Visiting the Sisters

The Three Sisters (not to be confused with the Flying Fajita Sistas) is a rock formation in the Blue Mountains, about 70 miles west of Sydney. The name comes from an Aboriginal legend about three sisters who fell in love with three brothers from another tribe. Since a tribal law did not allow them to get married, the brothers took them away, starting a war between the two tribes. A witchdoctor seeking to protect the women turned them into stone, but died before he could change them back. Thus, the three sisters remain.


Our study abroad company gave us a free trip to Scenic World for a view of the Three Sisters. Scenic World has walking paths, cable cars and a railway that take you through the rainforest and up in the air to see the Sisters and the Blue Mountains, which are named as such because of the blue haze resulting from the eucalyptus trees.


You get in a caged roller-coaster-type cart and descend the steepest railway incline in the world. It doesn’t go very fast though. I suppose that would defeat the whole scenic purpose.


We also took the Scenic Skyway (they make it sound really exciting, huh?) across the canyon, past a waterfall and closer to the Three Sisters. It has a glass floor, which is pretty cool, or really scary depending on your degree of vertigo.

Someplace Fishy

The Sydney Fish Market, located in Pyrmont, is the second largest in the world. If you want to get specific, it’s the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, while one in Tokyo claims the world title. But none of that means much does it? The point is the Sydney Fish Market is huge.


The market sells wholesale seafood to restaurants and individuals, but also includes several take-away stands where you can get everything from sashimi to stuffed clams and lobster. One day for lunch, some friends and I got a big spread so they could try octopus and some other seafood for the first time.


It was good, but I preferred the meal I cooked myself. My friend and I got a great deal on some tuna steaks, which I marinated in soy, ginger, fresh orange juice, chili, garlic and green onion, then seared and served with Chinese long beans. It was the first dish I prepared in Sydney.

I'm home

My semester in Sydney has come to an end, but since I was trying to fit in as much exploring as possible in the last few weeks...not to mention deal with final papers and exams...updating was difficult. Now that I'm home and wanting to relive the experience, I'm ready to start sharing all the photos and stories from my last month abroad.

I wish I could say the above photo is my own, but the credit goes to my friend Becca. I believe it's from a beach in Cairns.

If you can see this, you’re not lost

Even as someone who sets out to explore and “get lost,” I like knowing where I am. Luckily Sydney has a recognizable skyline, including the Sydney Tower, about a thousand feet high. Also known as the Centerpoint Tower, it’s my point of reference wherever I go, and I’ve seen it from nearly every angle and varying distances.

From Glebe (southwest):


From Rose Bay (east):


From Centennial Park (southeast):


From Kirribilli (north):


From Manly (northeast):


From Royal National Park (south):

Final word about the Coogee-Bondi Walk

Another highlight of the 6km walk between the two beaches is Waverly Cemetery. The first burial there was in 1877, and most of the graves along the coastal edge are pretty old, but people can still be buried there today. I read they have some 50,000 gravesites and memorials on more than 40 acres. We just saw the very outskirts overlooking the water, but it seems like if you’re going to stay somewhere for Ever, then Waverly wouldn’t be a bad choice.

Summer, I Miss You

Our Coogee-to-Bondi walk made me long for a warm beach day again, but at this point, the only way to get in the water is in a wetsuit, like the surfers we watched at Bronte Beach.

Though I’m not ready for my semester abroad to come to an end, as it will in less than three weeks, at least I have summer back home to look forward to.


Side note: Bronte has the nicest looking rock pool of all the beaches I’ve seen here.

A Perfect Kite-Flying Day

Sydney has been going through another rainy spell, but Saturday offered some sunny respite. We took advantage by finally doing the popular walk from Coogee Beach along the coast to Bondi Beach. On the bus ride over, we drove past a hilly park I thought would be perfect for flying kites. I don’t remember ever flying a kite in my life so I don’t know much about it, but I imagined that would be a good location.


Coincidentally, on our walk later we spotted a few wind gliders and a kite in the sky near Bronte Beach. I’d wanted to ask the kite-flyer if I could take a turn, but then I saw it was just a little boy, and kids that age aren’t great sharers so I didn’t bother. I’ll just have to get my own kite and head to the park sometime.

Getting Close to Nature

At Featherdale Wildlife Park kangaroos and wallabies hop around freely so you can feed them (but also have sanctuaries where people aren’t allowed to go). This albino wallaby and her joey were in a protected area though.


The koalas are in open stalls, and there is usually at least one outside on a branch that you can touch and get a picture with (without having to pay extra like some zoos here make you do).


Many birds, like ibises, geese and this pheasant, are able to roam wherever they like in the park.


They let emus walk around too, which is a little scary, especially when you’re carrying kangaroo food because they’re just as hungry, but twice as tall. At least they keep the cassowaries, like this one, mostly enclosed. These guys have the body of an emu or ostrich, the neck of a turkey and a horn like a rhino. They freak me out.


They have some brilliant looking birds. This one reminds me of a villain glaring from behind his cape. I think he just had an itch though. Do birds get itchy?


This bird was my favorite because we made a personal connection. I realized if I bounced up and down or side to side, the cockatoo would imitate me. If I raised my arms, he’d flap his wings. He also knew how to say hello and bye-bye. He was my buddy.


And if you weren’t convinced already that Featherdale is worth the 50-minute train ride from the city, there are penguins.

Tah-Man to the Rugby Rescue!

A few weeks ago I caught the last quarter of a Rugby Union match at Sydney Football Stadium. We would have seen more of the game if we hadn’t taken the train in the wrong direction first (which was not my doing). Anyway, we were able to see the New South Wales Waratahs wrap up the win and celebrate with Tah Man. I have to say, the mascot is a lot tougher looking than an actual Waratah, which is the state flower.

From Little Things Big Things Grow

Conveniently, the last week of lectures for my Indigenous Australia class overlapped with National Reconciliation Week. The week aims to bring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues to the forefront, while recognizing their culture and history. Over the course of the, er, course, we discussed the disadvantages and injustices faced by Indigenous Australians in the past and still today.


Sometimes the discussions were really depressing. These are people who have had their land stolen, were victims of what was essentially genocide, have had generations of children taken away from them, and are still fighting notions of being second-rate citizens. But this last week has been especially positive, focusing on recent changes and optimism for the future. The Sea of Hands really embodies that.


The Sea of Hands, which began in 1997, is a series of public art installations meant to symbolize support for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. People write their names on plastic hands (red, black and yellow like the Aboriginal flag; green and blue like the Torres Strait Islander flag; and blue, white and red like the Australian flag) and add them to designs across the country. Right now there is a display on the front lawn of Sydney Uni’s Great Hall.


The design seems to be a lizard and includes the word “Sorry” since in February the prime minister gave a national apology for the “Stolen Generations” of children taken by the government away from families.

We also learned about GetUp! which is an advocacy organization that supports a range of causes, including those of Indigenous Australians. The GetUp Mob remade a Paul Kelly song, “From Little Things Big Things Grow,” that makes a good point and has been stuck in my head since we heard it in lecture.



“It seems to me if we can imagine the injustice, then we can imagine the opposite. And we CAN have justice.”
Paul Keating, Redfern Speech 1992