Mardi Gras in Sydney

March 5, 2019

On Friday, Jana, the former au pair of my host family, moved back in with us because it's her last week in Australia before flying back to Germany. Since we get along very well, we went out together in Sydney on Friday evening and did things together on Saturday and Sunday as well.

On Saturday, I also met up with Katrin in the city, a girl I would like to fly to Cairns with in April. Originally, I had planned to travel to Adelaide in April, but I have now decided that it is more important for me to see the Great Barrier Reef and go snorkeling there than to visit another city. After all, I have already seen Brisbane and will be in Melbourne and Canberra this month, so Adelaide is not as important to me anymore.

Since Katrin and I got along really well, I invited her to have dinner with me and Jana later, as Jana had also invited friends. With Jana's friends, some of whom I already knew, there were seven of us and we all had dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant before we wanted to continue as a big group to the Mardi Gras Parade.

Mardi Gras is an annual three-week gay and lesbian festival in Sydney that takes place in February. During this time, more than eighty events take place and the festival concluded this weekend with a big parade through the city.

Our group arrived at Oxford Street just in time for the start of the parade at 7:30 pm, but unfortunately we didn't have very good spots initially, as many people were already standing at the barricades to have a good view of the people participating in the procession.

Fortunately, we were offered stools later on and from then on we had a much better view of the colorfully dressed people and the impressive choreography they had come up with. It was really fun! Because even the spectators were all dressed or made up in colorful and eye-catching ways, and everyone cheered and danced to the loud music from the floats. The parade went on until 10 pm and we stayed until the end before we all went home again.

Today, on March 5th, it's Sofia's seventh birthday! ♥ This morning before school, she already unwrapped a few presents and there was cake, but she will only get the gift from Jana and me this afternoon after school. In the evening, we will all go out together to have pizza, it will be really nice!

I'm enjoying my free hours now before picking up the kids again and I'll see what else I do.

Until the next entry! - Nora