Happy New Year!

Most of you know what Meribeth and I spent New Years in Sydney this year.
We headed down there at 6 in the morning on December 3oth. Our friend Brewster was kind enough (as always) to take us to the airport at 4:30 in the morning so we could jump on a plane. The airport in Australia is super easy. They barely check you at all. I had change and all kinds of stuff in my pocket and I went right through the metal detector. I think they might be just for show. But hey they don't carry guns like they think every person in America does so maybe fake metal detectors is all they need. Anybody can go up to the gate like the good ol' days and wait for their family members to get off the plane.
We arrived in Sydney at the domestic terminal and we had to make are way over to the international terminal to meet up with Debbie, Monica, and Rose. We decided the train would be the easiest way. by train I mean an underground BART type transportation. The train turned out to be $5.00 to go from terminal to terminal. What a rip off!! We couldnt believe it but hey what can you do?
Once we got to the international terminal we had to wait about an hour for them to get off their plane. We sat by the exit and decided to people watch. What a crazy mix of people you get in an international airport where people from all over the world are coming in to celebrate New Years. We decided to play pick the American and we called out when we saw one. And oh can you tell who is American. Haha! They are usually the ones that are all dressed up for the flight and have 3 bags each. There were tons of Asians everywhere, and a lot of people from Europe but we couldn't quite figure out who was from what country in Europe.
We finally met up with them and headed to the hotel. Rose and Debbie were worried about having a few extra people in the hotel so Meribeth and I decided to go to the 3rd floor and just wait for them. We got into the elevator and picked floor 3 and nothing happened. Well apparently you need a key to use the elevator. We couldn't get out and we couldn't go anywhere, so we had to sit and wait until someone used the elevator. We got to about the 10th floor and all we could do was get out. Now what? Well we got back in the elevator and waited for someone else to use the elevator. We got to floor 12 and a cleaning lady was there. We just stayed in the elevator and she didn't get in. So we waited agian. She pressed the button and the door opened again to the cleaning lady. We looked al ittle suspicious and we felt pretty stupid so we just said hi. She said where are you trying to go. She swiped her card and we were finally on our way to the 3rd floor. We got out and weren't quite sure where to go. A lady with a clip board was walking around so we got a little nervous. Guess they are pretty strict on only certain people being in the hallways, so we hid in a corner. We decided well lets try the elevator and get to the ground floor. We were waiting for the elevator and Monica popped out. Turns out the shuttle driver took us to the wrong hotel. Well that was a fun little elevator ride...
Debbie, Monica, and Rose took a taxi to the right one and Meribeth and I walked becausee we weren't going to fit in the taxi and we could use the walk.
Once we got to the hotel we settled into the room and walked down to the harbour. We decided to have a few drinks down at the Opera bar which is the bar right below the opera house. WE sat in the sun and talked to surrounding tourists. We met two girls from San Fransisco that were sitting right next to us so we talked with them for a while.
After that we went to the hotel to get cleaned up and we headed out to dinner. WE got lucky and ended up at a nice Italian restaraunt overlooking the harbour. It was beautiful. We were very lucky to get a reservation in and I think they messed up and gave us someone elses. The dinner was great! Monica, Meribeth and I decided to walk around for a little bit after that but Monica was exhausted from the flight and she kept getting mad that everyone was commenting on her horrible tan lines that she received earlier that day. One bouncer form a bar said wow you got burnt! Another bouncer said something else a few minutes later. I found it hilarious, but she did not... So we decided to turn in at about 11 p.m.
New Years Eve came around and Debbie and Rose got an early start out. Us girls decided to sleep a little longer and get ready later.
We finally decided to get up and get going around 10 and we got up and started drinking beer. We got dressed and ready and then Debbie and Rose came back and said we would be okay as long as we got to the harbour by about 3 p.m. So we kept drinking in the room.
We left the room at about noon and we headed next door to a little japanese restaraunt. Monica and I shared a chicken teriyaki (sp?) meal. We had to wait a ridiculously long time to get our meal and Rose got her meal like 10 minutes after we got there. She was almost finished with her meal before we got ours so she was pretty upset.
After lunch we walked down to the harbour to see what was going on. There were already thousands of people picking their spots and laying out their blankets for the long haul. Nobody was drinking, there were families out and man what a bunch of boring people. We were getting alittle worried because people were looking at us like we were nuts because we were having fun. We weren't drunk or anything, just excited to be there and nobody else was. Rose had bought us all horns to blow so we kept blowing the horns like crazy. Okay, so I could see how that could get a little annoying, but it's New Years Eve!
