Sydney

I just returned from a loooong weekend in Sydney (this post will be short on pictures - I didn't take any, due to an unfortunately timed losing of my camera cord). The purpose of the trip was for all students in Australia on the EAPSI program to present their research and basically prove we haven't been only drinking and sleeping on the beach the whole time. After my presentation about culturally modified trees was over, I celebrated by drinking and sleeping on the beach for three days.

Well, actually, those two activities made up only a small portion of my time in Sydney.
My first night in Sydney was spent in a neighborhood called The Rocks, which was the first European settlement around Sydney. It has tons of super cool historic buildings, lots of little stairs and alleyways, and heaps of old pubs. Our hostel featured a rooftop view of the opera house and the harbour bridge. Neither of these landmarks disappoints! Our hostel was built on top of a massive historical archaeology project called The Big Dig. A few house foundations are preserved on the ground floor of the hostel, and some of the one million+ artifacts found are on display in the hostel. Pretty cool!
After a night inspecting some of the aforementioned historic pubs, we headed (via train) to the Blue Mountains for an all too short day trip.

The three sisters, at Echo Point, Blue Mountains. Picture stolen from the internets.

 

On Sunday, my friend Jon, who is a marine biologists, was nice enough to let me tag along with him to collect data for his project, which concerns sea star populations. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was tons of fun to walk along the tidepools looking for the little guys. We took a ferry back from the beach into Sydney, pulling into the Sydney harbor past the opera house right at sunset. Perfect timing!

Picture of the sea star Jon studies, stolen from his webpage.

Monday, I went to Bondi Beach, where (apparently) Australian celebrities often hang out. Luckily, as its wintertime, crowds were thin and I was able to escape without any paparazzi being alerted that I was there.

Picture of Bondi Beach stolen from the Internets.

 I took a beautiful walk along the coast for a couple kilometres and generally lazed around in the sun for the day before heading to the airport back to home sweet Adelaide. 

Picture of the coastal walk stolen from the internets.