat in the rocks" which is where they sell "Uggs", which I learned is not a brand in Australia. Every boot made with sheep wool is called an Ugg, no matter who makes it. Now, I did buy a pair. I just had too! I'm in Australia where they are actually made (apparently the ones in the U.S. are actually made in China, so it's different than the ones in Australia) and I needed new boots. They're really cute and I've never seen them anywhere in the U.S. and they're actually cheaper here. So don't judge...please? Okay, some of you are still judging, but I love them!

Okay, almost done I promise! We were exhausted because we barely slept and we had been walking around all day long so we headed back to our hotel after grabbing some snacks at the 7-Eleven and relaxed in our room (watched some Oprah haha) before we headed out for dinner. Because we are right next to Chinatown, we decided to eat some Chinese food. Imagine that? We went to a place called "The Super Bowl". We sat outside and the menu was HUGE. They had everything. I'm not a big Chinese food fan, but I wanted to try it and not be my picky self. I got braised chicken with "chinese broccoli" and fried rice. Nothing too out there. The chicken was prepared differently than I've ever had so I had to get over the way it looks and actually like it for what it tasted like. It ended up being pretty good. My aunt Whitney and my mom got this stuff called Goo Gow, or something like that. Then we went into a souvenir shop (always fun) and got Tim Tam's at a convenient store! They are really yummy and popular biscuits (cookies) here and in New Zealand so I've been told :) They're very good.

Okay, I'm done. For tonight I should say. It's like 10 p.m. here and I gotsta go to bed. So, if you've made it this far, yay! Even if you just skipped to the end it's okay. I'm not sure if anyone is even going to read this but hey, it's cool to think about what you did for the day. Okay, shutting up now. Tomorrow is another day...and another blog.