We decided to go to another bar and have a few more drinks. We went to a bar called the Oyster bar and had some drinks and some chips (french fries). Meribeth decided it was getting cold and she wanted to put some pants on so her and I went back to the room to put some pants on.
While we were there we decided to get out the camera and have a little photo shoot in the hotel. haha we got some funny pictures. We decided to walk back to where they were and start planning where we were going to be. Meribeth and I decided to take a little detour before we got back and we walked over to a different part of the harbour. Everyone was drinking outside and having a great time! We even got in a few horn fights with some of the other people around. Meribeth and I lost because we went up against like 10 people at a time. Man, I loved those horns.
Anyways, we stopped for some ice cream and headed back to the bar. We convinced them that the place we found was definitely the place to be. So we all headed over and picked a spot. It ended up being one of the best spots we could have found.
There were people everywhere! People were already pretty much standing shoulder to shoulder at around 4 p.m.
Meribeth, Mnonica, and I decided we would walk around for a bit and Debbie and Rose held our spot. We walked 15 feet and ran into 3 guys from New Zealand that were travelling around Australia in a Camper van for a year. We talked to them for awhile and then decided to walk around some more. We met people from everywhere. We returned to our spot and talked to the people around us. I mostly talked to a guy from Chicago that was there travelling. His next destination was Bangkok. We met three German guys that were working two hours west of Brisbane. I forgot what they were doing, but they were fun! We hung out with them for most of the night along with the New Zealand guys from earlier in the night.
The toilet lines were three miles long so it took us like 20 minutes to go to the bathroom.I think Meribeth cut the line a few times, and a couple of times we went to the guys bathroom, because everyone knows they have shorter lines.
From here the night gets a little fuzzy. We spent most of the night drinking in our spot, with the German guys, the New Zealand guys, and the guy from Chicago. The first set of fireworks came on at 9:00 and I can't really remember the particulars about those ones. We took picures, drank, and talked to the boys. Then at midnight the big fireworks came on.
The fireworks were coming from everywhere. They were over the opera house, over the bridge, over the buildings on the other side. There were about 5 different areas the fireworks were being shot off from. The bridge would light up with fireworks and then they would shoot fireworks to go up over the top of the bridge. It was absolutely amazing! Best fire work show I will probabably ever seen in my life and I probably missed a lot of it. Beer will do that to you. After the fireworks we talked to the New Zealand boys a little more and then I decided to walk away. I walked straight down over a 3ft wall and I soooo did not make the landing. There I was a million people clearing out of the harbour on a 4 ft wide sidewalk and I fall right in the middle of it. Then to "not draw attention" I just stay there and sit down for a minute. I remember really thinking that if I just sit down and play it off people will think I did it on purpose. haha what stupid thoughts go through your head when you're drinking.
Anyway, one of the German guys came to my rescue and helped me up. I decided it was time to lay down and have a little rest on the wall that I just fell off from.
After my rest we went to walk around the streets. Apparently, that is what the rest of the million people that were there did too because the streets were filled. The whole city was just one massive party. We walked over to a bunch of guys that were jumping around singing and chanting. I believe they were chanting the England national anthem or something. They were all English guys. One guy explained to me that they were all from Engalnd over here watching the Ashes match and they came down for New Years. I proceeded to tell them that they should stop doing what they are doing because England lost. haha good idea! The guy I was talking to didn't really appreciate that but he told me that England still has pride and they will still shout their anthem in the middle of the street on New years eve in Australia. Alright man whatever floats your boat.
At this point we are wandering the streets with the German guys, but I raced off to find a bathroom and we lost them. One of the New Zealand guys that Meribeth was hanging out with managed to keep up so it was Monica, Meribeth, um I think his name was James, and me. We were walking the streets altogether, and me thinking they were behind me keeps walking. Well they either stopped or weren't walking as fast because a couple minutes later I was all by myself.
And let me tell you I met every person on the street when I was walking by myself. Everyone wants to talk to the random American lost on the streets at 2 in the morning. Haha I know mom, not that smart, but it's over now so I can tell you.
I caught up with the girls and we sat on a curb and talked to a few more people before turning in.
The next morning we weren't feeling our best so it took us a few hours to get ready to go again. We finally got out of the room about noon and we took a ferry over to Manly beach. We did a little shopping, ate lunch, sat by the beach, and then headed back. It was time for Meribeth and I to head back and go to the airport.
We made it back to Brisbane in one peice, with the weekend of our lives now over.
It was so amazing and worth every penny!