60 Hours in Sydney

A few friends and I dominated Sydney last weekend. Let me explain.

Transportation: A 12-hour night bus trip was half the price of a flight (which would have been just over an hour long), so we pounced on the deal. Note that we booked our tickets less than 48 hours before leaving Melbourne; we probably could have planned that one better.

Housing: My first time staying in a hostel! We were so tired each night, we wouldn’t have noticed if we were sleeping on a bed made of rock. But luckily for us, the hostel had surprisingly nice accommodations, a free city tour, and even its own dance club downstairs!

The schedule of events for the weekend. Hostels don't lie.

So, as I said, we saw it all: the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, the Rocks (oldest town with the oldest bars in Sydney, also holding the oldest people in Sydney), Queen Victoria Shopping Center (she's really made a name for herself in Australia), Bondi Beach, and the Bondi Beach lifeguards, just to name a few.

Fun fact: the architecture of the Sydney Opera House was inspired by stacks of orange slices.

Eating ice cream at the beach on a hot day. I'm never going home. (It's funny, because you think I'm joking.)

But the real reason we booked this last minute trip was Saturday night - the annual Sydney Gay Pride Mardi Gras Parade. I saw some pretty fabulous costumes (and lack of costumes too, if you know what I mean).

No words.

But in the end, 60 hours in Sydney just wasn’t enough. There’s still so much I’d like to do: hike the Blue Mountains, go on the Ferris Wheel at Luna Park, climb the Harbour Bridge. Don’t worry Sydney, I’ll be back.