Melbourne, skinny jeans, haircuts, and Sydney

Skinny jeans, skinny jeans, skinny jeans! They are everywhere here. I never thought I would see so many people (both guys and girls) wearing jeans that seem to be several sizes too small. As influential as this style may seem, I think I will remain one person who will not be influenced by it. Alot has happened since my last post. I got a new haircut...and yes, I finally shaved. I've also had the opportunity to explore Melbourne quite a bit more extensively. I discovered nature's side of things by going to the Melbourne Zoo, the Melbourne Aqaurium, and Melbourne's botanical gardens. The gardens are world-renown and they were huge! It took Brian and I hours to walk through them. It was well worth it though and well-deserved :) I say well-deserved because the day before we traveled by tram for almost an hour to get to the gardens and we got there at 8:47...they close at 8:30 haha so we definitely soaked up the beauty when we went back the next day and walked through 'em. Also, I was able to visit some more beautiful buildings including St. Patrick's Cathedral, which I think ranks as the most impressive and magnificent building I have ever been inside. But enough of Melbourne because I am now in Sydney! I got here on Tuesday and am staying in a hostel right on Bondi beach...I'm talking right on the beach! B and I are staying in a room with 4 other people (total of 6 people to a room). One of our roomates is a 50 year-old lady who claims to be a "devine channeler". As you can imagine there have been quite a few interesting convos going on between us since our arrival. The first night we were there, she told us that if we snoored she would do energy exercises on us to release the bad energy! She also told us that she doesn't really sleep during the night and usually "listens to messages she receives from the people staying in the room"...WOW, I didn't sleep too well that first night to say the least!

This is home-sweet-home for the time being...It is quite luxurious.

Hangin' out on my bed the first night we got to the hostel.

Brian reading up on what we should do in Sydney. Thanks for the book momma. It has been most handy.

We found this old broken toothbrush on the bed ha ha gross! Just what I needed...a backup toothbrush :)

Since we are so close to the beach we have gone three times in three days. The sun is glorious and HOT HOT HOT. It was almost 40 degrees Celcius, which as a science guy I am ashamed to say I am not sure what that correlates to in Farenheit, but either way it was HOT. Believe it or not, I even got sunburned, which is weird cause I hardly ever burn. Sadly, today my whole face is peeling. Regardless, the beach was amazing and brought back memories of the numerous hours I used to swim in the ocean in VA back in the day. Swimming in the ocean here in Aussie has been the first time I have done so since moving from VA when I was 12! Today we went to downtown Sydney for the whole day. I got to see (and touch) the opera house and we also walked across the famous bridge that spans the Sydney Harbor. It was too cool! The last cool bridge I walked across was the Golden Gate with Jordan during spring break during my first year of pharmacy school. Jordo, wish you could've made the hike with me this time too!

Street performers in downtown Sydney.

Ahhh, the world famous Opera House.

This building is pretty awesome looking.

This is the bridge we hiked across. I would guess it is about a mile long. At the top of bridge you can barely see two Aussie flags. It was pretty cool to see them up there flying above the whole city.

This was a public piano that anyone could play. It was standing right outside the Opera House.

Downtown Sydney.

The outside of the Opera House was made completely by small tiles...hundreds of them. From far away you can't tell but from up close it looks really cool.

Thought this was pretty cool.

This was a wall in an underground tunnel. The entire wall was covered with people's footprints. I bet you can't find mine!

Gettin' ready to cross the bridge.

Julian in Sydney.

Pic with the Opera House taken from the bridge.

You can't see it that well but this is another pic with the Opera House taken from the bridge.

Tomorrow we are takin' a bus to Canberra. We leave at 1:30 PM and are scheduled to arrive at 5:00 PM so it's about a 3 and a half hour trip. We are gonna stay with Brian's aunt for a night or too and hopefully get some home-cooked meals :) Then we are flying to Cairns (in Queensland) where we are taking a tour on Cape Tribulation...Sounds intense! It is a 3 day/2 night trek through the Queensland rainforests and also through the Great Barrier Reef. There have been alot of shark attacks and even an alligator attack recently so hopefully God will keep those critters away while we are in the water! Luv you all and will post again soon.

R

PS - I'm glad to see The BURGH made it into the Super Bowl. Dad, Jord, and the rest of the Fam, I wish I could be there with ya'll to root 'em on.