Day 1

We were all excited to get off of our 15 hour plane ride to Sydney. We passed through customs and then headed to baggage claim to find all four of our suitcases waiting for us. We all breathed a sigh of relief that our bags were there containing our medicine, clothing and food. We headed out of baggage claim and walked to the exit where our driver should be. We looked around for about five minutes, but he was nowhere to be seen. We were about to leave and look outside, but then I saw the driver holding a sign that said: STROH. I told everyone and then we quickly turned around to say hi to our driver and followed him to his car.

We got into the car and took a 30 minute drive to our hotel. We were staying at the Park Hyatt Sydney. We checked in and sprinted to our room. We entered and saw the coolest room we had ever seen, we had a couch, two beds a table, a porch with an awesome view, a cool bathroom and a TV.

I ran onto our deck and saw the view – a small cove, but on the other side of the cove was… The Sydney Opera House. Brooke joined me looking out at the Opera House. We sat there for about five minutes saying:  WHOA! We then chilled out in our room for about 15 minutes then headed out to get breakfast at a place called “Pancakes on the Rocks.”  To be honest, the food wasn’t the best, but it was the best, worst and only meal of the trip so far.

After breakfast, we headed out to the wharfs to find a ferry to take us to Manly. We boarded the ferry. We all headed up on top of the ferry to see everything. Midway through the ride, Brooke and I headed down below in the back of the boat to get splashed by all the water that shot out of the ocean at us. The water was cold, but then there was the wind whipping at your face so when your face was cold, the wind did a great job freezing every inch of your face. I swear, I could feel a layer of ice covering my face.

When we got to Manly, we all walked down this little street on the way to the beach. On the way, we walked into a store that sold aboriginal art. Brooke was blowing into an instrument called a Didgeridoo. It made a low “whooing” sound when you blew into it. After we left the store, we ran to the beach to play. Then, we headed into a tea store and I got an Arnold Palmer that tasted so good because it had a little kick of ginger in it. After that we sat on the beach and we saw some dolphins swimming, which was so cool. Then, we headed back to the Ferry building and took a ferry back to Sydney.

When we got back to our hotel we were all hungry so we walked to this authentic Italian food restaurant and we all shared this huge pizza that was made for four people. I had an unbelievable amount of pizza… SIX PIECES! After that, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed at four o’clock in the afternoon. No dinner for us, we were way too jet lagged. 1 Down 179 days to go…