Arriving in Sydney

Once I got to my hostel, I quickly dropped off my bags, made a new friend, (laura- from germany! so sweet! ) checked out the amazing rooftop view (see pic above, even better without the big cruise ship in the way-- it's incredible) and headed off to the whale watching tour. I thought i'd have no problem finding the meeting spot, but apparently I had an incredibly lost look on my face- a taxi stopped and asked if I needed help. I gave up and told him where I was going and he said it would be quicker if I walked- what a nice guy!!! So I walked, got lost, asked for

Directions a few times, and with sweat dripping down my back and blisters from my new boots (dumb I know) I was the last to board the boat... Phew! 

 Good news is that I got to see a lot of the city, right off the bat! Haha. See pic of my room below... Kinda feel like I'm in college again! :) 

The whale watching cruise was so so pretty, loved seeing the Harbour! 

Big surprise, I made friends with the only little girl on the boat (she was 8) and her sweet family from the Philippines. We saw several pods of whales, super exciting, but there's nothing like the first time when mom and I saw them in Alaska. These whales were pretty far off, so I didn't get great pics, sorry! As the tour was heading back it started raining. Of course I wasn't smart enough to bring an umbrella so I had to walk back to my hostel in the rain, soaking wet. But- due to my "explorations" earlier in the morning I didn't even have to look at a map to get back! The views from the boat were amazing! 

You like those camera skills? Oh ya, had to time the Australia flag wave juuuuust right! ;) 

When I got back to my room I found a note on my bed from laura from Germany asking if I wanted to grab dinner! Yay! It was so nice having a buddy to walk around the city with at night! We looked at several restaraunts around our place in "the rocks" neighborhood... There was not a single dish listed under $20... Sooo we gave up, got McDonalds (my meal was still $9.00 at mcdonalds!!) and walked to the opera house sat on a bench and pretended like we were eating a fancy meal on the water. It was just as cool! I really enjoyed talking with laura about Germany, so cool. It might need to be on my next itinerary! 

Yes- my hair was still wet from the walk back in the rain.... Ugh. 

Pictures don't even do it justice. It was soooo pretty at night! 

I kept seeing all these people running on the boardwalk thinking about how weird it was that they were all running so late, then I looked at my clock and realized it was only 6:30! It gets dark around 5:30 here! Good for us, because as soon as we got back to the room we both passed out! (She had a 28 hour flight--- yuck!) 

An absolutely fabulous first day in Sydney!!! Can't wait for tomorrow!!