sydney, australia — hey it's maya

for thanksgiving break, my family and i visited my sister who is studying abroad in sydney.

we stayed in an area of sydney called the rocks (built by convicts in the 19th century). i loved living in the rocks. it was so cool to be surrounded by historical buildings, and there were so many nice shops and places to eat right outside of our place. we were also near the sydney opera house too. on weekends, the rocks had a market with a bunch of different food, jewelry, soap, and clothing stands. my family and i visited the market three different times for the good food. we got fresh pizza, turkish gozleme, and mini monet cupcakes.

my sister, kylie, really helped us on this trip by basically planning out our whole week. she was like our personal travel agent. she knew where we had to be and when. she’s a real foodie too, so she had a lot of good restaurants for us try together.

on our second full day in sydney, we planned to see the famous bondi beach. my family and i decided that we would try walking from coogee beach to bondi (about 4 miles). i know this doesn’t make much sense, but for some reason, i find that walking takes a lot more energy than running…my mom says it’s because i don’t use my arms enough when i walk. i tried walking for about a mile or so, but then i decided to just run. my dad accidentally directed us in the opposite direction of bondi. but thankfully, i hit a dead end in less than a mile and was re-directed. oh, dads…

i ran along the coastline, through parks, up rickety-wooden stairs, and enjoyed every bit of it. there was something so freeing about not knowing exactly where i was going. i went where the path led me, knowing that if i stayed along the coast, i would eventually hit bondi. this is kind of what life is like. we live our lives, not completely sure where we’re going or what the future holds…we just go where the path leads us.

i had run about 4 miles when the first peek of bondi beach came into view. i could see the bright sandy shores, and the deep blue water. when i got there, i stood back in awe at the beautiful view. i felt both accomplished and proud of myself for making it there. it was truly an incredible run, and it kind of taught me to let go of trying to control things and let god lead me to where he wants me to go (wow, who knew running could be so inspiring?)

another highlight was visiting the hyde park barracks. it’s a museum in the city that educates people about the australia’s history, specifically about the convicts who were sent from britain to colonize. we took audio tours around the museum that led us to lots of different rooms. there was one room which had paintings of everyday scenes, old tools that convicts used, and examples of what convicts ate each day. another room was set up to resemble the rooms which convicts would sleep in. i found my dad sleeping in one of the hammocks :)

another iconic attraction in sydney is the sydney harbour bridge. my sister signed us up to climb it at night. going up was really cool, and i was especially proud of my dad because he doesn’t like heights. the view at the top was amazing. the city was all lit up and we got a great view of the harbour. we snapped some really great family pics up there too! we were allowed to take a short video when we got to the top, and my family (well, mostly my sister), decided that we should all shout “tim tams!!” tim tams are super popular cookies that are all over sydney. going back down, it was really really windy (i was thankful we were strapped in). climbing the bridge was definitely one of the best parts of the trip.

on our last full day in sydney, we decided to go to watson’s bay. we took a ferry there (which, by the way, i love doing…can’t we always travel by boat?) it was a very nice area, and the water looked so serene. as we walked toward the ocean from the bay, we passed by a small beach, a cottage, and a lighthouse.

our trip to australia was incredible. i miss it already, but i’m happy that we got to share so many great experiences as a family. i hope that your thanksgiving was restful, fun, and filled with time with loved ones.