Hello from Down Under...Sydney to be exact!!

At the end of April I was able with two of my Chicago friends, to take a trip to Sydney Australia. We took a flight out of San Fran and sat in Business class on the way over. We were even lucky enough to sit together, even though we flew stand by. It was a 14 hour flight, but was to me like a fun road trip, with bigger seats and more space to run around. We mostly sat around and played games on Andrews Iphone and talked, trying to force ourselves to stay awake until we should go to sleep Sydney time, helps with the Jet lag. I was one of the only ones who made it, but was able to see the Hawaiian Islands as we passed them by. Well when we finally got to Sydney we couldn’t get off the airplane until they sprayed for bugs. Apparently the planes pesticide papers had expired 4 days pervious and so before we could get off they had to come on with aerosol bug spray and spray everywhere. You can imagine the ruckus that caused. Everyone freaked out, but I just took it as a photo op. We finally got off and headed on our way, so I thought. The first day was full of little snags of not having a room rented, not knowing how to get to a hostel, figuring out transportation and then trying to find parking. 8 hours after we landed, we were able to finally get downtown to sight see. We went to an area known as the rocks, which is the oldest settled part of Sydney. This is one of the most Touristy spots and is right on the Harbour. The oldest house in Sydney is located here as well. It’s called Cadman's Cottage and was built in 1816, once home to John Cadman. After eating some Pizza with hot Salomi and whole olives with the pits still in them, we ventured a short distance over to the Harbour to look at the Sydney Opera House and then walk down to the end of the doc to take pictures of the Harbour Bridge. As we sat and admired the view I looked down into the water below and saw hords of Jelly Fish. They almost covered the water, defiantly wouldn’t want to take a swim there. It reminded me of all the dangerous animals they have here. They have the most dangerous Spider, Snake and Jelly Fish. Well after we saw the bridge and Opera house I had to run back to the car, grab my bags and head off on the Train to Parmatta, where my friend Kelly Conlon lived. I was supposed to be here the first day myself so I could go hang out with Kelly, but my friends decided to come a bit early. Well it was Kelly’s birthday so she got a group of friends together along with her twin sister and we went out to celebrate. We went out to eat and then after we ate ice cream and cookies, while watching a movie. Kellys roomie Amie had me try tons of different kinds of Aussie food, Milo hot chocolate, Tim Tams, some other little things and she even made me lunch for the next day, a veggie mite sandwich. Vegie mite is made from yeast extract, so it’s kind of Salty and sour as in fermented sour. I don’t know how to explain it. Anyway I had tons of fun with my Aussie experience hanging out with Aussies. The next day Kelly took me up to her work, which was the church offices in Sydney which was right next to the temple. I was able to attend a session in the Sydney temple and then enjoy the grounds for awhile till my friends picked me up and we then headed off to the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This was one of my most favorite parts of the trip. The park lets you get up close and personal with the animals. Some of the animal are fenced in but many are just out roaming around at your feet. I was able to pet A Wallaby
A Kangaroo A Koala An Emu and see lots of other animals native to Australia, like the Tasmanian Devil, which is a lot uglier than I had anticipated. A wombat, apparently they bite, so there was not petting going on there. The most poisonous snake in the world Inland Taipan . I wouldn’t want to be in that section of the zoo in an earth quake, They had like 6 of the most poisonous snakes in that room. There were tons more and I loved it. It was the most fun, I’d had at a zoo, since I was a kid probably. Actually, I think it is the most fun I’ve ever had a the zoo! After the zoo we ventured on up the road into the famous Blue Mountains, so named for the bluish tinge the range takes on when viewed from a distance. I thought that they would be more desolate, but they were populated and beautiful. One thing that was kind of weird to me was to see the leaves changing colors in April. It was fall there for them and very pretty. We were able to see some waterfalls. The red cliffs dropped straight down and were covered in green. It was a beautiful back drop for the water to cascade from. I wish we would have had more time here. You could feel the moister in the air and it finally gave way into buckets of rain.
(this is what the three sisters should look like...not my picture)
