Before I recap today’s festivities, allow me to share some “Tips from a Traveler.” Pay attention kiddies, this may just help you out. Today’s installment is:
Things to research before going to a foreign country:
- Exchange rate – is that beer going to cost you $10 USD or $100 USD. For reference, no beer should ever cost $100. Ever.
- Tipping – Because it’s awkward AF when you have to ask the surly Aussie bartender if people tip in this country and he responds with, “I mean, if you want.” I don’t. And I didn’t. Yay no tipping in Australia!
- Electrical outlet plugs – Do you need a special adapter for that one country you’ll never go to again or will a universal one work?
Ok, now that I’ve imparted some wisdom, let’s get to it!
I awoke at 5:00am after falling asleep sometime between 6pm and 9pm the night before. Remember how I said I wasn’t jet lagged. I was. And I had some very strange dreams that I can only imagine are the result of intense sleeplessness. I got myself ready (skipping a shower this morning because I learned and adopted the habit of showering at night while in Europe) and went to breakfast at 7:30a, while on vacation. Yes, I was awake before 8am and I did not like it. Then I went to the grocery store where I learned Australia is a very funny country. I bought plastic knives so I could cut into the Brie I bought and a store employee had to make sure I was over 18 years old. Yes, for plastic knives I had to prove I was a legal age to buy them. I don’t understand why, they break when you try to cut into anything too tough and I’m pretty sure human skin is the toughest. But, you do you Australia.
Then I walked to the meeting point for a free walking tour. Shout out to Justine who owns the walking tour and was our tour guide – the name of the company is “I’m free.” And their bright green t-shirts have big bold print that says “I’m free.” I don’t know about you, but I do love a good play on words. It was on this tour that I met a really cool girl named Prudence from Texas – us Americans gotta stick together, especially when you find another cool traveler. We saw a lot of hidden gems in Sydney and below are some pictures from today.
Shoutout to Prudence for taking this picture of me while on the tour:
After the tour, Prudence and I decided to hang out for a bit and walk to the Harbor Bridge. We decided not to do the bridge walk because it was ~$250 USD. I don’t know about you, but paying to climb somewhere high during windy days just didn’t feel safe or a good way to spend money. She has the same mentality as I do about spending money, so instead, we paid 15 AUS dollars to climb 200 steps at Pylon Lookout and definitely got “our $10.61USD worth” of views. Direct quote from Prudence. She cracks me up! Here’s a panorama from Pylon Lookout (and yes dude who walked into the right hand side of my pic, I cropped you out).
Then, we hung out for a bit waiting for the locals’ pizza joint to open up and grabbed some slices of pizza for 3 AUS dollars each. I think that’s like $.50 each slice given the exchange rate. Oh wait, I definitely should check the currency converter app (XE Currency) on my phone. The phone which I’m protecting like the child I’ll probably never have because we don’t need a repeat of cellphone-less travels. Been there, survived that… Now I’m in my room deciding if I want to venture out for the night with Prudence or recharge. I also don’t have going out clothes/shoes so I either need to change that or go with what I have… tough choices.
There She Goes... 