Ghost Tour of The Rocks

On Friday, the international student Buddy Club hosted a ghost tour of The Rocks. The company Ghost Tours (www.ghosttours.com.au if you are curious) holds daily tours of The Rocks area - of both the North and the South. We took the 'Dark North' tour and heard stories of murder, suicide, ghost hauntings, and other strange happenings in the area.

Our tour guide was Ghost Host James(pictured above), and he was great! He was a fabulous story teller, which really made the night fun! It was not completely dark for the first part of the tour, which made it a little less scary. The owner of the company traces his ancestry back to the first settlers of The Rocks, and a lot of the ghost hosts have lived or currently live in The Rocks, so all of the stories (we were told that all of them are true) have been handed down for generations and have an authentic feel.

As part of the tour everyone had to play a role. There were silly props- like toy rats, socks, hats, etc. that we had to wear. At each spot ghost host James called on a person or group to recreate the story! It was interactive which made it fun. Charity and I both had to wear socks around our neck and when the time came we played the role of famous Sydney gang members who used to rob and then kill people with sand filled socks! True story!

Overall, it wasn't terribly scary and I did not have any creepy experiences, but it was interesting to learn the history of The Rocks- it is a very old and mysterious part of the city. It was especially cool to stand in the actual spots where these events occured, though they were so long ago! A few of the sites have been preserved and the city has maintained a few really old houses, and since most of them are off limits to the general public it was nice to get the chance to see a part of the city I wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

After the ghost tour Charity, our friend Meg, and I went to the famous Pancakes on The Rocks. We split some potato wedges and each got pancakes. Mine had bananas, walnuts, chocolate syrup and chocolate ice cream - talk about a healthy dinner! It was delicious. We are actually going back for Nate's birthday on Sunday... meaning 2 out of 3 nights this weekend my dinner will be pancakes. But that's life in Sydney :)

On Saturday night Charity and I went to eat at a nice cafe called UrbanBites. As I mentioned in the past there are a ton of little cafes all along King St. so we made a list and are trying to get to them all!

This week has been especially challenging for me as far as being homesick. At Case this week is Greek Week and so all of the sororities and fraternities are competing in events. It is always a fun part of the year and I was sad to miss out on it this year! But, DG is doing really well and I am proud of them. One of the bigger events is Variety Show where each chapter creates and performs a 5-7 minute show at the Ohio Theater. Here is a link to DG's variety show this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjLNJc2K8zI We placed 2nd!!!

But, I have a busy 3 months ahead. I leave for the Outback in ONE week! I can't believe it is almost already here. Then 2 weeks after that I go to New Zealand, then the week I get back from NZ my friend Maya is coming to visit, which will be a ton of fun! Then I finish classes, go to the Great Barrier Reef, then back to Cleveland! Like I said, a very busy 3 months ahead :)

Love,
Becky