I left my heart in Sydney..or it was stolen by a bat

Sydney!!
The land of all things that are good and ridiculously overpriced.

Our journey to Sydney began on Wednesday at the ungodly hour of 5am. We caught the bus to the airport, walked a mile and a half to the terminal and boarded our plane like a boss (stairway style!).

The city is gorgeous and the people are unnervingly friendly - we were literally approached by 3 people the first day because we looked so lost with our maps out. People just came up to us, directed us in the right direction and had us on our way. We walked around the city (my legs were still burning from BODYPUMP!! Such a bad idea to do that the day before leaving for Sydney. My thighs burned for 3 days!), and being the city girl that I am, instantly fell in love with all the buildings. We saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The first two nights we stayed at the Westend Backpackers hostel on Pitt St, in a room called 'The Church' which is a room of 32 people...it was an interesting experience. At night we went to Sidebar on George St. (free entry on Wednesdays!) where an awesome band was playing awesome cover songs all night. However, since everyone got up at the most ungodly hour, we were so exhausted we called it an early night and just crashed.

Day 2: Thursday March 3

On the second day the sun was shining, it was 30 degrees, and everyone was re energized so we hit up Bondi Beach. My new favourite place in the entire world <3. It was soo flippin' gorgeous! The water was sapphire blue and the sand was so fine it was like rolling around in fairy dust. We spent the entire day lying on the beach soaking up the sun, playing in the water, and just bumming around. It was perfect. At night we went down to Darling Harbour and met up with friends of my friend Erica at a swanky bar on Lime St. Darling Harbour is amazing at night, it's all glittery and shimmery and the bar scene is huge down there.

Day 3: Friday March 4

On Friday, we had to change hostels so we walked from the CBD to an area called Glebe. This area is quite far removed from central Sydney, but it was so cool. It's young, fresh and has a real artsy, hipster vibe. Imagine if Main Street and Commercial Drive got together and had a baby - that's what Glebe is like. There were rows of restaurants and it just felt very relaxed and homey. After getting settled, we walked to the Sydney Fish Market (very fishy) and then to Darling Harbour where we went to the Sydney Aquarium. They had a Lego exhibit throughout the aquarium which was awesome. Huge murals and sculptures made out of Legos. They also had an entire exhibit dedicated to sharks, which I failed to appreciate. At night it was Erica's friend's going away party at The Beresford Hotel - a really chill, awesome bar with a beer garden in the back. The beer garden had all these lanterns and the atmosphere was real laidback. We partied well into the night.

Day 4: Saturday March 5

Mardi Gras! One of the main reasons why we went up to Sydney this weekend. We had a lazy morning and hit up the Glebe Market in the afternoon. It was held at a primary school in Glebe, and it was real cool. It was essentially an outdoors flea market, with really cute stuff. At night, we went into the city to watch the Mardi Gras parade on Oxford St. It was wicked, the entire city got into it and everyone got dressed up and it was a huge party downtown. It wasn't like the New Orleans Mardi Gras, but the parade was awesome and I love ladyboys :). Of course we lost each other within the first 5 minutes of Mardi Gras, then I was separated by myself for a good half an hour (and of course my phone died right when I got lost) until Johnny magically found me. We met some locals who took us out to a bar afterwards, and we danced the entire night. Anytime there's music and dancing, that's a good night by me.

Day 5: Sunday Mar 6

Since we had to catch an early flight in the morning, we decided to take it easy on Sunday. However, we walked from one end of the city to the other, so I wouldn't call that taking it easy. We went from our hostel in the outskirks of Glebe to Chinatown, then all the way to the Botanical Gardens (which were very pretty), to the Harbour to see the Opera House again and then back to Glebe. I don't think i've ever walked so much or so far in my entire life.

I love Sydney and I did not want to leave. The city is gorgeous, with old and new buildings all mixed together making it this big mishmash of culture and architecture. One thing that surprised me were the bats. We were walking down the street, I looked up at the sky and thought there were crows flying above us. Upon further inspection, I realized those are effing bats! They're bats not birds! It's actually more rare to see a crow that it is to see a bat flying around in Sydney. I wouldn't be surprised if Sydney was the inspiration for Gotham City.

I love Sydney so much that I am heading back this weekend with Brit and Em! We're going there by train, which will be so awesome because i'm going to feel like i'm going to Hogwarts. I didn't get to see Kings Cross or explore Paddington (which is a huge shopping district with a big market on Saturdays). It'll probably be my last time in Sydney for a while, so let's make it count! We already have plans to spend a day at Bondi, do the walk from Bondi to Coogee, hit up a market, explore some of the bars in Kings Cross, order pizza and veg, drink some wine, maybe go for a swim...hey, the world is our oyster :)