New Year's Eve

12/31/11

Happy New Year's Eve

Early start today. We caught our 7am flight to Sydney and then took a taxi to our Hotel. We couldn't check in just yet so we left our bags at the reception and decided to explore the town a little. We checked out the Sydney Aquarium which is located in darling harbor. The aquarium was PACKED! Everyone and their entire extended family was in Sydney for new years so we had to fight the crowds for every creature we wanted to see. We saw a duck billed platypus, giant lobsters and giant crabs, sharks, huge string rays and this manitee/dolphin thing that reminded us of tobias.

After the aquarium we thought we would try to find where our dinner reservations would be so we wandered the city for a while found our restaurant and went back to the hotel so we could nap before the big night. Our hotel was pretty underwhelming after staying the Beth's boss' condo but we had our own room, a queen bed and our own bathroom so we were happy.

Once we woke up from our nap we started getting ready to go out. Since I was wearing heels I thought maybe it would be a better idea to take the train instead of walking, but our train conductor told us to get off 2 stops before we were supposed to so the train really didn't save my feet any. Luckily I brought along some flip flops in by purse. Our reservations were from 7:30pm to 2am and we got there about 8:30 so most people were well into dinner so we had to catch up. We had an array of appetizers and bread, then our “mains” of an assortment of skewered meats were served. At 9 we had to take a break from eating to watch the first set of fireworks. The restaurant had an outside area over the harbor facing the Sydney Opera House, so we had a great view of all the fireworks right above the opera house. A band and DJ were alternately playing on the main stage and we had a great time dancing. We were then served some delicious desserts, did some people watching while drinking our unlimited alcohol, and all the sudden it was midnight. We rushed outside just in time for the start of the fireworks. We could see fireworks going off in four different locations and they were amazing; even some of the high rises in the CBD (Central Business District) had fireworks on top of them. We didn't have that good of a view of the bridge but it was still one of the best firework displays I have ever seen.

After a few more drinks and some more dancing we made the trek to our apartment. It was about a mile and a half walk. The main streets were all shut down to cars and they were filled with people walking. There was so much energy in the city everyone was buzzing. When we get back to our apartment we sat out on our 15^th floor balcony and listened to the commotion going on down on the streets. A great night.

- Shan