A Saturday for the Books

Weekends always have that special, refreshing feeling. There is always that sense of relief that you have made it to the promised land of the weekend after those tough weeks of class and work. Saturday's and Sunday's back home mean it's time for a little rest and relaxation. Weekends in Australia have been just a bit different. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Australia for me is a time to let that travel itch take over a bit.

So far on the weekends here, I have been to the Australian Open, hiked around the beautiful beaches of Sydney, and taken in the scenes from Taronga Zoo while looking out at the Harbor. Pretty run of the mill weekends, right? But this past Saturday may have been my favorite day since I've arrived here in Sydney.

It started early enough, with a nice little 6:45 A.M. wake up call (My friends think I'm crazy, but some of my favorite days often involve early wake-up calls). ISA sent our tour guide to pick us up at Urbanest, where we then proceeded to make the hour and a half trek outside of the city to the Blue Mountains. My excitement level for this trip was one of the highest for any of the excursions that ISA had planned for us. I guess the old saying goes as true. You can take the man out of the mountains, but you can't take the mountains out of the man (I don't even remember where I heard this).

We started our day off getting to see the Three Sisters' Rock formation, one of the most famous spots in the mountain range. Three Sisters' is a pretty big tourist spot, so our guide took us to a different spot to see it, away from all of the people and tourists. Ha, I remember when I was a tourist in Sydney. Those were the days.

After a nice lunch in one of the small Blue Mountain towns (it's a different world in those small towns), we then set off for Wentworth Falls for a hike and a swim. This was honestly my favorite part of the day. There is nothing quite like suffering in some intense heat with your friends. But it is even better to suffer in that heat and then cool off in a natural swimming hole, with Wentworth Falls in the background. The beauty and serenity that the area had around it with the waterfall and swimming hole was something that was so beautiful. And that water felt as refreshing as a tall glass of Minute Maid's finest lemonade on a hot summer day.

We ended our Blue Mountains trip by stopping by the "Insta spot", or Lincoln's Rock. The picture below is the view from Lincoln's Rock, and as I was trying to come up with words to say about it in this writing, I felt like that my words couldn't even do it justice. So I'll let the picture speak for itself.

My day wasn't over yet after the Blue Mountains, as I rushed over to Hillsong Church to have dinner afterwards with some friends that I have made there. After an absolutely incredible service, my friends Dylan and Jordan took me out to their favorite place, Mickey's in Paddington. Dylan is from South Carolina and Jordan is from Manly Beach here in Sydney. It was such a great time of hanging out, and it was so cool for me because one of the things that was on my bucket list for here was to make life-long friends here in Sydney. Having friends all over the world is the coolest thing, and I've wanted to be able to do that in Australia like I have in other places.

So if you know me, you know that Saturday would no doubt be one of my favorite days. Fellowship and the outdoors, there isn't anything better.

Cheers,

Jonathan


Program Update: I'm currently wrapping up my last week of class this week, and I'll be flying out to New Zealand on Saturday for a program break! Class has flown by, and I can't believe the first part is almost over already.