Day 8 in Sydney

Since my alarm decided to stop working, Yvette graciously let me borrow her mobile's alarm, and I got up early for my tour to the Blue Mountains with WonderBus. They were a tad late in picking me up, so I sat outside in the cold for over 30 minutes. I was staring mindlessly at a bus at the red light in front of me, when Adrian pops outside to go to work and stops beside me, following my gaze, stroking his chin and looking thoughtful. "I just don't see it," he said. :-) And perhaps because I have amused him and his friend from the UK with the occasional slip of a "y'all," Adrian has started calling his mobile his cell phone and serviettes, napkins. Woohoo!

The people already on the bus were super quiet, but thankfully our awesome tour guide Patrick eventually got a few people to start talking. Of the 18 people on the bus, 14 were Americans, and it was kind of odd and nice at the same time to meet people from back home. I chatted a bit with an older man from Maryland, who went to UVA back in the 70s, and a girl from New York, who's originally from South Africa and is currently on a RTW trip.

Patrick was full of the typical Aussie humor I've become accustomed to and learned to love since I've been here. Along with all of the informative bits (the history of ANZAC -- Australia New Zealand Army Corps, how the Blue Moutains -- really canyons -- were formed, etc.), he was sarcastic and witty and super entertaining. After my first few days in OZ, I stopped being so gullible and started laughing at most things the Aussies, and other people, threw my way. So yesterday I was really enjoying myself, and inwardly laughing when other Americans on the trip gasped, "Really?!" and "Wow!" when Patrick mentioned something I knew was outrageous, but with all the sincerity in the world :-). I'm so going to miss this type of humor when I return to the States, because it's simply part of the culture here. You really can't take yourself too seriously!!

We stopped at Featherdale Wildlife Park where we got to see all sorts of Aussie wildlife (obviously). There were so many more kangaroos than I fed and petted at Steve's zoo, and for the first time I saw wallabies, which I found so much cuter than kangaroos O:-). After an hour at the park, we headed to a small town to buy lunch and head down to a lake for a picnic. I'd already packed a PBJ from the hostel (budget travler!!), but one cafe had roasted vegetables (sweet potato, red potatoes, carrots, and a couple of other things) that I couldn't resist buying in a small container. Yum!! Vered, the cool girl who's doing the RTW buddied up with me there, and we talked about travel with Patrick during lunch...rather, those two shared about their worldly travels while I listened in awe and fascination.

Back on the bus we went to Echo Point to see a view of the Three Sisters and a view of the Blue Mountains. We only had 15 minutes there, which wasn't nearly enough. An aboriginal man was playing the didgeridoo, and I could have listened to him for hours!!!

Next we headed to Scenic World, where we took a super fast bushwalk down into the canyon. The steps were quite steep and sometimes uneven, and keeping your balance and maintaining our rapid pace was challenging at times -- mostly in the sense that you didn't get to stop and enjoy the beauty around you. Every so often though, we'd stop and Patrick would tell us a story about the Blue Moutains. My favorite was the aboriginal story of how the Three Sisters were formed...well, one of the two, the story about the bunyip. It's an interesting read and Patrick told it in a really fun way. When we finished the bushwalk, we headed back up to the top via the Railway, the steepest incline railway in the world. It was *much* steeper than I was expecting, and you had to press your legs against this railing at one point to keep from falling forward!! "Heaps" of fun ;-)

Let's see...then we headed to a winery that opens its doors just for the WonderBus tour, and I sampled a few wines before standing under the heater and talking to two girls from Hawaii who were really nice. Once everyone had sampled a few wines, we headed back to town and saw the Sydney Olympic Park, which was so beautiful at night! One area has poles that have the names of all of the olympic volunteers engraved on them, and I actually found someone who has my name :-)

Finally, we caught the 6:30 Rivercat back to Circular Quay, and it was 7:30 by the time I made it back to the hostel. Andrew started making dinner for us, and I brought down one of my bottles of wine to share with him and his new roomie Philip from Germany. We had such a good time just chatting about anything and everything, and Adrian joined up with us after a while. And thanks to Adrian's MOBILE, I caught up with Daren to make plans for our show at the Opera House for Wednesday night :-)

Manuela and Rachel were still in the room when I returned, and we had a new roomie from Germany. It took me til my last day here to meet Germans, and I of course had to tell them I have two friends there and might visit next summer :-)

Well it's now Day 9 in Sydney, my last full day. Last night dad sent me an email, asking if I missed home or if I wished I had another week here. I replied, "I do miss home, but I'm ready to stay here another 3 weeks." I love it here, and when I went to bed last night, my heart was really starting to ache knowing that I'd be leaving soon. Today, all of the good times and emotions from the past 3 weeks are flooding my heart and mind at once, and I'm not quite sure what to do with them, except let them in and go along for the ride.

It was supposed to rain today, but it's clear so far!! Too late to head over to Manly, but I'm going to head down to a few shops for the last time, come back to the hostel to pack, and get ready to meet Daren for dinner at our show at the Opera House. And I just switched rooms this morning, so I'll be staying with Andrew and Adrian tonight, praying that I haven't driven them nuts yet ;-)

I won't be able to post again until I get back to the States, so until then, cheers.