Used to be an old courthouse

Apparently Sydney shuts down on Good Friday. We did not know this beforehand, and it makes sense but in the United States that is not something we are used to. Riley had planned to skype his mom first thing in the morning, but the internet never works for him so that unfortunately didn’t happen. It probably would have worked in the library since it did the day before but guess what, they were closed! It seems the Uni of Sydney likes to mess up our plans whenever it can. We still had lots of school work to finish before we departed for Fiji first thing tomorrow morning so it all worked out. We were going at a steady pace we thought until one of our international friends walked in. We got talking about Spring Break plans and just everyday stuff here which put us even further behind. Then when she was about to leave, our other friend walked in! It was great to see them, but obviously a sign that we shouldn’t do work today. We had set a strict deadline to be out of the lab by 2 pm though to make it downtown for church. We ended up having to rush a little, but even when we were 10 minutes early to mass we don’t get a good seat. St. Mary’s Cathedral was absolutely packed to the brim! That place is so big to begin with that they have TVs mounted on the walls that way you can actually see the altar, but obviously that wasn’t enough seating for Good Friday. Our friend had warned us that Palm Sunday was just as packed, but we had no idea what to expect. We also didn’t expect the mass to be so traditional and long. Extremely long. Maybe we’ll have to try and go again when it’s not a special day, and hope that it’s not as traditional. The church itself was absolutely gorgeous that it was often hard to stop yourself from looking around. When we stepped outside of the church we were hit with a strong gust and looking into the sky we could tell that it was going to be a rainy night. However, we had plans to meet our friends to go out in Newtown so once again we rushed back to get ready. First we had to eat though, and we had subway on our minds. I was going to try the Tuna Fish, but whenever we saw the prices we had to think of another option. Riley had been craving McDonald’s so today he actually got his wish. I went with the fish sandwich which left Riley with two cheeseburgers, fries and a sundae (all this part of this Hungry Meal). With time ticking away we rushed to get a head start on packing before we met up with our friends. I had basically laid out all my clothes on the bed for 10 days whenever we got the text that basically said leave now. We skateboarded our way past the university and into Newtown in record time! We officially started our Spring Break with two of our close international friends and their roommates!