Sydney Part I

Getting to Sydney was an adventure in itself... we ended up missing our flight by minutes because of not one thing in particular, but a number of small occurrences. The positive thing is we ended up meeting a greek dance troupe in the airport lounge on their way to Canberra who were very interesting to talk to. We were even invited for dinner next Sunday! Because we were starving by the time we got there, we had steak at the hotel then wandered through the nearby streets. Our hotel was located in Chinatown and it being the first night of the Sydney festival, there was a huge street market set up. I had custard filled pancakes at one booth and a neck massage at another.

Saturday was jam packed with sightseeing and a ton of walking. Derek, Jodie, and I started at McDonald's for brekky (they have amazing cappuccinos!) then to Paddy's Market which was right across the street and full of fresh fruits and veggies and a ridiculous amounts of shopping booths. Next was Darling Harbour, where the Sydney Convention Centre and 3D Imax theatre live, and the Australian Maritime Museum. They had a very cool exhibit on mythical sea creatures like mermaids, sea dragons, and giant octopus, as well as historical surfing exhibits with old surfboards and a Bondi Beach scrapbook from the 70s. We toured a very old boat, the James Craig, which ran strictly on wind power and took about 16 weeks to sail between Australia and Tasmania. The current ferry takes 14 hours.

Next stop was the Sydney Fish Market for lunch. We shared a seafood platter that contained fresh oysters, scallops, crabmeat, fish, shrimp, and squid. The market was super busy and I can see why... the prices were great and the seafood was caught either that day or the day before. We wandered through an area called The Rocks were the first settlers landed on Australia 240 years ago. It was a really funky part of town with yet another weekend street market (although this one contained nicer stuff than the typical markets) and cool cafes and pubs. We had a pint at the Mercantile Hotel which was named Sydney's best Irish pub the last two years running. Then it was off to the famous Sydney Opera House, gorgeous and definitely a sight to be seen. We took the ferry back to the hotel since we had been walking six hours in the 30+ degree heat and jumped in the rooftop pool (which was actually on the 8th floor and freezing!).

We headed out to the Spanish Quarter for dinner and ended up at a hidden gem called Mamma's. We each had a delicious pizza and shared a $17.50 bottle of wine (very cheap for a restaurant in Australia). The Covern Garden Hotel is where we stopped for drinks on the way back to the hotel and Derek was so excited they had karaoke. It's probably a good thing the singing queue was full... almost everyone that went up was a really good singer. That would have been embarrassing!

Today we took the train to Bondi Beach and relaxed for the day. It was ridiculously busy, chock full of people for one end to the other. Jodie was very happy she got to see the guys on Bondi Rescue, a popular australian reality show about drowning rescues. We went for noodles for dinner (ramen and udon at a funky little japanese place) and Derek and Jodie caught a plane back to Melbourne. I leave Sydney on Tuesday so I have a couple days to adventure on my own...

Things I have learned about Australia:

- the sun is different. Even after putting on SPF 60 once and SPF 30 twice, I still got a sunburn today.

- tons of restaurants advertise BYO (bring your own) for wine and charge a small corkage fee.

- beer is expensive. Actually, everything is expensive (except wine).