Is this real? Seeing the Opera House and Bondi??!!

So Wednesday we got a few more bits that we needed for our room, but most excitingly was seeing the Sydney Opera House for the first time.

We walked from our accommodation to the Opera House, but came out on a street that displayed Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was dark by this point, and the lights from the bridge, the buildings and Luna park on the other side made it magical. We stood for quite a while taking photos and talking nonsense. Then as we walked round the corner, the Opera House came into view.

No words can quite explain the feeling of having seen something so many times in photos and then suddenly seeing it in real life.

The Opera House is beautiful - there's no other way to describe it. Walking around in cropped jeans, and a tank top in 23°, seeing sights that I used to dream of added to the whole 'this isn't real' element of the trip.

After photos (of course) we joined the tourists and locals by sitting on a wall/seat thing by the oceanside, and spent time talking nonsense whilst looking out at the bridge and the Opera House.

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Thursday we decided to journey out to Bondi for the first time. The bus took around 40 minutes, but again, I was quite content just looking out the window. At one point Greta nudged me and said 'omg Becca, turn around', I looked to where she was pointing and saw the glistening blue of the ocean merging with the sky.

If anyone saw us that day, they would have just seen two girls getting off the bus and walking towards Bondi with massive grins on their faces and shaking their heads.

Having watched Bondi Rescue a lotttt, seeing this place in real life was crazy. I felt like I knew the place, I knew some of the lifeguard's nicknames and to top it all off, the TV crew was there filming the new season of Bondi Rescue!!

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Friday consisted of yet more sunbathing, but this time by our local outdoor pool in Victoria park. We spent most of the day there, dipping in and out of the pool when the 25° heat got too much ;)

Our accommodation provided a free BBQ in the early evening, and we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to meet people, but in reality everyone goes, grabs as much food as possible, eats and then leaves... So not only were we left not having really spoken to anyone, but we were also left hungry (being polite I only took one sausage in bread - what a mistake). So, that evening called for pizza and a movie night!

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Saturday there was meant to be an organised beach walk by our accommodation but nobody showed up, so we went back to beautiful Bondi on our own account, and spent a majority of the day there.

In the evening we met up with two of our UoW coursemates who had recently arrived in Sydney and we stood waiting for the massively celebrated Mardi Gras parade. But, none of us had eaten, and after standing around with nothing happening for an hour, we decided to go for dinner instead. The plan was to go back to the parade, but somehow we all ended up walking back to our respective accommodations. Although part of me did think it was silly how we were missing one of Sydney's biggest parades which seemed to be crazy (I'm talking people dressed up in wedding dresses... or just underwear... or just body paint), our feet all ached so much from being in sandals, and we were all so tired and cold (I've climatized too quickly for my liking). There will be so many more events and things to experience in the upcoming months that I didn't feel like we were missing on anything too much.

For now (as in Sunday), I've just got our freshly washed clothes, dinners cooking, and the evening will probably consist of picking outfits for the first day of orientation :S