Cockatoos everywhere!

I'm exhausted after my first full day in Sydney, so this will be a LOT shorter than I wanted to make it! Sorry if my writing is less... elegant than other times. I'm trying not to fall asleep before getting this written!

I started the day off with breakfast in the Queen Victoria Building (QVB)-there two giant clocks and 4 floors of shops! Next, I headed to town hall, where I joined a free THREE HOUR tour around Sydney! We saw so much, including: town hall, St. Andrew's Cathedral, the QVB, Sydney tower, Hyde Park, Australia square, St. James Church, St. Mary's Cathedral (which I walked through on my own later-it was beautiful!), the Hyde Park barracks, the Mint, the old Sydney hospital (which was built from funds that came from alcohol sales!), Macquarie square, Customs House (which has a huge model of the city underneath a plexi-glass floor), Circle Quay, the Rocks district, and looked out over the Sydney Harbor and saw the Harbor bridge and Opera house! We really covered a lot of ground. I'll include some pictures below :)

After the tour was over, I grabbed lunch at Circle Quay. I had a delicious veggie-filled lentil burger, while sitting on the steps of the Sydney Opera House! I hung around there for a while, and then started walking through the Royal Botanical Gardens. I hugged the waterfront, and came across a flock (?) of cockatoos while looking for a bathroom! Someone gave me some peanuts to feet to them, and next thing I knew, I had cockatoos flying from out of nowhere and landing on me!!! I hung around that area, enjoying the novelty of the experience, for a while. I continued on my way after about 30 minutes, and ended up at Mrs. Macquarie's Chair (a point at the edge of the Botanical Gardens) when the sun was going down! It was a magnificent view of the Harbor Bridge and Opera House. So of course, my camera battery died. I was able to get in a few good shots!

From there, I walked back through the city, and met up with my friend Hailey (who I am staying with) for dinner and trivia! We ended up making a comeback and finishing in third. :)

Tomorrow, I'm thinking about running even further around the city... We'll see how far I get!

Well... I tried uploading pictures, and it didn't work. They would have upload and be really pixelated, or would load a little and then be read or green for the rest of the image. Alas, photos will have to wait.