At exactly 6:25 we touched down in Sydney and I have to reiterate that this was a really nice flight that actually wasn’t long enough for me to do the majority of my work. I was one of the first ones off the plane after the first and business classes and I walked quickly to customs. The line was terribly long and I think a flight from Japan had just gotten in too, so I was in those winding lines for who knows how long (no watch whatsoever). After that, I waited a bit more for my bags and then off to quarantine! Now, I figured this would be a pain because I had an entire suitcase filled with food, but after getting in the faster moving line it was actually quite quick. I pretty much got asked a few questions, checked a bit, then waved right through. I think they weren’t really checking people because the lines were just SO long. Really, all the way back to customs. After passing through quarantine, I looked for Dave at our predetermined meeting point but he found me right away and soon we were outside!!! Yay!! The line (queue?) for taxis was even longer than that for customs but I was happy to be in Australia even if the weather was grey and cloudy.
Our cab took us to Dave’s place in about 20 minutes and I was glad I wasn’t tired at all because we would be walking a lot throughout the day. Downstairs, I met Travis. It’s very funny to finally meet someone that you have heard so much about and have seen pictures of for so long. He is really nice and had made these rice krispie treats with peanut butter and nutella that were very good. After that, we waited for the rain to stop while I settled in and gave Dave all the stuff from America that I had for him. He also got me this awesome bracelet from NZ that is silver but made from a shell that is blue/green. It’s very me. After it stopped raining…we pretty much headed right outside for what was to become a 6.3 mile walk. Now, I have no concept, really, of where we went geographically because we didn’t head in a straight direction because we walked through the campus for a bit before heading downtown. To me, the campus seemed very large although I was assured that it wasn’t and you could actually walk across it in 10 minutes. The buildings are very nice, with most looking like something out of Harry Potter (and, in fact one did ‘dress up’ for Halloween or something?). Coming from the quad, there is a nice view and then steps down to a park which seems very grand to me after attending BU (virtually no ‘campus’) and Brandeis (very small). After that tour of the uni, our first stop was some place to eat. As it was only 11:30am, it felt a bit odd to eat but I also felt like this day had already gone on forever, so I was very hungry. Eating World it was! Eating World is pretty much like Super 88 in Allston; it’s a food court of nothing but assorted Asian food counters. We went to a Chinese place (no name mentioned) and I had some chicken dish that was decent and Dave had a shrimp thing that had an amazing amount of shrimp in it. Oddly enough, our food was a lot pinker than the pictures portrayed it to be, which is an odd observation but quite true. After that we walked all the way to Darling Harbour . We stopped briefly at McDonalds to get a coke which was actually gross because it wasn’t coke-y enough, and then onwards to purchase tickets to take a ferry to Circular Quay.
Darling Harbour is touristy but isn’t too over the top. Still it does feel a bit like Disney land and there are children running everywhere, perhaps as a function of there being both a wildlife center and the zoo. We boarded the ferry at 12:30 and got spots right at the front of the boat to see an amazing view of the Opera House as we came around the bend. Actually, it was pretty amazing. It’s such an iconic building and really a symbol of the entire country/continent. Seeing it in person was a bit surreal seeing as I felt as though it hadn’t been very long at all since I was sitting and eating a burrito in the International Terminal in San Francisco. Now here I was, quite literally on the other side of the world on a boat in an absolutely amazing harbour seeing the Opera House appear. Shortly after that, the boat pulled into Circular Quay where we got off. We walked north to be straight across from the opera house and took some ‘typical’ photos of me in front of it before climbing a set of stairs into some area known as the rocks. This was where Louenbrau was located, which is a very German bar serving liters of beer, including mango beer. There was German music playing (live) and the waitresses were dressed in ‘traditional’ German clothing. I use quotes because it was more like the Hooters equivalent of German clothing. The plan was for me to try mango beer and for Dave to have a pretzel. After taking a while to find someone to actually take our order, I got a .3L mango beer (bout the size of a short glass back home). It was actually very good although there is no way I could drink more than that because it was so sweet. We paid and headed back outside to walk to the other side of the little inlet (quay?) to the Opera House. We walked all around it and I was surprised to see that up close it isn’t solid white but actually looks more like tiles, or maybe perhaps that there is a black net over the whole thing. Hard to explain. Also, it looks very tempting to climb. So so hard not to, and the signs indicating the illegality of doing so makes it even more difficult. After this, Royal Botanic (-al?) Gardens!
Now, this sounds super lame as botanic, I think, is actually just another word for lame. