Laurana Loves You Heaps

I've been wrapping up my stay in Sydney, making sure to get all my lasts in. last trip to pancakes on the rocks, last trip to the beach, last mass at St. Mary's Cathedral, last trip to the Mac Centre, last 'roo pizza!, last picture of the opera house, etc.

On Fri, I went to Luna Park and rode the ferris wheel which gave a lovely view of the Harbour bridge and the city.

Saturday was so legendary and memorable. Theresa and I went to the Glebe Markets. Sadly, I didn't buy anything. That was day #16 without buying clothes. madness. Then I was able to figure my way through Sydney Uni to Newtown. We walked along King Street looking for Newman Street and just when we almost gave up, we found it! Then we went to a fav: Max Brener's chocolate bar. We made it back to the city just in time for mass

On Sunday, we took the train to Bondi and quickly went shopping, where I didn't buy anything! crazy. We took a bus to the beach where I finally bought something! Then we perused the markets. We did the beach walk from Bondi to Coogee Beach, where we spent our first few days in Australia. It was an excellent way to end our stay in this wonderful country. We were very reminiscent and made sure to ask the hard hitting questions like "what was your favourite city" - Sydney, easy. or "fav. day" - the perfect one or "fav place" - toss up b/t opera house and the cathedral or "fav restaurant/food" - 'roo pizza or "fav trip" - New Zealand or "fav dress" - pink sequined dress lol

I also made a list of the top 10 things I will miss.
1. The Opera House!
2. St. Mary's Cathedral
3. Kangaroo pizza
4. The Harbour Bridge
5. Macquarie Uni
6. TimTam Slams
7. The shopping specifically Jeanswest and Glasson and Cotton On and the Mac Centre and Chatswood Westfield!
8. The pretty money and cool coins
9. The train to Wynyard and being able to walk anywhere in the city.
10. The Hub

Today was my last 24 hours in Australia. Theresa and I woke up at 5:30am to see the sunrise over the opera house

Another early morning so we could see the sun rise over Uluru. We did the base walk around Uluru which was about 10 km long.

Next, We visited the cultural centre and did a cultural walk.

Then we drove to Kings Canyon. At our campsite we saw fresh dingo prints. Fast Forward to the next morning when I woke up after sleeping in and my feet felt weird. Then I remembered that I thought I went to the toilet in the middle of the night and sure enough I checked my socks and they had dirt and sticks all over bc i kinda sleptwalked through a dingo infested forest. Super Duper.

crazy sky:

We drove to Kings Canyon to do a hike that was 6km and took 3.5 hours. The first part of the hike took place on a hill called "Heart Attack Hill". It was crazy. We passed an older couple huffing and puffing and they said they felt better knowing that us younger people were having trouble too. I made it to the top and my heart was pounding! like out of my chest. I was also kinda dizzy. Then my tour guide started smoking and I got so nauseous. He assured us the rest of the hike wasn't as bad and I told him that if he could do the hike with his smoker's lung I should be able to finish it. And I did and I have never felt more accomplished. I can do good better than anyone.

One woman on our tour decided to opt out of the hard hike and do an easier shorter one. The time difference was 3 hours so she was supposed to meet us at the bus. But when we finished the hike she was no where to be found. We checked the bathrooms and safety info centre and asked ppl on the easy walk, but we couldn't find her so after an hour of waiting our tour guide called the park ranger. I was worried that she hurt herself like twisted her ankle or something. Lorenzo thought she decided to try the climb herself, but I was skeptical bc she knew her ability enough to do the easier walk.

While the rangers looked for her, we made chicken burgers for lunch. After another hour, Dani was found! She was oddly chipper and when we asked her what happened she just said "i did the climb and saw 2 nice views" UM are you friggin' kidding me?! we were worried for you and had to wait at least 2 hours! and were now running late bc of her. This woman was 32 and clueless. When another person told her it was irresponsible to attempt the hike by herself and to make us wait all Dani said was "I sorry". I wanted to slap her.

Since we were 3 hours behind schedule, Lorenzo called our hostels to let them know we would be late since everything closes so early like 7. When we got to the hostel, we called the owner to get our keys and he said we didn't have a reservation which is bullshit because we had a confirmation email. I tried to be calm and civil and asked him to come talk to us in person so we could show him we had a reservation. He said it didn't matter because he didn't have any open beds. SO RIDICULOUS! I asked him what he expected us to do and if he knew any other hostels he could help us call and he said it wasn't his problem. I should have called the cops and made it his problem, but I'm not sure how much of a binding legal document a confirmation email is.

I called probably 5 more hostels and got a mixture of no answers, closed or no vacancys. We called a girl we met on the tour to see if she could go to her front desk and try to catch the person that checked her in, but the worker said they were closed. Do these ppl not understand that Alice Springs is extremely dangerous and they shouldn't leave 3 American girls homeless?! Our new friend said we could sleep on her floor if worse came to worse. The situation was beyond worse so we took her up on her offer. In the 8 person room we knew 5 of the girls. I thought you couldn't get worse than camping outside or a hostel, but nope I slept on a hostel floor.

