Scleri... what?

Hey all. Last time I wrote we were in Canberra staying with Claudia and Roger. Well, I am sad to say that we are there no longer- we had a really great time with them. We went to Sydney. At first thought, one would think, "Sydney? Wow, that must have been amazing! It's supposed to be one of the top cities in the world." Yeah... I regretfully inform you that we didn't really like Sydney that much. I will start by saying that an opinion of a place is based on many factors. Such as who you meet, where you go, what district you stay in, and what your hostel is like. So, understandibly, everyone who goes to a place will have a different experience and therefore different opinions. Well... we got into Sydney and it was around 8:00. We found our hostel pretty easily and it seemed okay. It was not. Prepare yourselves for a lot of complaining- I will try to keep it to a limit. The hostel had accidentally booked us in a boy's dorm, which could be okay, but the room was stinky and incredibly hot. We tried to switch, with no luck. The kitchen had only two burners for cooking, the hostel held over 200 people. How can you cook with only that? And the showers were pretty questionable. We left for the night, not returning until it was time to sleep- we didn't want to go back. Luckily, another girl was working and offered to let us switch to a double room for the same price. The room was still hot, but much better. Over the next couple of days, we wandered around Sydney. It was nice that there were a lot of buskers all over the city, so you could stop and watch music from time to time. I was able to find a church, where I practiced twice on a white grand piano. The harbour bridge was pretty cool and the waterfront was beautiful. I don't know exactly why, but it just didn't feel good. The air felt really dirty and it was pretty humid. At about five million (I think) people, the city is pretty full of people, it's hard to get away from them. I've been having trouble with my left eye for about two months now and finally decided to go see a doctor about it. After waiting for a bit, the doctor was quick to diagnose Scleritis. I know, what a weird word- I had never heard it before. It's an inflammation of the sclera (the white part of the eye) and I was prescribed eye drops. So... I've been putting up with my stupid eye for two months only to find out that it is an easily fixed problem, just with eye drops? That was slightly annoying, I guess sometimes I do wait too long to see the doctor- at my own expense I guess. The damage was $90, I should've invented some medical problems just to get full use out of the doctor. That night, we were wandering around the streets and walked by the Apple Store. They were having a free concert- a girl called "Sia" was performing. Weirdly enough, I had actually heard of "Sia" and listened to some of her stuff on the internet. To see her was really amazing and so unexpected. We got in at the same time as the VIPs for some reason, so everyone around us was asking us how we got in. Whatever. The concert was really good, she has a great voice and the band was awesome. It consisted of drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and CELLO! That made it so much better, I think. Anyways, we decided that we wanted to go to a show at the Sydney Opera House. The cheapest tickets available were standing tickets. I didn't even know that they sold them- just like in Elizabethan times. We didn't have any nice clothes to wear, so I wore jeans and my cleanest shirt- plus my ever present glasses. I considered wearing my hiking boots to avoid sore feet, but wore my flip-flops instead (because who wears hikers to an opera anyway?). We lucked out and got some unoccupied seats, much to our relief. Anyways, the opera was good, "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk". It was pretty light- a funny opera if you will. But it was hard to focus on just the opera. There was so much to see and hear. The singing was amazing, the words were on a screen just above the stage (as it can be hard to understand sometimes). But there was acting as well. The pit band was phenomenal! Sometimes I found myself just listening to them, not the singers. But they also had some tubas and a trumpet in one of the upper box seats. The would play from time to time, maybe to show a sense of urgency or importance? Either way, it was something else to pay attention to. We were at the very back, so you could see all the people as well. I enjoyed the opera, but found it hard to sit still for three hours. Nonetheless, now we can say that we went to an opera at Sydney opera house. Relieved to finally be out of Sydney, we took the train to the Blue Mountains to a place called Katoomba. It is a nice little place with many used bookstores and bakeries. We just looked around the first day. I traded in a book I didn't want for "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt. My Mom and sister (Farron) always have told me that it's too sad for me to read, but I think I'm old enough now. So far so good anyways. Today we went on a walk to these rock formations called "Ruined Castle". By just looking at them, you can understand the origin of the name. It was very foggy in the morning, you could see only about ten metres in front. But it cleared up in the afternoon, just in time for our good viewpoint. The walk was not too bad, minus the many steps to get up and down into the valley. We were gone for about a total of seven hours, so we're pretty tired now. A bit more hiking tomorrow and we're off to dreaded Sydney again in the afternoon. But for only one night. We'll hopefully be able to meet up with an old friend and go to the Hillsong Church (for an apparently live recording session!). All is well, we're still eating healthy (pizza made with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, pitas, ham, and cheese for supper). So... I'll talk to you all soon! Sleep well.