Tropfest

When I woke up, I was praying that it was sometime in the afternoon which would mean I had gotten a few hours of sleep. I hadn't gotten to bed until around 7:30am and I knew the day would be a nightmare without some solid sleeping hours. I glanced at my clock which read 12:00pm, so I decided it was ok to get up. The other girls were being obnoxiously loud anyways, so it was impossible to stay asleep. I grabbed my iPad to check my emails and that's when I noticed that it was actually 10:00am and I had not adjusted my alarm clock to the time change in Sydney...meaning I'd only had 2 1/2 hours of sleep. Not going to be a good day...
Since we had missed the free hostel breakfast, Alyssa, Amanda and I headed down to "Joe's Cafe" near our hostel to get some breakfast. Normally we don't buy breakfast because its outrageously expensive (eggs and toast = $22) but when you're hungover, nothing is better than breakfast. I had a BLT bagel which really hit the spot.

We decided not to waste the day and to go check out Surrey Hill, which is a more affluent part of town with cute shops and bars. We did not realize it when we booked our hostel, but we were definitely located in the red light district and were anxious to see what else Sydney had to offer. We wandered around for a few hours, checking out all the little shops and wishing we had more money to buy things.

After leaving Surrey Hill, we walked back into town to check out the mall. We didn't really need anything but Amanda thought she could use some new dresses. The mall was all decked out for the holidays and for the first time, I felt a little bit of Christmas spirit. None of us bought anything, but it was fun to just walk around and watch everyone buying gifts for their loved ones.

On our way home, we stopped at St. Mary's cathedral. it is an absolutely beautiful church located right in the center of town. Alyssa and I both lit a candle inside for our mother, which we have taken to doing whenever we stop into a church.

When we arrived back at the hostel, we packed up our stuff and Alyssa, Amanda, Mari and I took the train over to Centennial Park where there was a short-film festival called "Tropfest" happening. I love live festivals, but especially when they are free! It was dusk as we walked from the metro to the park and all of a sudden hundreds of bats started to appear. I was absolutely in awe of them. They were unlike any bat I'd ever seen- they were huge! Everyone else seemed oblivious to their presence but I took about a billion pictures of them and spent the entire walk staring up at the sky.

We had borrowed a blanket from the hostel and set up our little make-shift picnic spot in the grass. We had brought boxed wine but I couldn't be convinced to drink anything after the events the night before. The short films were projected on 4 huge monitors and I was amazed how far away to could be and still hear the audio perfectly. Some of the films were amazing and brought me to tears. Some of them were absolutely awful. They had musical performers throughout and tons of food vendors set up. All in all, I loved the experience and was thrilled that we went!

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