While we are setting up camp with our blankets guest #9 walks in saying that someone took his bed. There ended up being 13 ppl in that 8 person room that night.
The next morning we took a cab to the airport about 3 hours early just so we didn't have to stay in town. We hung out in the food court area and I gave part of my reese's cup to a japanese woman to try because mixing chocolate and peanut butter is an American thing to do. She enjoyed it and when I told her she could finish it she said "but this is how you say? precious jewel" LOL
We watched "I love you too" on the flight home. It is an Australian movie and pretty funny and good, I would recommend it.

That end's my crazy Outback safari. It was a great time and a unique experience. I'm so glad I got to fit it in at the end of my stay in this beautiful country. I can't believe I leave in 4 days! ahhh.

Wow so the Outback is more than a steakhouse restaurant in the states?! no way.

We landed in Alice Springs. Such a happening town. We made it to our hostel and were greeted with the excellent news that we were upgraded to a motel! Life's tough lol.

We walked around town and climbed to the top of Anzac Hill to warm up for our future hikes. We ate dinner and retreated to our room for tv and an early night to prepare for our early morning.

We woke up at the lovely hour of 5am for a 6am pickup. After collecting other ppl, we started our 6 hour drive to Uluru or the huge rock in the Outback. There were 20 of us and the countries represented were: America, Japan, Holland, Singapore, Germany, China, France, and Lithuania.

We stopped at Stewart's camel farm. I know, camels in Australia?! yup. Camels were imported from the Canary Islands in 1840 and have been used ever since, there is even a population of wild camels. Our next stop was to see some kangaroos and emu's and get some snacks. Next we collected firewood. Yay, talk about fun.

Everyone started taking out their cameras to get a picture of what we thought was Uluru. For the record, I thought it was too rectangular and not as round as Uluru, but I joined everyone in trying to get the first picture. We found out later that it was actually Mt. Conner or as our tour guide, Lorenzo, called it: "Fooluru".

I was traveling with my friends Jess and Arielle. There was 4th girl from the states and together we became the unit: "Team America" Lorenzo assigned us to be the lunch ladies and prepare the fixings for sandwiches. After a hearty corned beef sandwich (literally there was corn on it), we hiked through the Valley of the Winds around Kata Tjuta meaning many heads since there are 36 domes, aka "The Olgas". The hike was 5km and lasted for 2 hrs. After the hike we were rewarded with biscuits (cookies) and fruit! Such an excellent surprise.

We were on a time crunch, but we made it to see sunset over Uluru. It was beautiful. Actually scratch that "beautiful" doesn't cover it. Such majestic mixtures of blues and purples.

Team Asia made us stir fry for dinner. There was hot water and we got to shower. Then we huddled around the campfire and played Never Have I Ever and other group games.

It was time for bedtime and laying in our swags (a rolled mattress in a canvas cover which one puts their sleeping bag in) under the stars.
I had thoughts of snakes or spiders crawling in my swag, but there was nothing I could do so I ignored it and slept.

The End ... of days 1 and 2.

I had an awesome day yesterday so I wanted to dedicate a whole blog to that amazing day.

Theresa and I took the train to Milson's Point and walked across the bridge.

up close and personal:

Then we met our friend Mia at Circular Quay. We admired the opera house for a bit.

Then we walked together to the Royal Botanical Gardens. The flowers were still pretty despite it being winter in this country.

We also had a runin with a flying fox who was a little too close for comfort.

He was hanging split style.

Fun Sidenote: I was dressed head to toe in Australian clothes, jewelry and shoes <3
Check out this trifecta of Australian pictures. The three best things Australia has: the Harbour Bridge, The Sydney Opera House, and ME

We ate dinner at the Australian Heritage Hotel and Mia and I shared a Pepper Kangaroo pizza and a Salt water crocodile pizza. The 'roo pizza is the winner in battle of the "Aussie" pizzas (aka 'roo, croc, emu, chicken, bacon).

We chilled out and relaxed along the Sydney Harbour to watch the Vivid Light festival again.
I just love the Opera House too much, can't stay away.

I thought the Opera House couldn't get prettier, I was wrong:

We saw an incredible show at the Opera House - Circa a play on Cirque du Soleil, but more artistic and intense.
(No Copyright infringement intended)
http://www.circa.org.au/shows.php?id=40

I'm halfway done with my classes. 2 finals separate me from senior year!

It's been raining nonstop in Sydney. We're talking downpours monsoon style.

On friday we went ice skating 80s style to celebrate my friend jess's bday.

On saturday I went to some markets and got a few of my lucky subscribers a souvenir or two Then I met up with my friend Angelica who studies at Sydney Uni. Their campus is quite lovely.

On Sunday we went to Cockatoo Island an old prison island/dock and shipyard. It started raining and got slightly eerie.
Then I went to mass at St. Mary's Cathedral, One of my favourite things to do in Sydney.

There's a month long festival going on in Sydney called "Vivid Sydney: a festival of light, music & ideas'. As part of this festival different buildings are lit up with different lights, artwork and texts. The cathedral thus looked even more beautiful than usual.

The opera house was also lit up and beautiful!

and that's the sparknotes version of my past week.