We ran back to the car and started heading up the road to another rock formation we wanted to see called the three sisters. The modern day tourism industry has created a legend about the three sisters that says that three sisters fell in love with three men from a neighbouring tribe, but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. Battle ensued, and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the fighting and no one else could turn them back. We tried to race the weather, but when we got to the town of Katoomba we found it cold and fog filled. We could barely see in front of our faces, let alone the mountains. We decided to get ourselves some food and then found a hotel to stay the night, since it was twilight and bad weather, we thought that if we stayed, we’d be able to see stuff the next morning. To our dismay when we awoke, the view was the same. The fog was dense and thick, but we decided to take a walk down by Echo Point anyway and take a picture of the view, which looks like San Francisco on most days, just gray. We then had to head back to Sydney and drop the car off. I was perfectly fine getting rid of that scary little thing. I was the only one that was to drive it, but the stupid thing was a stick, but even worse was the steering wheel was on the right and you had to drive on the left. It would have been fine, well sort of if I didn’t have to think about all of that at once. I only almost killed us a couple of times, but freaked everyone out most of the time. I finally let my friend Andrew drive. We then took a ride on a ferry out to Manly beach. The ride was so beautiful and the beach was amazing. This is a picture looking back at Sydney from the ferry anyway, Manly is across the harbor from Sydney. I think it’s the best place to go for souvenirs. It reminds me of a boardwalk beach town in California. The ice cream was great and the view was amazing. I think I liked Manly beach better than Bondi beach, which is more famous. Anyway after taking some pictures and walking around we headed back on the ferry. We decided to stand in the bottom part of the boat this time because the waves splashed up and I wanted to get some cool pictures. Well there were a lot of people in the front of the boat headed back. I think it made it heavier because we got a lot wetter than the people did going over. I thought I had the timing right to get a good picture but instead I got drenched and I sadly used my camera as a shield against the water, instead of me shielding the camera. My camera didn’t last very long after that. Salt water and cameras don’t mix. Anyway I’ve never seen people scatter so quickly. We stayed up there and enjoyed the view. It was worth it. We were going to go up in the Center Point tower to get a great view of the city, but it cost 25 bucks and I had just destroyed my camera, so I wasn’t in the mood. We did walk along Macquarie street and saw the Parliament House, Sydney hospital, which is an amazing old building, outside the Royal Botanical gardens and took a stroll threw Sydney’s Hyde park. It weirded me out that so many place here had the same names as in London. We also got to see St Mary’s Cathedral, which is made of a brilliant red stone and beautiful to see. It is also the largest Cathedral in Australia, but not the highest. Later that night we were able to walk around China town, eat Chinese food and walk down by Darling Harbour to see some of the boats in the maritime museum. It was the only time I was able to see any of the lights of Downtown Sydney at night. The harbour was beautiful. I wish we could have seen the Opera house as well. There were lots of street performers to watch besides just sitting and relaxing on the shore line. The next day we took a bus out to Bondi beach and relaxed on its beautiful shores. This beach was a lot less crowded than Manly and the water wasn’t very cold to swim in either. I didn’t get to stay long before I had to head back and go to lunch with my friend Warren Dautzenburg. He is an elder from my mission. The funny thing was that we just ran into him on the street. I was walking along and all of a sudden he was right in front of me. It was so random, but I was grateful. It was fun seeing him again. We were supposed to go hiking around the rocky shores of Watson Bay north of Bondi beach later that afternoon but the plans were changed and I ended up just taking the ferry back across the harbour right when I met back up with my friends. Maybe next trip. I saw the light houses and rocks from the bus, so that is ok at least I saw them. That night we didn’t do much of anything because Andrew got food poisoning from bad sushi and Chelsea was sunburned really bad. I ran errands for them, but it was nice to get out and walk around. The next day Chelsea and I headed back down to the rocks, which we visited almost every day, to see the Opera house, and also to eat at our favorite place called Pancakes on the rocks. They had the most amazing crepes and pancakes and they didn’t just have sweet stuff. I had some with chicken and a creamy sauce smothered with parmesan cheese. It was delicious!! Anyway the time went by way to fast and I soon found myself climbing aboard a United Boeing 747 in economy class. I was unlucky enough to get a middle seat, but blessed that the seat next to me was broken, so I could spread out. I did get a beautiful view of Sydney as we flew over and I got to say good bye to that beautiful city that felt a little bit like home.

