Australia Day in Sydney

Assalamualaikum, hi, hello. Man, it such a long time since I last hit my keyboard to write something in here. Poor blog. Been abandoned by me. I'm very sorry as my life is quite busy - sometimes it doesn't but I pretend it to be one, but truly, I am not having that much free time to waste.

Alright. I visited Sydney last January. At first I deliberately would like to update a little bit late about my trip there because I don't want to ruin the eagerness and all the surprises Sydney will give to my friends who are going there. However, since I keep on procrastinating, four months have passed. *hard slap on the face*

Actually, it was a sudden idea when my housemate and I realized that we're going to have 3 days of weekend due to Australia day. And we were doing our summer term at that moment. A weekend getaway might help us to relax a bit since it was a really packed term. Everything were done online - from tickets to accommodation.

So, on Friday after attending the lecture and tutorial, we rushed to the airport. Even our Zuhur prayer was at the airport. So we waited and waited until the departure gate's open and had to walk to the plane. Just like in LCCT. Oh ya, we're boarding the Tiger Airlines. Right at the moment stepping into the plane, I was mesmerized by the stewardesses. Don't get me wrong ! Haha. It just their uniform that caught my attention. White shirt and slacks. That's all. Nice and simple.

Touched down at Sydney Domestic Airport after two hours doing nothing in the plane - sleeping literally. Since we know nobody in Sydney, our journey was solely depending on public transports. From the airport, we took a train to the city. This where the joy started. Sydney has double decker trains ! Oh wow, we were so so so amazed, our jaws dropped to the floor. Of course we wanted to try something new and ta-da, we went upstairs. To our surprise, the back of the seats can be interchanged ! So cool, neh?

Hopped off at the central train station and walked to the hostel which was hundred metres away.

It was our first time went to a backpackers hostel and this YHA Central Station Hostel was really awesome. They had large kitchen, comfortable washroom, lounge which have pool table, massage chair, Daytona arcade, a lot of bookshelves, and also a cinema room.We chose a room for 4 people so our other roommates were an Australian lady from Canberra and a Japanese lady.

The lounge

That night, our roommates already went out. So, we decided to take a look downstairs - the kitchen and lounge. I was wearing my 'baju kelawar' since we didn't have any plan that night. Should be going to visit University of Sydney that evening but we were asleep because we're so tired rushing off from class to the airport and all. Suddenly, Puteri said she's bored and would like to go outside for a walk. We kept on walking, experiencing the night life in the city and without realizing we had been walking for half an hour and ta-daaa we reached UniSyd. Haha. We made a little tour by ourselves and it was kinda creepy when there were only two girls doing the investigation in an empty university. Not a single soul to be found. Well, it was summer holiday. After a while, we head back to the hostel but we somehow walked pass the hostel for 14 minutes before realizing that we had the wrong way. It was tiring. Seriously.

See?

The next day, we walked to Madame Tussauds museum since it's the place we need to retrieve our Merlin Pass. Although it wasn't as big as the one in London, it still have quite a lot of human wax statues there.

First, let me take a selfie - with Gandhi

Puteri was interviewed by Oprah. Whoa !

After that, we went to Sydney Wildlife and Sydney Sealife. Both of them were next to the Madame Tussauds museum. It was the first time ever I saw a dugong. What a beautiful creature. And huge. And she had this very gentle looking. I love her ! On the way back to our place, we made a stop at Paddy's Market. Well, it's like Queen Victoria market in Melbourne in a way but I think it had more clothes and accessories compared to Victoria Market.

 Tasmanian Devil !

 Spot a platypus

 Dugong-gong-gong-gong

 Look at her. Isn't she beautiful? *Steve Irwin tone*

Around 6, we took a bus to Bondi Beach. Well, the original plan was that we would like to watch the sunset. But bus fare in Sydney was quite expensive and they used the prepaid ticket. You need to buy the ticket first from 7-Eleven then you can hop on into the bus. It took us about 20 minutes to get there by bus. Upon arriving there, we were flabbergasted. Subhanallah. The water was turquoise. The first time ever I saw something like that. However, the wind was strong, so did the incoming waves. I wouldn't dare to swim there. But there was a surfer who caught my attention. He was good. Really good.

 Bondi Beach

See those seagulls?

We took a bus to the hostel but we hopped off near Hyde Park. We're heading to Sydney Eye Tower because the fee was included in the Merlin Pass. It's the tallest building in Sydney - a viewing tower just like KL Tower. We were also given a chance to experience a short 4D movie before heading to the lift to go to the deck. 4D was cool.

