With Ben and Vanessa's directions, I managed to navigate my way from the station at Circular Quay to Central. A lot harder than it sounds as I was now dragging an unfamiliar suitcase along with me as I weaved in and out and between strangers. After a breakfast at Hungry Jack's (aka Burger King), and another train ride through what Ben described as "the ghetto", we ended up at Blue Mountains. Vanessa and Glen picked the three of us up and we drove up into the mountains to see Three Sisters.
Turns out the Three Sisters are a natural rock formation (get your minds out of the gutter)
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| Though I gotta say, it wouldn't be the worse foursome |
It was also super windy. Add that to being up there in elevation and this was now the coldest I'd ever been throughout the trip. I'm not joking. Not cold enough to see my breath, but cold enough to send a chill everytime the wind cut through my jacket.
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| A legitimate fear the wind would take me over the fence |
You know that superpower that manifests in everyone when you travel to a foreign country? That one that allows you to stare at a crowd of strangers and pick out the one person who is actually from your country? Ai showed it off by grabbing a guy to take our picture only to have him be a Japanese tourist as well.
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| From Ai's camera |
But the coolest part of the trip up the mountain was that I finally found it! My Holy Grail, if you will. It took me five days and dozens of toilets flushed, but I finally found one. The one flush delivering a counter-clockwise rotation
My trip was complete
We went to lunch at a spot Vanessa and Glen had been before, a garage turned restaurant. Sorry, no pics, I was kinda hungry at this point. So hungry in fact, that I completely ignored Glen's warning that you couldn't eat the steak sandwich without a fork and knife. It all just fell apart in my hand, but it was so good.
We walked around the town (I guess that's what it was) visiting small specialty shops in the area. A chocolate shop, wood-crafting shop, and a toy store.
I still wish we had more time, but unfortunately, I still had a plane to catch. Vanessa and Glen took Ben, Ai, and I to the train station where we waited for the station manager as well as the unlocking of the bathroom door. The three of us rode the train back to Central. From there, we rushed to the next platform where the train to the airport was leaving from, possibly knocking over a few kids with Taryn's suitcase along the way (I don't know for sure, I didn't stop to look). I said goodbye to Ben and Ai and then I was on the train.
After getting checked in, I wandered around the airport looking for more last minute souvenirs to buy. Also, as I was going through the security checkpoint, I made a shocking discovery - only in American airports do you have to remove your shoes! I asked the security guard about removing my shoes and he gave me that "kid, are you stupid?" look (trust me, I've seen that look too many times). The American lady in front of me tried to explain to the guard what I meant as I cringed, hoping they wouldn't arrest me as well when she got to the words "shoe" and "bomb". I also got to watch some guy get his hands randomly swabbed for explosive chemicals.
It was a roughly ten hour flight and I forgot to pack food to snack on, though I did buy another notebook. Remember, I hadn't eaten since noon and my flight was at 6pm. Add those ten hours for the flight, another hour to get through customs once I got off the plane, and maybe an hour I was expecting it to take to get home from the airport and we are looking at almost 20 hours consuming nothing but airplane bathroom sink water. Luckily, all the walking combined with the hunger that was starting to set in allowed me to sleep most of the flight. Though I did come really close to just throwing what was left of my Australian dollars at the flight attendant for a bag of chips.
By the way, did you notice that once I was on my own, the pictures stopped? I am still horrible at remembering to take pictures. Hopefully I'll get better before whenever it is I take my next trip
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