Vivid Sydney

Despite being pretty sad about leaving my family, I did get to come back to Sydney during Vivid Sydney and bring Keanu with! We got back in Sydney Monday evening and planned on going to dinner and vivid right away that night, but when we left the apartment later it  was pouring rain, soooooo we turned around and just had dinner at the apartment and I caught up on some homework so we could enjoy the rest of the week. After my classes Tuesday, we headed to Darling Harbour for the vivid water show and dinner. For a quick explanation, vivid Sydney is a festival of light and they light up EVERYTHING in Sydney from buildings, to cool light sculptures, to the opera house, to the water, to the bridge!

Darling Harbour featured Aquatique, a water and light show timed to music, for the first time this year and it was absolutely amazing. We watched the first show, which was themed “Rock and Roll.” It’s absolutely beautiful to see the water and lights with the backdrop of the city in the back. It really couldn’t get better (but wait until later and it does). Then we walked around looking for dinner and found a harbour side restaurant with a $35 deal for a main or entrée, a drink, and dessert. For those of you who don’t know, this is (unfortunately for my wallet) an extremely good deal. During dinner, we got to see another vivid show that seemed to be Baliwood themed from afar. After filling up on deliciousness, we walked across the Pyrmount bridge to look at the light fixtures on there and watch the light show on the maritime museum, which was “sounds of India.” After finishing the Darling Harbour light festivities, we walked down George Street to Circular Quay! There was so much going on here it was a bit overwhelming! 90% of the buildings were lit up and there were light fixtures everywhere and a photograph display. The contemporary art museum had a really cool and intense show that had done by a young Australian artist. After watching the opera house change from across the quay, we wanted to hear the music with it, so we walked around the circle. Along the way there were fiber optic fixtures, magic mirrors, giant spikey things, and more. Once closer to the Opera House we could hear the music that went along with the images and colors being projected on the sails of the Opera House, so we just sat there for an hour or so and took it all in. On our way back to the bus station, we stopped at the Customs house, which was definitely the coolest of them all. The music is picked by a person, who then dances on a dance floor to the song and the lights on the building move along with their dance moves. The images and colors on this building were also the most intricate and artsy.

Wednesday we made our way to the Sydney Sealife Aquarium, which was on my “one month left in Sydney bucket list.” I was pretty stoked because I had been trying to get there all semester specifically to see some Nemos, Dorys, and a Dugong. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a bit (way more than a bit) obsessed with Manatees, and a Dugong is a southern hemisphere Manatee. We got to the aquarium at the same time as like 5 school groups, so it was a bit frantic and scary at times, but still really cool. It was cool to go after the Great Barrier Reef, too, because I could see some of the fish I saw in the water and know what I saw! Also, I got to hang out in Dugong island for a good like 30 minutes and watch a Dugong eat lettuce and blob around. Even when there were literally 100 small children in the same tunnel with us, I just followed it around. PLUS….once you exit the aquarium you go into the gift shop and they had a GIANT dugong stuffed animal. VERY UNFORTUNATELY, it wasn’t for sale, but Keanu did buy me a small one for my birthday and from now on I am on a hunt for a human sized dugong stuffed animal! Tonight was one of my friends 21^st birthdays, so we went to another Darling Harbour vivid show and met up with her there for some drinks!

I had some classes and work to do Thursday, so Keanu and I hung out on campus and took naps in my favorite lawn chair meadow. I clearly have a really good definition of “classes” and “work to do” after a semester of class only twice a week and plenty of distractions to make even that hard ;). Since we wanted to see the Harbour Bridge Vivid display we had to go over to North Sydney because they only do it on one side. This was fine because also on my “one month left in Sydney bucket list” was Luna Park, the theme park located in North Sydney just under the Harbour Bridge! Admission is free, so we weren’t really planning on riding anything and just were going to wonder around and look at the bridge, but there was a $20 Ferris wheel ride, “gourmet” snack, and drink deal, so we did that. The park was practically empty and I swear they forgot about us in the Ferris wheel because we went around and around and around and around for at least 35 minutes. It was really neat to be riding around in the Ferris wheel with all of the theme park lights and then also being able to see the colours projected onto the bridge. Finally they were like, “we’re stopping it to let people on, but you can stay if you want!” I was pretty Ferris wheeled out and the line to “colour the bridge” was pretty short, so we got off, grabbed our snack and wine/beer and hopped in line! There were 4 parts on each half of the bridge that you could color, so naturally I did a lot of purple and Keanu did a lot of green. Then we threw some blues and teals in there, some flashy light patterns, hit go, and a fancy, whimsical noise sounds, then BOOM! You’re colors and light patterns show up on THE Sydney Harbour Bridge! It’s pretty fantastic and exciting to say that we got to colour the iconic Bridge during vivid!

Friday we tackled yet another item on my bucket list which was to go to Cronulla, an area of South Sydney. It was about an hour train ride away and once we got there we planned on ferrying over to Bundeena, which is where the Royal National park is. Upon getting off the ferry, it was a bit confusing and we weren’t sure which way to go. After looking at a map and heading towards what I thought would be an information center, we somehow ended up at a nice, quiet beach that overlooked the city of Cronulla. Since it had been a while since I got to beach in Sydney, we took the accidental opportunity to soak up some sun and I went for a nice (freezing cold) dip in the ocean. Finally we decided that we should ACTUALLY try to find the park, so we got a map from a local store and headed towards one of the walks through the park. After doing one way of the walk, we saw a huge sandy peninsula that Keanu was set on going on. Apparently he thought it was connected to the land we were currently on, but it wasn’t, so after Keanu tested the waters for crocodiles, sharks, and deepness, we threw our bags over our head and waded through to the other side! It was basically just one gianttttt beach because the entire peninsula was pure sand, so again we just lazed around and swam! Once we were all beached out we headed back to the ferry to head home. That night we headed to circular quay again to meet up with my roommates and watch vivid for one last time before heading out for the night to Oxford Street with some friends. Yes, if you remember from my earlier posts that is the “gay” area of Sydney, so we did hit up one of the gay bars. It was actually one of the most fun nights I’ve had here so far because it was just 3 stories of pure dance floor, so we all literally just danced our asses off until like 4 am!

Since it was Keanu’s last day here, the days itinerary was up to him. He wanted to see Manly Beach, so we took a ferry up there just intending on walking around since it was too cold to beach. It ended up being “Taste of Manly,” though, so we sampled some of the wines. I got a “pink blush” and it was literally the best sparkling wine I have ever had in my entire life. If I could I would bring home an entire suitcase full of Pink Blush wine bottles!! That night we wanted to get one last nice dinner together, so we headed to Darling Harbour for the Saturday night firework show they always do and dinner despite the fact that it was a super rainy evening. The fireworks were absolutely amazing because they time it with a vivid water/light show and music. After the show we wandered around looking for another dinner deal, but decided on eating at the South Styne floating restaurant (just guess…also on my bucket list). It is (was?) one of the worlds largest operational steam ferry’s and is one of Sydney’s most famous boats because it was one of the first big Manly Ferries. We finished the night off with the final firework/vivid show of the night then headed home to pack and watch a movie!