The Dingo Ate Your Baby

I’m going to give you fair warning, the pictures you are about to see in this blog post will most likely cause you to look up how to illegally obtain a koala or wallaby.  

Prior to arriving to Sydney, I had booked a trip to travel to the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains. (Fun fact: the eucalyptus oil from the trees that cover the mountains is what gives them their blue tinge.) There was probably about 30 of us that went, and we took a bus about an hour outside of Sydney to our first destination of Featherdale Wildlife Park. Hands down, this is the best wildlife park I’ve been to since arriving in Australia. They had every native Australian animal you could imagine, and you got to pet and feed koalas, kangaroos and wallabies. If there’s one thing I’ve learned on this trip, its that when college kids are presented with the opportunity to pet something cute and fluffy, we revert back to age 5. I saw grown men that were as giddy as school girls when it was their turn to take a picture with the koalas.

You can't tell, but I just fought off a whole busload of tourists to get this picture.

He's running away from me because I only pretended to have food.

And now for a marathon of Australian animal pictures.

 

What a cute little wallaby.

 Tasmanian Devil...doesn't look like the cartoon I grew up with at all.

A giant hamster...just kidding, it's a wombat.

 

 How could you accuse that face of eating a baby?

  I honestly don't remember what kinds of birds these are, I just thought they looked so cute sitting together.

 

 I believe this is a quokka.

Ok, this isn't cute at all, but I had to show you what a cassowary looks like. It's believed to be a living dinosaur.

Our next stop was Wentworth Falls, and after a good 30 minute hike we headed up the road to Leura for lunch. It was such an idyllic little town…it kind of reminded me of Mayberry. But slightly more refined and more expensive. Actually, Don Knotts wouldn’t fit in at all there. You get what I’m going for though. I had the best quiche Lorraine at a little café there and then we stopped at Josophan’s Chocolates. I picked out a chili chocolate, a margarita one (it even had salt on it) and a cinnamon one. All 3 were delicious. Oh, I also picked up some dark chocolate with honeycomb pieces to bring home, so Mom, Dad and Ellen you have that to look forward to.

 I'm king of the world!

 I wish I had 10 more of each of those.

Our last stop was Katoomba, which is the ‘big’ city near the Blue Mountains. There we saw the Three Sisters, which is a rock formation with an Aboriginal legend behind it. We also hiked down what seemed like 1,000 steps, just so we could ride an old mine train back up. The train, at its steepest point, was at a 57 degree angle.

Legend has it that these are three sisters that were turned to stone to be protected from some kind of monster.

I just realized that my last post did not have a 'Fun Story' section in it, so I'll remedy that by posting two now.

Fun Story: As we were wandering around the Rocks, looking for the Australian Hotel (which was where we were going to eat...hotel=bar), I saw a rat run across the street. It wasn't like a New York City size rat, but it was pretty big. Oh, big cities and their vermin problems.

Fun Story #2: The morning I left for the airport, Mom was rushing around the house packing odds and ends to my suitcase just in case I needed them. One was a package of sheets in case there weren't any at the hostels I was staying at. I finally decided to get them out in Sydney, and when I opened it up it was full of 3 pillowcases and no sheets. It's the thought that counts though. Thanks, Mom!

That about wraps it up for my Blue Mountains trip, I'll be posting about my second week in Sydney soon!

-Haley

P.S. For those wondering about the title of this post, it is a classic line from a Seinfeld episode. If you need a refresher, click on the link to watch it. http://youtu.be/ghCTZF61ey0