This past week I was lucky enough to travel down to Sydney. We were there for a total of four days and managed to fit everything in. The first day we went to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Botanical Gardens, and walked down George Street, famous for it's shopping, and found Gap australia-only the second to be here, the first is in Melbourne.

The second day was spent in the Blue Mountains. We went on a group tour so we learned lots of fun facts. The Blue Mountains got their name because when viewed from a distance there is a blue tinge. This is caused by light reflecting off vapours from the eucalyptus leaves. The mountains, which are actually not a mountain range, but a plateau made from mostly sandstone, border metropolitan Sydney. They begin on the west side of the Nepean River. They are part of the Great Divide and are dissected by gorges of up to 760 meters deep. It's World Heritage listed, the fourth area to be listed in New South Wales.

In the mountains is a place called Scenic World, which houses the world's steepest railway, which I had the pleasure of riding. The steepest grade is 52 degrees. You start out on a flat surface and are laying down in the seat. As it goes up you sit straighter and straighter. It was slightly terrifying, but awesome. You're caged in essentially though, but that doesn't stop everyone from feeling the need to hold on to the cage. The railway is Guinness certified, so it really is the World's steepest.

Probably the most recognized feature of the Blue Mountains is the rock formation called the Three Sisters. Legend has it that three sisters, Meehin, Wimiah, and Gunnedoo lived in Jamison Valley as part of the Katoomba tribe. The sisters fell in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, but tribe law forbade them from marrying. The brothers, unhappy with this decision, captured the sisters causing a major tribe battle. A witch-doctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the sisters into stone to protect them from harm. Unfortunately he was killed before he could turn them back. Now the sisters remain in their rock formation as a reminder of the battle. The sisters stand 922, 918, and 906 meters tall.

On our way back from the mountains we stopped at a National Park to observe some wild kangaroos. We saw a mom and a baby joey about 18 months old. Now I had no idea how cool kangaroos are. The most often seen kangaroo is the Eastern Grey. Now kangaroos have fixed hips, so they can't walk, they hop. But their hind legs have stretchy tendons that store elastic strain energy, so they use hardly any muscular effort to move. Also, there is a link between their hopping and breathing. So as their feet leave the ground air is expelled from the lungs and as they move their feet to touch the ground their lungs are refilled. Because of this increases in speed require very little extra effort. Female kangaroos are the cool ones though. They are essentially always pregnant. And inside their pouch is four different teats and they can produce two different types of milk to provide for joeys of varying age. They can also suspend the development of a joey when there is little food or water to provide the best chance of life. Kangaroos are shy by nature, though the males will often 'box' with other males for play or territorial reasons. Their tail serves as a fifth limb and often when they are fighting they will balance themselves on their tail. Aboriginals use kangaroo for their meat, hide, bone, and tendon. And a little fun fact, kangaroos and emus are featured on the australian coat of arms because they are the only animal that can't walk backwards. And australia is the only country that eats their coat of arms.

We then went to see an aboriginal carving. Now did you know that aboriginals banned graffiti? They only allow it if it tells a story. The one we saw was of a kangaroo that had been taken down by a hunting boomerang and then killed by a spear through it's heart. The way it was facing pointed to where they then went and it's legs were in a wide stance, indicating it was moving fast when it was taken down. Very interesting. Aboriginals also get a tattoo when they are a teenager of their tribe symbol. When they want to marry they go to the tribe elders and show their tattoos. If they don't match they can marry. This prevents inbreeding. Crazy business. Their traditional instrument, the didgeridoo, is traditionally only played by the eastern kimberley region, and only by the men.

And have you ever wondered why the australian sporting colors are green and gold when their flag is red white and blue? Well that's because of the wattle tree. With it's green stem and golden leaves. There are over 985 species of the wattle tree in australia. And so they use the golden wattle for their sporting colors.

Our third day in Sydney we went to Bondi Beach, a very famous beach. This art thing called Sculpture by the Sea was taking place so we walked around that which was cool. And then we headed back to the Gold Coast.