Sydney

So we're going to jump around a bit and skip August, September, and all but the last days of October so I can write about Australia while it's fresh on my mind. I flew out of Sydney last Thursday, Oct. 29th and was pleased to find I had an entire row to myself on the plane. After getting settled in my hostel, I took off to exploring the city until Meryl and her family got there (they were flying in from a different part of NZ). I spent most of the day exploring Darling Harbor, which is the less famous harbor that houses some shops and restaurants. That evening was more low key. The highlight of the night was a real hot dog from the cart outside the Stevenson's hotel (with the works: chili cheese, onions and mashed peas? Better than the poor excuses for hot dogs I've had in NZ. A+ to Harry's Cafe de Wheels.)

The next day was the full tourist experience, complete with me trying to shatter the record for most pictures of the Sydney Opera House. We walked through the Botanical Gardens on the way to the Harbor, then had a little picnic lunch before breaking off from Meryl's parents. We walked around some more then took the ferry back to Darling Harbor to see some more sights. The ferry is where I got the best views of Sydney's two landmarks, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, and they didn't disappoint. For all the joking I do about people who go to Europe and take pictures of buildings... well, I guess I can keep doing that because I got to go to a better part of the world and my building was a lot cooler than any of theirs. The bridge seemed like a normal bridge, though if I had $200 extra I might have climbed it and decided it was much cooler. That night, Meryl and I were going to go to an amusement park across the harbor but she fell asleep around 9:00, but all wasn't lost because when I got back to my hostel, I met a couple Aussie guys spending the weekend in Sydney and we went out and had a blast.

Our third day in Sydney was spent at Bondi Beach getting sunburn. Apparently there is some surf rescue show filmed there, but we didn't need to be rescued so I couldn't tell for sure. The beach itself was surrounded by houses and condos, so it wasn't very big, but it was definitely worth the bus ride out. The afternoon was much more relaxed, and that evening we went to Lord Nelsons for dinner, which is one of two pubs in Sydney that claims to be the oldest. We ate at the upstairs restaurant, but when Meryl's parents left we went downstairs for the final All Blacks v. Australia match and it was a real old time pub atmosphere (The All Blacks won, of course.) After the game ended, we went out and tried to find a taste of real Halloween but nothing could come close to what we were missing in Baltimore. Early the next morning, we flew off to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef.

EDIT: Here are the Australia pictures.