Let’s go to Sydney Harbor mate!
Even though it may be hard to believe, we can say that we went to Sydney. We explored the city, its monuments and their beauty. Kind of the real Aussie culture! During our stay, we got to enjoy the classic Australian school day: school from 8.30 am to 3.30 pm (not such a bad timetable right?). Ascham School is located next to Darling Harbor (a ferry stop). It was cool to be next to a ferry stop because after notifying Ascham that we were leaving for our sightseeing day, we would walk down to the wharf and take a ferry from there that would take us to Circular Quay (the terminus located in the heart of Sydney Harbor). This arrangement made it very easy for us to move around and take the ferry to wherever we wanted.
As said before, we benefited from sightseeing days. Indeed, one day a week, we (the girls) could visit Sydney freely and as we wanted. These sightseeing days enabled us to discover Sydney personally, individually. Of course, we used these days in an intelligent way: we planned them ahead so that we had a clear idea of where we were going, but we also « went with the flow » (as the Australians say).
Our favorite sightseeing spot was Sydney Harbor. Sydney being a coastal city, is surrounded by water and parts of it are on islands (e.g. Garden Island). Now, you might ask us why it was our favorite. Well, there are several reasons. To begin with, to go there, you can take the ferry and taking the ferry was one of the highlights of our trip. You see, when you take the ferry, you can enjoy the contrast between the sun’s heat on your face and the freshness of the morning breeze that makes your hair do crazy things (believe us, it is very funny to watch).
But most importantly you get to appreciate and admire the beautiful view that you get of Sydney Harbor with the Royal Opera House, Harbor Bridge and the skyscrapers all around. Also, Sydney Harbor is a place where you can do lots of different things. We went shopping (no, it’s not a girl thing, it’s just that the shops were pretty cool), we walked along the Harbor Bridge (it took us a long time), went to the Royal Opera House (it was very impressive and absolutely beautiful) and we were able to take a stroll through the beautiful Botanic Gardens from the Opera House back to Circular Quay.
An interesting thing about Sydney Harbor is that it is a very modern place, with all the skyscrapers but we also got to visit the older part of it: The Rocks. We saw traditional houses and architecture and they were pretty different from the modern architecture!
Another interesting aspect of Sydney Harbor is that it is Sydney’s Wall Street: all the big firms have buildings there and businessmen walk in the streets as if they own the place. It is also at the same time a very « touristy » place because of all the souvenirs shops and the nice restaurants next to the water and the many ferry wharfs.
Finally, we also loved it because it was very easy to walk around. We just had to walk along the coast to get somewhere (and we couldn’t get lost because of that) and lots of people were there to make us feel like we weren’t alone in this foreign place.
We really loved Sydney Harbor and we shall treasure the memory we have of it forever.
-By Elea W. and Amandine S.
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