Today started off like most other days--woke up early, went to the gym, and then had breakfast. What made today special was that we toured the Olympic Park in Sydney from the 2000 Summer Games. To get there, we walked to Circular Quay and took two different trains. So far, we have been receiving a lot of help in figuring out the Sydney transit system, but I am starting to understand it better and think I would be able to figure it out for myself! We got there a little before our tour started so some of us walked to a nearby cafe where I got one of the best soy chai tea lattes I have ever had. It even rivaled Starbucks' (which I have not been to in 12 days and am surprisingly surviving!) To kill some more time, we walked around the outside of the main Olympic Stadium where there were about a hundred or so poles, all painted with the names of the 75,000 volunteers from the 2000 Olympics. There were also some poles dedicated to the Paralympics from that year because it was the first time they had been held in the southern hemisphere!
When it was time for the tour to finally begin, we met with out guide who took us inside the main Olympic Stadium to a room to watch a short documentary about the 2000 Games. the Olympic Stadium cost about $250 million to make and originally sat 110,000 people (sorry Sydney, but the Big House is still bigger). Once the games ended, they remodeled it to better suit the needs of the city and to make it more profitable. It is now called the ANZ Stadium, they took out 25,000 seats to build a partial roof cover on the ends of the oval-shaped building, and they moved the track to another location so that the stadium could be used for rugby union, rugby league, footy, cricket, and concerts. I also found it interesting that the shape of the stadium and the partial roof cover was designed in order to keep the noise inside the stadium so that it does not disturb the nearby residential areas. It is also a LEED certified building, which is amazing for such a large stadium.
Within the stadium, our guide took us to the lockers rooms, media/press rooms, luxury skyboxes, and on the field where they had placed the original podiums used for the games. After the stadium, we walked to the practice track, which is leased to schools for carnavals (what they call meets) and was currently being used for a track carnival for middle school-aged children. From there, we walked to the Aquatics Centre, where we got to see the water polo and diving pool, and the swimming pool. Both pools were the first to use 'fast pool' technology, which means that they have the overflow edge to decrease turbulence and the water bouncing off the walls and hitting the swimmers, which explains why times were significantly faster in those games in comparison to past games. We were also told that we would have the opportunity to swim in those pools and were all excited. However, when we arrived we found out that we could swim in the kid pool on the other side of the building. There was a slide and a lazy river and hundreds of children, which no longer appealed to me. Something funny that did happen though was that Lexi had accidentally gone into the boys' changing room and a couple of minutes later a large group of elementary school-aged boys also went in and all you could hear was, "Oh my God, there is a girl in the boys' changing room!" And then you saw Lexi running out only half changed. It was a great moment.
Once the tour ended, we started heading back to the hostel. I was content returning the same way we had arrived, but for some reason people wanted to take the ferry instead. So first, we had to find the bus to take us to the ferry, which was a 45 min process within itself. Then it was another hour long wait for the ferry, which also took an hour. Compared to the 50 min it took us to get from the hostel to the Olympic Park. Lesson learned--take the train. Always. By the time we arrived at the hostel, I was exhausted and collapsed onto my bed, where I stayed for about an hour. But Leanne was on her way over to meet for dinner, so I had to force myself to get up, shower, get dressed, and be a real human being.
When Leanne arrived, we decided to explore The Rocks and find a place for dinner. We were both craving Thai food and found a restaurant called Sailors' Thai. We got there at the perfect time because it filled up right after we got there. It was a small room with a long wooden table in the middle where all customers sat together. We sat next to a family from New Zealand and England, who had just arrived at Sydney on a cruise ship (the same cruise ship currently blocking the view of the Opera House from the hostel). They were really nice and chatted with us the whole time, especially the grandfather who shared stories with us about his many trips to the United States. For dinner, I ordered a pad Thai dish with tofu and an assortment of vegetables, which fully satisfied my Thai craving. I was completely stuffed and could not imagine eating anymore, but afterwards Leanne and I decided to walk around the outdoor food markets. They were all brimming with delicious food and suddenly, I was no longer stuffed. Leanne opted for the freshly made cannoli, while I chose the super moist berries and chocolate vegan cupcake.
After our dessert, Leanne decided to head home because she had a long trek back to her apartment and it was starting to rain pretty hard. I then headed to The Glendmore Hotel, where people in my program had chosen to watch the Vivid light show from their rooftop restaurant and bar. It was an amazing view--the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and all other buildings surrounding the Harbour were used as canvases for the changing, brightly colored, and intricate light designs projected to the beat of the music playing. Although I do not know much about the background or history of Vivid Sydney, it was an incredible experience and cannot wait to see it from the dinner cruise we are going on tomorrow. We hung out there for a while, but once it started raining harder and we got a little bit tired of looking at lights (no matter how amazing the displays may be, you can only look at them for so long), so we headed to The Argyle, one of The Rocks' 'hippest' clubs. It was just as extravagant and over the top as The Ivy and a very fun environment. But we still had the urge to explore The Ivy since we were unable to last night and took advantage of the momentary clear skies to walk on over.
We first headed to the 4th floor, where there was an open rooftop pool bar. Since it had started to rain, we hung out on the couches in the cabana and soaked in everything around us. Like the other floor we had gone to last night, every detail was flooding with luxury. We then chose to explore the 3rd floor, which contained multiple high class toilets (what they call restrooms) with mosaic walls, showers (?), and inappropriate, but humorous signs on the doors to indicate gender. There was also a large dance floor surrounded by more fancy seating areas, and since they were all taken we decided to start dancing. Although people just watched us at first and could tell we stood out as tourists, they later joined in when they saw how much fun we were having. We then moved the dance party to the 2nd floor, which is where we had been the night before with the partially open rooftop. Although it was raining, we continued to dance in the rain even though our clothes were completely soaked through. And once again, no one was dancing and were judging us at first, but later joined in. That was just one moment, but those carefree actions are what makes you appreciate being young and enjoy the experience of being in a whole new country with new people.
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