4D spectacles

On Sunday, we checked out from the hostel. After that, we went to Circular Quay and there were a lot of people. Yeah, it's Australia Day ! At that moment, the wheel chair race was about to start and guess what, the participants were all golden citizen.

We bought tickets to go to Manly Beach and I was over the moon because it was my first ferry ride. Arriving at the beach after half an hour journey, we went straight to Manly Sealife Sanctuary. Well, again it was included in the Merlin Pass. We have to maximize what we had pay, right? Interestingly, they have shark diving there but you have to fill in some forms first and book your turn. No time for that. Yeah, there were a lot of shark in this sealife rather than the one in the city. They also have 3 turtles and one of them was handicapped. He lost his left leg.

 Sea horse

 Lion fish. Nice to look but poisonous.

 Doryyyyyy !!

The special turtle. Beautiful isn't it?

We would love to head back and watch the shop for Australia Day. However, the officer said that the next ferry would only arrive in 45 minutes because they were stuck at Circulay Quay. Too many boat and ferries and ships that day. So yeah, we even had our lunch first and came back to the jetty just in time when the ferry arrived. There were no vacant seats so we decided to stand outside. Pergh. That time I understood why some people get seasick. When we almost arrived at Circular Quay, there were a lot of ships - one of them is a Viking Ship for the show. And people in another private boats or ferries kept on waving their hands towards us, so we did the same. It was a very nice experience. It's like everybody was having fun and really enjoy the day. Guess what? It was the peak of Australia Day celebration actually. We were lucky enough to witness that.

And... there's the Opera House !! Just like in the photo I always see. It's nice to see it from the ferry.

 

After that, we took a bus to Australia Museum. Since it was Australia Day, the entrance fee for that particular day was halved than usual. It was huge. Bigger than Melbourne Museum that I ran out of time to tour all galleries there. One thing I like about museums in Australia is that they are informative and education-based. Not only kids would love to visit them but the adults as well. I hope that one day museums in Malaysia will be as good as them or even better.

 Skeletons of different types of fish

 Tasmanian Tiger - declared extinct on 1936. The last one died in captivity.

Guess who did I imitate?

When we stepped out from the museum, we saw this. Lucky enough?

Antique cars parade. The cars were all good.

We went to the train station as my phone almost ran out of battery. I needed to charge it badly - for two reasons, to take picture and GPS. Unfortunately, all plugs were preoccupied with other people charging their phones as well. No options left. I walked to the information counter and asked whether he could help me to charge my phone.

"Do you have the charger with you? I can help to charge the phone. But you must come back before 6.15 as I finish my job at that time."

I was speechless. I can only thank him. He was working and he didn't even know me but he offered to help me.


Around 6, I got my phone back. It wasn't fully charged but it was enough at least to use the GPS. Darling Harbour was our next destination. I knew it's going to be full of people but that's among the famous attraction there - I must get there ! We took a tram there and on Australia Day you only need to pay $10 to use the tram to get anywhere for the whole day. If and only if we knew earlier...

There were a lot of people there so my friend and I decided to talk a walk and visit the Chinese Friendship Garden but it was closed to public that day. It's alright. We head back to Darling Harbour to find a spot to watch the fireworks show. In my whole life, that was the first time ever I saw a fireworks show in front my face. Not from distant. But I hate crowded place so yeah, that might be the first and last time to watch a fireworks display really near. The sound - almost made my heart stops beating.

No pictures during the fireworks. I was busy recording it.

After the show, everybody was walking back to the train stations or hotels or whenever they were heading to. Yeap, walking. I felt that I was kinda in a zombie town. Everybody's walking. No cars, no bicycles, nothing.

We walked to Museum Station and took a train to Domestic Airport. This where rare case happened. Our flights was around 6 the next morning so we thought that we might just sleep there. However, the officer came and asked us to leave because they're closing the airport. They will only be operated again at 4.30 the next morning. I never heard about an airport having operation hour. There were 3 other ladies with us and they complained to us about the airport being ridiculous.

Where did we sleep that night? Took a train to the international airport. There was a space provided for early travellers like us. Even the international airport was closed. The next day we catched the 5.00 am train as that was the earliest one to the domestic airport.

And I never felt sooooooooooo good to be back in Melbourne again. HAHA.

love,

nadi