Tasmania

We went to Hobart, Tasmania!!!

In the U.S. when people go south for winter it's a good idea. [Ya know, it's warmer and all.] In Australia going south is a terrible idea. [It's a bajillion degrees colder, that whole Southern Hemisphere=opposite thing.]

So it was a little dumb, but we headed to Tassie anyways.

[Besides, we only stayed for two nights. Anyone can handle the cold for two nights, right?]

We stayed at a hostel called The Pickled Frog. It was definitely awesome. If you want to sleep in Tasmania for cheap, go here.

On our first day in Tasmania, like usual, we wandered around the town. [That's right, I said town. There are definitely no cities in Tasmania. Hobart is close, but unfortunately no banana.] There is a really pretty waterfront that runs along the town. The harbour is home to tons of ships, including the one from Whale Wars. The river also leads to Antarctica. That kind of blows my mind. [And explains why it's so cold.] During our wandering we came across an ad for a $10 harbour cruise. Amazing? Yes. Ok, so the cruise was actually on a water taxi, but it was still awesome and ended up being for just Chris and I.

Our water taxi.

The cruise took us to three different places around the harbour [It also serves as a ferry boat]. We got to hear tons of info about Hobart, the ships docked there, and the river itself [the second deepest in the Southern Hemisphere to Rio de Janiero]. Also, there was a main tour guide and another person that was a trainee. That meant we got to hear facts from both of them [and they were kind of fun to shoot the breeze with].

A little bit of home. [Minus the water.]

The next day we woke up bright and early to take a bus to Mt. Wellington. I'm not actually sure why Mt. Wellington is so awesome. At first I thought it had to be because of the elevation, then I realized that streets in Idaho are at a higher elevation than it. Apparently the rocks that make up the mountain are really hard, like really hard, because of how they were formed [when Pangea split there was some lava and yada yada], but aside from that, I got nothin'. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it a lot, I just don't know why everyone is so obsessed with it.
Let me get back to the point, we went to Mt. Wellington. When we woke up the weather was beautiful [especially compared to the cold and cloudy day before] so we were hopeful that the views would be amazing. The day before we were told that there was going to be snow on top, so we bundled up as best we could and headed to the top.

Our view.
The weather was great on the bottom, but not so great from the top.
We saw lots of clouds.

It was definitely cold and definitely windy.
It was blowing between 100 and 120km per hr.
That's fast.
There was also sleet coming our way at the same speed.

That's what happens when you try to shield yourself from the elements with the hood of a sweatshirt.

For a split second the clouds cleared and we were able to see these views.
[On the best of days you can see half of Tasmania from the top of Mt. Wellington.]

Halfway down we pulled over at this viewpoint.
It was purty.

After Mt. Wellington we still had about half the day to spend in the city. Thankfully, it was a gorgeous day that felt like it belonged in the middle of October.

I think I'm going to miss Tasmania a lot. It has been one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and I was only there for two days. I'm pretty sure everyone in the world should go there. And really, how exotic does Tasmania sound?!

Sydney

Remember when I said everyone went away for Easter Break? Well so did we!!! To Sydney!

Beautiful, yes?

We were some of the people that left on Easter Sunday to start our adventure.

Ya know how traveling is kind of hard? You basically have to pack up your life for however many days, rush to the airport, wait forever, and then live in a grimy place that is nothing like home.

Well, doing all of that sucks a lot more when you don't have a car.

We had to get to the airport like everyone else. Except for the fact that we couldn't just drive there.

First, we got on the tram outside our house. Then we went to the train station. We took a train to another train station, got off and took another train to another station. When we finally got to Southern Cross we were done with trains. From there we had to hop on a shuttle bus that took us to the airport.

[In between all of this was copious amounts of waiting.]

On the tram with our luggage.

While waiting at Southern Cross.

This is the water we drink.
It's made by Coke.

We saw this penny press at the airport.
Naturally, we were intrigued.A penny press??
We're in Australia. There are no pennies here.

Wrong.
That's a lot of pennies.

That's the plane we took.

This is the world saying, 'today is a great day.'

Jet plane.

We arrived in beautiful Sydney in the evening. Since it's turning into Winter the sun is setting earlier and earlier. We managed to check in to our hostel and run over to the Royal Botanical Gardens to get a glimpse of the Opera House just as the sun was setting. After sunset, we wandered around Circular Quay and got up close and personal with the Opera House. We spent a bit of time trying to find dinner and eventually went back to our hostel.

That's the suburb we stayed in.
Wooloomooloo.

At Circular Quay.

We had Baskin Robbins after dinner.
Two nights in a row.

Opera House.

Bridge.

The next day we got up bright and early to celebrate ANZAC [Australia New Zealand Army Corps] Day. Ok, we didn't get up as early as we should have so we missed the dawn service. However, we did make it downtown in time for the parade. After the ANZAC festivities we headed back to Circular Quay to catch a ferry to Darling Harbour. There we visited the Maritime Museum. [It was free, and pretty cool.] Not only is there a giant museum, but there are also three ships you can tour. [That costs money, but not that much.] After the museum we wandered around Darling Harbour and had some lunch. Next, we headed back to the city and went to the Sydney Tower. It was a bit less awesome that the Eureka Sky Tower here in Melbourne, but still had some great views. After all of this, it was night time again. We went back to the Opera House and hung around until we were too tired to move.

By far, my most favorite soldier from the ANZAC Day parade.

The parade went on from 9am to 3pm.
Because there are that many soldiers.

On the ferry to Darling Harbour.

A submarine bunk.

We went on that ship.

Battleship.

On a battleship.

Koala.

The bridge from the tower.

The next day we took a short cut to town. It led us to the channel 7 building were they were filming Sunrise. [Equivalent to The Today Show.] We were on national TV, no big deal. After our four seconds of fame we walked around town and then went to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Chris went up one of the pylons next to the bridge and had some gorgeous views. [To climb the bridge it costs $298. To climb the pylon it costs $9.50.] After the bridge, we wound up in The Rocks. A pretty amazing part of town. We wandered the shops for a bit and then mosied back towards the Opera House. We had coffee and went back to our hostel a bit early [we both had homework.]

A picture of the TV.
That's me in the background.

And then we went to Ireland.

Touched it.

Reflection in the Opera House.

And then we went home.
Ok, that's not true. We spent an entire day at the airport because we flew on a crappy airline.
Eventually we made it home.