Sydney for New Years

I was so happy when we finally got to Sydney, because this is the place I most wanted to go to. I LOVE CITIES! And plus it was New Years Eve! We had dinner at a place near the harbor at the Rocks that used to be a prison. Sydney used to be a place when convicts were sent from England because there was no room in the homeland. Eventually the mayor did a social experiment to see if they gave the convicts land, if they would behave better. They did and years later we have the Sydney we know today. Now Sydney is the sixth richest country with a GDP of almost a trillion dollars and having only 22 million people and being the fifth largest country it isn’t that hard. During our stay we visited a couple museums. My favorite being the modern art ones, which never fail to impress or surprise me. We were of course were not going to miss the Sydney Opera house. Opened by Queen Elizabeth 1973, the beautiful design of the sails was designed by Jørn Utzon With more than one million self cleaning tiles, an 10,000+ pipe organ, and concert hall with 2769 seats, this massive building took 16 years and 102 million dollars to build. I was so happy to see the beautiful building I had always heard about. But to me, what was more beautiful, were the giraffes at the zoo! I have an obsession and I think my brother and I took around 1,000 photos just at that section of the zoo. And of course I couldn’t leave a city like this without paying my dues to Topshop and Zara! 

Ayres Rock

When we flew to Ayres rock we first landed on a red dirt path with no buildings in sight. I was so stunned not only because of the ruralness but also the heat. It was unbearable. Along with long hours in the air conditioned hotel room, we also went on a sunrise tour in the early morning. We had to wake up at 4:30 but it was worth it… up until 9:30 when it got really hot out. We saw a really beautiful sunrise as well as seeing the grand Ayers rock turn red. It is really beautiful and large, especially in the morning when you can actually breathJ We also got to hear from the Aboriginals who lived near what they call Uluro or Ayres Rock. Although they claim to not be able to speak to us in English, they all need to know the language in order to communicate with other tribes since there are over 250 tribes each with their own language. We got to see some of their art and daily tools as well. They used something called “kitty “which is a black stick with bulb at the end that when heated can expand quickly. They use this to mend items together. It seemed as if there was white guilt in the Australians because when we asked the translator any question regarding any topic that could be considered private he rudely didn’t answer in order to avoid “sensitive” topics. The Aboriginals have been in Australia from about 40,000 and have dealt with a lot of discrimination from the white settlers, but in the end have adapted to coexist with them.