Day of the Bridge Climb!!

The top of the Sydney Harbor Bridge!

July 22nd

Though we didn't have class today, my day started even earlier than it would if I did. Megan, Emily, Katie, and I were all scheduled to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge at 9:05! We got there a little early but it wasn't long before they had us in a room signing papers and preparing us for the climb rain or shine. We got to put on these really goofy jumpsuits and then since it was raining we had to put rain pants over top. As we moved on to the rest of the accessories, they all were attached to us in some way or another; complimentary hat, beanie, hanky, gloves, fleece, raincoat. We also were required to take a breathalizer test and had to walk through a metal detector; it was pretty intence! lol  Before we got to do the real thing we had to do a simulation climb to practice how to attach ourselves to the cable and climb up and down the ladders the right way...then it was time for the real thing!
Height 134m
Length 1,149m
Stairs 1,390
Steel 52,800t
Rivets 6 million
View 360 degrees
The guy that led our climb was a pretty awesome Aussie named Joe. He was so high spirited regardless of the whether and pointed out various things to take a look at along with some random facts. He also stopped us at various points and took pictures of us both individually and as a group (they were to purchase later since you weren't allowed to bring your camera on the climb for safety reasons) The best was when he was talking about how Australians love their "barbies" but Americans were really the pros but they call it "tailgating" lol the four of us started cheering! Then at one point he was asking us about football and said that Michigan has a pretty good football team but we were all very quick to tell him that it was Michigan STATE that had the good team and that you have to add that word onto the end of it for that statement to be true :) We don't want those Aussies to be confused now do we!
I must admit I wasn't really sure if it was gonna be worth the money I had to spend to do this, but it was definitely something I am glad that I got to experience! I was however extremely bummed that it rained almost the entire climb.

After the long climb we were starving!! So we decided to wander around The Rocks (first area of settlement in Australia) and find somewhere to eat. We ended up at Zia Pina, which was the pizza place that I had eaten at earlier in the week. When we left we were headed out to find Paddy's Market again to get the souvenirs that we had left to get for people, and on the way we ran into Jen (our prof) and she tagged along with us. Paddy's market was just as overwhelming as it was the first time, with all of the venues and items all crammed in next to eachother. I was able to get most of the stuff I was looking for, however I forgot to make a list like I had planned before I went so I forgot a couple people. But I still have over 3 weeks to pick up stuff for them.

Megan and I wanted to go out since we would get to sleep in the next day and would be one of our last nights in Sydney, but no one really wanted to and by the time we discovered that we weren't really feelin like it either. We instead decided to head to a little place called The Ranch down the road from Macquarie to get some dinner. We were seated when we got there, but as we sat there we began to wonder if this place had actual waiters...come to find out they didn't! You actually had to go up to this counter where the kitchen was and order the food yourself and they gave you a buzzer to let you know when you could come pick it up. Then if you wanted anything to drink (even water), you had to go up to the bar to order that there. We found all this quite odd since it was a pretty nice place.

It was then time to head back, and it was kind of nice to have a night to catch up on the things that I haven't had much time to do; like write in this blog!