(To catch up on my recaps, start here And now, the adventure continues: 

Saturday was a big day for us. We started out in the morning by heading to Victoria Market in the heart of Melbourne. It’s a huge outdoor market with anything you can think of: food, clothes, shoes, jewelry, souvenirs, bags, and hats. It was overwhelming. We had to just take it row by row. I picked up a fun pocket watch necklace and presents for my mom and dad, while Sharon made out like a bandit, with souvenirs for all her friends. Sarah and I wasted time proving my theory that I look good in all hats. (It’s totally true, and Sarah agrees. I credit my haircut.) 

After a quick food court lunch (it sounds lames, but was actually amazing – their food courts are kind of lovely.) we took a tram to the South Bank (I think that is what its called…Sarah, you can correct me.) where we planned to go up in the Eureka SkyDeck, a new residential building that is now the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s a sweet building – the top is actually coated with gold!  They have an observation deck on the 88th floor, along with something called the Edge Experience. Basically, it’s this little room, a little bigger than an elevator, that is entirely made of glass and moves out of the building! So, you are standing in it, the glass windows are all fogged up, then you hear a cracking noise and the windows go clear, and it’s like you are floating 88 stories up. Being mildly afraid of heights, I had a minor heart attack, especially because Sarah kept making worried faces at me when there was any weird noise just to freak me out, but in the end, it was just ridiculously cool. Also ridiculously cool – the entire thing was free as Sarah knows the people who run the SkyDeck. Our tickets even said VIP. Score. 

Saturday night we finally met the rest of Sarah’s friends for our big night out. We started out drinking some Australian wine in Sarah’s apartment with new friends (to Sharon and I) Nick, Dan, and Steven – all of whom, I must say again, were awesome – then headed out to Chapel Street, a very posh shopping and dining street by Sarah’s apartment. We met some more people at the bar, while I marveled at the relative cheapness of cocktails. We then, for some reason, stopped at Friday’s (as in TGI – yeah they have them there too…), and Nick and I instantly bonded over our intense desire to leave.

Finally, we headed out towards our final stop, a cool Irish Pub, where the rest of Sarah’s friends were. Anna, Taryn, Sheeho, and Kate were all there again, and my love for them further solidified. We drank and attempted to dance the rest of the night away, while Sharon and I rejoiced in staying up past 9PM. All in all, a successful night out. 

Sunday, we headed to Sydney! After a short plane ride (before which, no one checked our ID’s! It must be nice to live somewhere that doesn’t anger the world…) we met up with our camp friend, Matt, at the airport, as he was nice enough to pick us up. After a short driving tour that included driving over the Sydney Harbor bridge, Matt drove us right up to Circular Quay, home of the famous Sydney Opera house. You should be thankful at this moment that I’m using Sarah’s photos and not mine, as you are being saved from my 100+ photos of the Opera house from varying vantage points. (“Here’s me right in front of it! Here’s me on the other side of the Quay! Here’s the back! Here’s the view riding away on a ferry!” What can I say? I was excited!) It was extremely cool, though, to be in front of something I’ve seem in pictures hundreds of times (not to mention animated in my favorite Pixar movie, Finding Nemo.) 

That first day is a blur of lunch, photos, dancing to terrible street performers (where is the video, Sarah!?), and taking in the city. At some point, I think Sharon and I walked around Darling Harbor, which was right behind our super fancy hotel (thanks again, to Sarah’s dad!) 

The next day, after riding in a circle on the monorail singing the song from The Simpsons, we headed back to Circular Quay to go jet-boating! This was by far my favorite activity from Sydney. Basically, you get on a poncho and get in what is essentially a 30 person jet-ski. The driver does all kinds of tricks and turns and you get soaking wet in the process of seeing the entire harbor, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was ridiculously fun. I would recommend it to anyone. 

The next two days in Sydney were filled with shopping, eating, movies (I’m ashamed to admit I may have seen High School Musical 3 a…hrmmthirdhrm..time. It’s an addiction I’m dealing with…) There was room service and long waits for buses and museum visits and entirely too much fun. Sadly, by Wednesday it was time to leave, but luckily for us, it was Christmas Eve! 

And with that, I’ll break for the day. Up next, Carols by Candlelight, Christmas presents, Boxing Day madness, and a ridiculous amount of food. Stay tuned…