Sydney

After a brief stint as a student, I am glad to say I have finally found a few moments to blog about what I have been up to.



The most exciting thing I have done in the past few weeks, by far, is go and join in in the Mardi Gras festivities in Sydney, Australia. This was not my first trip to Sydney but I must admit it was certianly my most memorable. Other than needing to feed my unyielding desire to travel and to go to a real city, the wonderful things the locals had to say about this Mardi Gras parade was enough for me and my partner in crime, Emma, to book a ticket on tuesday for the following saturday.

I have only ever been to one other gay parade (San Francisco, naturally) but I have to admit, that parade did not even come close. The massive amounts of people that came to see the floats (and riskily clad Australians) I can only imagine is what New York is like during the Thanksgiving day parade. I am not sure I have ever seen so many people in one place, in fact. It was a lovely change from the sweet and quant, but sometimes too quant, town of Townsville.

I am not sure where to even begin to describe the variety of things I saw, but luckily, a picture is worth a thousand words:

enough said, no?

After the parade,naturally, it was time to hit the pubs. After walking around a bit and deciding where to spend our Mardi Gras after party, we decided the World Bar looked like a young and happening place. And indeed, it was. Three stories high, with a dj playing different music on each level left my thirst for curiosity unquenched. Once one floor began to die out, we merely moved up one set of stairs. It was terribly covenient. And also, they served their drinks out of fabulous little teapots.

priceless.

The jovial atmosphere of the parade, and incredible amounts of people failed to wane even when I and some American mates were making our way back to the dorms in the wee hours of the morning. I am not sure how the Austrialians do it.

After some much needed sleep, our crew began to gain conciousness at the ripe hour of one in the afternoon. Not wanting to waste too much of our precious time in Sydney sleeping, we headed for a quick brunch, a little stroll around Darling harbor, and then... the Opera House! This was a big, "Oh ya, I'm in Ausralia" moment. There are few things more reperesntative of the Australian continet, other than koalas and kangaroos, than the Opera House. As an American, one is bombarded with images of the Opera House, but to see it in real life, in all of it's white and curved glory, is a whole other experience.

So yes, it was an amazing day.

Sadly, as all good things must come to an end, it was time to catch a flight back to Townsville early the next day. While I was a little sad to leave the comforts of a big city like things open past 4 in the afternoon, or a starbucks, I did find a little flame of excitment burred inside me as our plane landed back in Townsville and to my suprise thought to myself "It's nice to be home." Of course, about an hour later, I was planning my easter holiday.