FINALLY made it to Sydney!

 WELL it took 6 and a half months...but I finally made it to Sydney a couple weeks ago! I'm SO glad I ended up taking the trip down there; seeing the Opera House and Harbor Bridge was surreal. I also knew that I would get a lot of crap if I went to Australia but didn't stop in Sydney...... =)

We arrived earlier that day, checked into a hotel..got UPGRADED at the hotel due to an electrical fire in our original room..then got to see how AMAZING the city looked at night! Luck was on our side so far...

Seeing the Opera House was amazing. I guess when I thought of visiting Australia, I thought of kangaroos, koalas, and the opera house. I think it just brought the entire trip full circle for me....

Opera house by day! The roof of the opera house is made of tiles! They always looked more like canopies to me.....

On the ferry ride to Manly beach. Manly is a beautiful stretch of beach in Sydney, however you have to take a ferry ride to get to it. Australia has so many beautiful beaches, Manly was just another one to add to the list :).

largest chess game I've ever seen. If you ever get bored of a game...just play a bigger version of it!!

We visited a convict museum!  Australia is where all of the European, Canadian, and African convicts were sent way back in the 18th c and 19th c. They were sent to Australia for anything from stealing bread to robbing banks to pick pocketing. We got to see the barracks where a lot of these folks were held! *There's my history lesson for this blog*

We even got to play dress up! This look is a little too realistic on Craig...

I tried to make it fashionable with the jeans underneath the.......short pants/capris?

They slept in these hammocks...I found them relaxing!

chatting with some cardboard cut out convicts...

It was a MAJOR goal of mine to find good Mexican food in Australia. Low and behold....I found it in Sydney! It's called Cafe Pacifico....and from my very first sip of my margarita and my very first bite of my burrito, I was quickly transported back to California. I seriously haven't tasted mexican food like that for about 7 months now! These guys must do a lot of importing because I know that those ingredients didn't come from oz...sorry Australia, stick with your meat pies!

The next morning heading towards Sydney Tower (the skinny looking unstable building)! Doesn't look that tall to me.......

View from Sydney tower of our hotel. It's the giant brown building on the very left...we literally moved from the 3rd floor electrical fire room to the 11th floor apartment!

view of the harbor! The opera house and bridge aren't in this picture but they're slightly to the left...

Spent a little more time at the opera house before our flight back to Cooly! Craig doesn't mean to be frowning..he had to deal with my, "lets take a self-photo of ourselves, the opera house tiles, AND the bridge!!" Can you blame me???!

 

 

 

And..about that good luck that we had....we ended up getting upgraded to first class on our flight back to Coolangatta! Words of advice...approach that sweet looking girl at the guest services desk...it could get you into a very comfy seat!!