Savouring Sunny Sydney

The past few days have been very exciting, tons of fun, and relatively busy, which according to my book, is never a bad thing.

Yesterday afternoon, one of my friends and I walked to Town Hall for the Travel Expo that was being held there. I had gone the previous day to watch two presentations on visiting South America and Antarctica [Jackee ;o)] and living and working in the UK, but I had arrived later than I had planned so I had missed a couple talks that I had wanted to see. This time, we listened to a representative from one of the travel agencies talk about visiting Africa, which is a place that I’ve always found captivating. Afterwards, we stayed in the auditorium to hear the editor of Get Lost, a travel magazine in Australia, talk about how to become a successful travel writer and get your articles published. It was pretty interesting, but the synopsis of the presentation was a tad misleading since it said that it was going to be about photography, too, so I think Steffy was left a little disenchanted. However, attending the expo and learning about all these travel opportunities have given me the itch to see more of Oz...... and the rest of the world.

Following the Travel Expo, I took a train to Olympic Park for the Hillsong recording. On the way, I met a few other people who were heading to the same location so we talked for a while. The couple I talked to the most was from Colombia. When I told Juan that I was from Pennsylvania, he said that although he ultimately decided to join his girlfriend in Sydney, he was originally planning to go to Pennsylvania to work with his brother…. at Dorney Park! It really is a small world, isn’t it?

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect with the recording, but I had certainly been looking forward to it since I had learned about it…. and I definitely wasn’t left disappointed. We sang several songs that we had sung last Sunday during the church service and some new ones that I had never heard before. Overall, it was very powerful and almost a surreal experience. After the recording, a group of us drove to Pancakes on the Rocks for dinner. There, I met some more people, one of whom was a girl from Madison, Wisconsin who’s been studying at Hillsong College for the past two years.

Today, I finally participated in one of the free walking tours, which is something I had wanted to do since I first arrived in Sydney. I’ve done other ones in London, Dublin, and Krakow that I enjoyed so I was looking forward to doing this one. The tour started near Town Hall and worked its way up to Circular Quay, which is where the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House are. It was a great comprehensive tour of the city that made me realise just how much of Sydney I have yet to see. Australia is a relatively young country, but its beginnings are interesting to learn about, and the guides always have quirky, lesser-known stories to share with those who are on the tour, like rubbing the nose of il porcellino [pig] on Macquarie Street for good luck.

Not to rub it in at all… okay so maybe to rub it in a little :o), but being outside in the warm sun all day had left me feeling beat. Part of me wanted to go out and enjoy the Halloween festivities, but in the end, my bed won the battle.

Night to all my Northern Hemisphere family and friends.. stay warm!