New York City

At the Begging of April I was able to take a quick trip to New York City. I took a red eye flight and had the attitude of go go go…see see see!!! I of course started out trying to find my hostel which was in up town. It wasn’t too bad actually. It was really close to the train. my roomies were from Israel and were super nice. We stayed up most of the night talking.
The downstairs area was warm and inviting. It was newly renovated with dark wood, stone and warm colors which just drew you in.

The rooms and hallways reminded me of a frat house with their skinny purple linoleum corridors, big white rooms with 6 metal bunk beds and white hospital looking bathrooms. At least they were singles with a tub and shower and not community or tree of life style as named in the MTC.
Anyway back to the seeing of the town.

I finally got out into the wonderful thick stench of city air…aaaahhh…It reminded me of Chicago and made me miss it a little. I ventured on the subways and the first place I emerged was at time square. It was a lot bigger and cooler than I remembered it. I had forgotten that there were big screens on both sides of the square. I was in heaven at the business of the signs and the streets. I snapped a few picture and as I was trying to get one of me with the square the dark foreboding clouds decided to have a hay day and poor buckets on the city. I quickly ran under an awning wondering what I was going to do. Well to my luck the guy I was standing next to kind of looked around at us, flipped open his backpack and started pulling out umbrellas to sell. It was so random to me, but I was so grateful that I picked the right place to stand. After awhile the rain turned into a slight drizzle and I dared venture out to get my pictures.

I then started my hike around the city visiting many stops along the way as my pants slowly started to soak up water and get heavier and heavier. I saw the Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, ran up the street to the Rockefeller Ice Rink and plaza, I then went over to Radio City Music Hall and the Flat Iron building which was designed by Daniel Burnham, who designed the layout of Chicago. There were also a few churches and other interesting sites in between. I then had to get me my New York City vendor hot dog with sauerkraut on top. Mm good!

By the time I was a little miserable. My hair was wet and wavy, my shoes were completely water logged and my pants were wet up to my knees. The weather seemed to be like a big rotating sprinkler, that would trick you into thinking it was nice and then poring on you when you least expect.

I had a little bit of time left, so I quickly went down to the harbor and purchased a ticket for a ferry ride to see the city from the water, but most importantly The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I stood outside on the top deck to get some good pictures. It was a little wet but not raining on the way over. The city and Statue were beautiful. I’m so glad I was able to go and walk around and see lady liberty. The wind was really starting to pick up and water seemed to stand still in the air as I arrived, so my tour of the island was very fast.

I ran around and quickly snapped pictures, visited the tourist shop and right as it started to rain heavly again I boarded the ferry headed back. We stopped by Ellis Island, but because of the rain and shortness of time, I decided to save that for another trip.

I was very grateful that I was able to run back to my hostel at this time, change my clothing, straighten my hair and head out to meet my friend Maggie. Feeling a lot more secure, warm and dry I headed out in the now almost cloudless afternoon. I almost effortlessly found the little diner were I spent half of my evening.
Maggie was late in getting there, but it was fun to see my old roommate, enjoy the best calamari I’ve ever tasted, reminisce over old memories and relish the new ones. We spent hours of talking and then slowly walked back in the beautiful night to the train station.

My thought of the City were, that it reminded me of Chicago, but so, so much bigger. Every turn there were bigger buildings and it kept going and going. It was so enjoyable to me, because I love architecture.

Anyway I was about to get on my train at Central Station to head back home, when I decided I was crazy. I didn’t have lots of time and decided I could sleep when I got home. I started to walk around and saw many of the buildings at night, Chrysler building, Empire State, but the best again for me were the bright lights of time square. You could see them, from very far off and the called me, like a moth to a flame. The just reeled me in and I loved standing in the middle of the bright as day square in all of the hustle and bustle.

I soon took my adventures up and out to the Serendipity café where I was going to try their famous frozen hot chocolate, but the very long line and wait, by myself kind of cured me of my want of one, so I ended my night going back to time square and to get a hot cocoa at Starbucks.

Well the next morning I was going to get up early and try to hit the Today show stuff and wave at my family, but because we stayed up so late, I could hardly move. It was all I could do to get up an hour and a half after intended so I wouldn’t miss my Temple session.

It was a very interesting experience in the temple. You walk into the building and the temple is to the left of elevators going to other parts of the building. There were multiple floors. On one you rented your clothing and then had to go to another to change and then to the session. The rooms were really beautiful. The first room was covered in paintings of the outdoors with wood paneling and rounded corners to the room. They had problems getting the session started, but it was ok because I made friends with two very nice ladies sitting next to me, who took picture for me afterwards.

When the wonderful temple session was over and I dressed and went back out onto the loud crowded streets, the world seemed a little more peaceful and slow. Even in that big city. I slowly went back to my hostel, changed my clothes and headed down to lower Manhattan once again.

I went for a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge and saw the Woolworth building, with many of the other beautiful buildings around it.

I walked over to the World Trade Center site and saw the new skyscraper that was being built there. Nothing really is there, besides walls around it and a visitors center on the south side. I didn’t go in because it cost 10 bucks.

Instead I stopped at a little pizza place next to it and ate some New York Style Pizza, before taking a nice peaceful walk to the Grounds of St. Paul’s Chapel, where George Washington worshiped after his inauguration as president.

Sadly after this I had to quickly run back to my hostel and head out to the airport. The time was short, but I think that my two days in this great city were well spent and much was seen. I was supper exhausted but it was worth it!