Best of Both Worlds

Botany Bay: Not a bad place
for a field trip!

Saturday was the last excursion for my marine environment class.  We piled into charter buses and drove to different places around Botany Bay, an area just to the south of my suburb, where the airport is built.  We learned a lot of marine related stuff about the area, but also had time to relax on the beach and enjoy the sunshine.  At one point we were taken to Bare Island, which was the location of the first penal colony in Australia and also where some of Mission Impossible 2 was filmed.

Saturday night a large group of us went down to Darling Harbour to see the last fireworks until next spring (remember that it is almost winter here!).  Since they have them almost every other week, we weren't expecting much, but they were actually awesome and even timed to some pretty good music.  As I sat on the dock with the water below my dangling feet, watching the fireworks explode over the harbour, I felt a little overwhelmed by how much I love living in this city.  Honestly, what could be better on a random Saturday night?  After the show, our group split up a little bit, but most of us went further into the city to the Bavarian Bier Café and made use of their Bier Fest 2011 specials.  We sampled a few different beers, mostly German and all totally unique; my favorite was one that was infused with mango juice!  Later we headed back to the harbour for the midnight showing of the newest Pirates of the Caribbean movie at the World's Largest IMAX.  The movie was pretty good; I didn't hate it and I didn't love it, and you can't complain about an 8-story tall screen and some quality 3D, but getting home at 4am was pretty rough.

Fireworks in Darling Harbour

The next morning we got up (way too early considering when we had actually gone to sleep) and went into the city to catch a train out west to do some hiking.  The weather was beautiful with a few clouds and a small breeze that carried with it the familiar scent of a crisp autumn day.  As we got further from the coast, there were more and more deciduous trees and they were bursting with red and orange all over.  This sparked a few discussions on how much we wanted to go to an apple orchard for cider and donuts or make jack-o-lanterns.  We found a hike near the train station in a town called Wentworth Falls that led into Blue Mountains National Park.  We knew there was a waterfall at the end, but we definitely weren't expecting the view we ended up getting: the valleys of the eucalyptus covered hills framed by the waterfall and a sunny, blue sky.  We left behind the other tourists at the look-out and followed the trail down the side of the cliff on the "Grand Staircase," 1,000 steps that lead down to the base of the 100m waterfall.  Going back up was obviously a good work out, but it seems easier to exercise when the air around is so fresh.

This weekend pretty much sums up exactly why I love this place so much.  When you can read a book at the beach during the day, hang out in a big city at night and then go hiking in some mountains nearby the very next day...there's no doubt about it, your life is awesome.  Living in Sydney is truly like the best of both worlds...there's never a shortage of things to do, no matter what I'm in the mood for.

This coming week is my last full week of classes, since the week after I only have 2 days of class since most of my lectures were cancelled!  I cannot believe how fast this time has gone by.  And as of now, it is officially a month until my mom arrives for her Sydney visit and I couldn't be more excited!  I already have so much planned for the days that we're together that she should probably start her own blog ;)