Sydney explorations

So I've now been in Sydney for a while and sorry I haven't written about it yet...but its been tough to just sit down and write.

I'm staying at a great hostel called the Pink House and love it because I've met some awesome people here :) But I've also been lucky enough to have people share their friends here as well. My second day in Sydney I met up with a friend of a friend at the Opera Bar (yep right on the water by the opera house) for drinks and then went out to dinner with her and her friends. It was a great night and it showed me parts of Sydney I may not have discovered on my own. The following day we had a great new girl come into our room from Canada and she and I hung out in the rain on Valentines day (we treated ourselves to a hot fudge sunday from Lindt in Darling Harbour). Then that night I went out with some of the fabulous people from the hostel for an entertaining drag show :)

I have also recently taken a tour of the Blue Mountains. That was fabulous!! After three days of rainy weather in Sydney I was starting to wonder if I was in Seattle again...but then as we drove towards the mountains the weather cleared and the sun came out, perfect viewing weather for the Blue Mountains which got their name from the blue haze that hovers in the valleys from the eucalyptus trees that populate the mountains. We went to a great look out that showed us how drastic the cliffs and valleys :) Then we saw falls and the Three Sisters. At the park for the Three Sisters we took a cable car down to the valley floor to explore the growth down there as well as the left over mining equipment. To get back to the top we took the worlds steepest railcar back to the top...it goes up at a 52% grade!!!

Yesterday I planned out the rest of my time in Australia with great help from our amazing hostel receptionist. He recommended that I stay in Sydney for Mardi Gras, which starts this weekend and goes for two weeks...think Seattle's Gay Pride...but longer and amazing :) So I'm going to be exploring Sydney for a few more weeks before taking a Surf Camp trip up to Byron Bay and then moving up to Brisbane to see one of my sorority sisters and then moving to the Whitsunday islands for a diving trip on the Great Barrier Reef. Then I'll head over to New Zealand...I can't believe that I'm already starting to think about that! So after we got that figured out I decided I didn't need to rush about so much so I took it easy and went to a beautiful park called Rushcutters Bay. I soaked up the sun and read my book for a bit then walked around to Darling Point where you could see the city skyline and harbor bridge.

All in all, things are going great! Check facebook and http://annemariemills.shutterfly.com/ to see my pictures :)

hugs & kisses to all!