After spending four nights and three days in Bondi Beach, and seeing our first cockroach (blegh!), we checked out of our hostel and took a train to a new hotel in an area called Potts Point. On our trek there, we saw strip club after strip club, lots of dingy places and people and I started to get very worried about what area we were going to spend the next three nights. I started thinking about if it was worth it to cancel our reservation but then suddenly we turned a corner and everything had changed. There were no longer any bars with blacked out windows, but instead the street had cute little cafes, wine bars and quaint little shops. We checked into our hotel and it was safe, clean and very comfortable. I was satisfied and very relieved.
After we checked into our new hotel, we walked around for a bit, had a coffee (or should I saw a cappaccino-they don't have brewed coffee here! Only espresso. Not complaining!) and then took a bus to meet our friend in Maroubra beach. She wasn't there though, and it started raining so we hung out at another cafe and read our books. Jurassic park for me, and Gravity's rainbow for Jake.
Because of the rain and the coziness of our hotel, we decided to stay in that night, so we bought some cards and some meat pies and had a couple viscious game of snap.
The next day was another beautiful sunny day so we went downtown, and hopped on a ferry to the Taronga zoo. The ferry ride itself was an adventure as we saw Sydney from a beautiful perspective over the water. Jake and I both love zoos, so it was a very fun day. There was a part of the zoo called "Encounters" where you go in a caged area and walk down a path about three feet away from the kangaroos, emus and wallabees! It was really weird! There wasn't even any staff around to make sure the animals didn't attack. They must be domesticated or trained in some way not to attack the visitors. It was very neat, but also made me a bit nervous!
I also have to note that there were also animatronic dinosaurs throughout the whole park, which fit very well with the book I'm reading (Jurassic Park!).
The next two days were very relaxing as we just hung out in the sun (we both acquired our first sun burns!) and tried Austrailian oysters which were very different in comparison to North American oysters, but great none the less.
We checked out of our hotel this morning with bittersweet feelings as we will miss Sydney and our cute hotel, but are taking an overnight bus to Byron Bay which we have heard alot of good things about. We are staying there for a day and night to lay on the beach, maybe go on a mountain bike tour and just check out the area, before we move on to Brisbane to stay with Jake's friend, Becky.
Anyway, we are off to the bus! See you in Brisbane!
