Day Four: Sydney!

Today, we flew out of Auckland and into Sydney, Australia!!!  We also walked around and saw the city and explored a little bit, which was really cool because I'm a total city girl.  My camera died, so I'll put up pics from tomorrow or another day.  But when we were walking around Sydney, it got me thinking of Chicago...


Although this is from the harbor cruise on a different day, we saw the Opera House today.




Today, when we left Auckland, I promised myself that I would not allow that to be the only time I traveled to New Zealand; it stole another piece of my heart. <3
However, when we flew over Sydney and I saw the bridge and the Opera House, I knew that I would be returning to Australia as well.  When we were walking around Sydney, it was really odd because I felt like it was a mini city, since it wasn't like the cities in the States, like Chicago.  For one thing, it is shorter, as in the height of the skyscrapers.  I like it because it makes the city more personal and less corporate.  However, I love Chicago as well because it's so iconic and it will always be my home, no matter what.  It reminds me more of London; a smaller city that has tons of culture and tourist attractions, but is also really easy to love and hard to leave.  The fact that the skyscrapers are shorter strikes me as weird just because I am so used to the my beloved Chicago skyline back home, and I couldn't imagine not seeing it from the Metra on the way into Union Station.  My favorite parts of Sydney are cliche, but I don't care.  The Opera House and the Sydney Bridge are really incredible.  The Opera House is way bigger than I ever imagined, and so is the Bride.  I would guess that the Bridge is around the sized of the Golden Gate Bridge in Sand Francisco.  To me, the Opera House is beautiful because of the movement the architecture portrays and how it reflects the movement in the Harbour.  The Rocks Market tonight was really cool; it was really like an art show.  I loved it as well.  Talking to the locals was really fun because they were so different yet so similar.  The people here are sooo fantastic and really are super friendly. 

After that, we had the choice to order pizza in the hotel or go out for dinner, so I decided to go out.  We ended up going to a fantascic place called Alice's Thai Restaurant.  We all tried new food and had a really deep conversation about our trip and traveling in general. (I order chicken pad thai.  It was delicious.)  The group was: Lexa, Megan C., Steven, me, Reilly, Alvaro, and Schags.  I know that when I look back on this trip, I will remember tonight for sure, and that is really important to me bacause I know I have grown from just being in that conversation tonight.  Overall, I love Sydney and I don't want to leave.