Sunday. Such a sad day in Wagga.
Steffanie and I woke up early and finished our packing. It was a beautiful morning outside, so we had our last family meal outside on the deck. Everyone seemed too sad to say goodbye. Even Monty, our family dog, looked a little down. It was a nice breakfast, nonetheless, despite the fact that I was finally forced to ingest the Aussie favorite, Vegemite. I took one bite, screamed in agony, and threw the rest of my toast to Monty, which cheered him up. At least I can say I tried it!
We packed ourselves into the car and headed to the one gate Wagga Wagga airport. Sally Taber, the now former Miss Wagga Wagga, was working the check-in desk at the airport. As we waited for our flight, all sorts of our new friends from throughout the week came to say goodbye. There were a lot of hugs, and a lot of tears. Steffanie and Deidre were the absolute worst offenders! They were a mess. I mostly kept it together, up until we took our final family portrait, and I had to say goodbye to Leah, my Aussie twin sister. You know, when we first set out for this adventure, I was primarily excited to see the Sydney I had always seen on TV and in the movies. I had no idea that I would fall in love with Wagga Wagga. As our prop plane took off, and the Wagga countryside got smaller and smaller below us, all Steffanie and I could talk about was when we would get back to our Australian home.
We were pretty sad on the plane. Even the fact that we had the same crazy stewardess didn’t really help. We were excited when we touched down in Sydney once again, but the dreary, rainy skies didn’t seem to help lift our spirits.
We made our way to our new hotel, the Old Sydney Holiday Inn. It was gorgeous, and located right within Sydney’s historic Rocks section of town. The Rocks is where the original Australian “settlers” first built their new homes. With windy little cobble stone streets and old taverns, it’s an adorable part of town, if not a little spooky. Every Sunday, there’s a huge street fair in The Rocks, so after we freshened up in the hotel, we headed straight to it. Wagga had lightened our suitcases a little, so we could finally souvenir shop to our heart’s content. We came across so really cool crafts and some delicious food samples. We made our way back to the beautiful Circular Quay for some more shopping.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a rustic looking tavern for lunch. We savored our last potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce. (If you’re ever looking for a fairly authentic sweet chili sauce, I just discovered Frank’s Red Hot new sauce.)
We stopped at the hotel to drop off our purchases, and prepared for the climb of our lives!
My future Appalachian Trail hikes aside, I’m not really known for my adventurous side. That’s why I’m so proud of my Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb! I’ve always been very scared of heights, but after seeing Mary Kate and Ashley’s “Our Lips Are Sealed” when I was eight years old, I had always wanted to do the Bridge Climb. Steffanie and I walked to the very modern BridgeClimb building to sign-in. We killed time with looking at their celebrity wall of fame. Everyone from the cast of Glee, to Lance Armstrong, to the Osbournes, to Daniel Radcliffe (!) had made the climb. We had a bit of a wait, but we soon joined our fellow climbers for our training. Our climb instructor, who was really cool, took us through all the steps. We put on our gray jumpsuits, our safety belts, and started to attach all our gear to it. We got special handkerchiefs, headlamps, earpieces, and other cool gadgetry. He had us practice on an indoor course, and then we were ready to make our way to the bridge!
Steffanie and I had chosen to take the twilight bridge climb. (No vampires allowed.) As we made our way out on the initial level, I have to say I was a little worried. But I began to get a feel for it, and I could enjoy the views of the soon to be setting sun. I didn’t really enjoy the various ladders we had to climb straight up to get to the top levels, but I slowly soldiered on. I really enjoyed myself as we got to the main arch, and our guide began to tell us the history of the bridge. It was all just so fascinating. As the sun set, Sydney began to light up. We could see the opera house, the carnival grounds, and Sydney Tower. As we made it to the top, I had never felt so accomplished, or invigorated. We took various pictures at the top, as you can see above. I absolutely loved it up there. Sadly, we had to start our way back down. By the time we made it back down from our two hour climb, to the other side of the bridge, it was completely dark.
We unsuited and I had to bid farewell to my gray jumpsuit. Before we made our way out, we were stopped by our guide, who had me sign a photo release. It had been revealed during the climb who Steffanie and I were, so our guide said they may use my picture as Miss Teen of America for their celebrity wall of fame!
We had worked pretty hard during the climb, but it was our last night in Australia, and Steffanie and I just weren’t that tired! We decided to explore and found our way back to Circular Quay, where we picked up some gelato for a late dinner. Back at the hotel, we headed up to the roof to take some last pictures of the gorgeous Sydney skyline.
Monday wasn’t a great day. It was unbearable sad. We were still missing our Wagga friends, but know we were being forced out of Australia! We had breakfast in the hotel, dragging out feet and delaying as much as possible until we had to absolutely go to Sydney International Airport.
No troubles with security at the airport, so we had enough time to explore the shops a little bit. But, too soon, we had to get on our huge jet that would be our home for the next 14 hours on our way back to L.A. I wasn’t too productive on the plane, watching a ton of movies and creating a list that I’ll post below. I was not a happy camper in L.A.X. Mostly because I don’t care for L.A.X, we were exhausted, I was completely broke save for some Australian change, and I missed Australia! Our layover seemed to take forever. I was better in Atlanta airport, because I love Atlanta. And Steffanie bought me some Starbucks. Steffanie’s was trying to get on a later flight so that she could go visit Sunny, but it didn’t work. We parted ways, and I got on my flight to Buffalo, where I promptly feel asleep (almost on the shoulder of the woman next to me) as soon as the plane took off. I awoke just as we flew over Lake Erie and my 27 hours of travel came to an end. It was Monday morning when we left Sydney, and it was late Monday night when I got home. It was the longest Monday of my entire life.
Here, I’ve typed out my handwritten list of why Steffanie and I shouldn’t have left Australia:
1. I have no ambition to write my HP/Twilight op-ed.
2. I don’t fell like writing all those blogs. Because there’s too much wonderfulness to write. It will make me sad.
3. I don’t have any Carmello Koalas.
4. I’m really behind on English and Calc. It would be easier to just not do it.
5. I’m really behind on college apps, so I’ll just go to Charles Sturt.
6. The family can move out here. We can all be waitresses and make $18 an hour.
7. I’ll be 18 in 2 months.
8. The tomato sauce packets are cuter.
9. Pavlova.
10. The potato wedges are crispier.
11. I never saw a platypus!
12. I miss the Tomes.
13. We never had our Heath Ledger marathon.
14. I never bought that Warata passport cover.
15. I never saw Canberra.
16. I need to see a crow in the city of crows.
17. The video Delta spokeswoman scares me.
So, there you have it. After only 10 months, I have finished my chronicles of my adventures in Australia! I just hope they won’t be my only adventures…
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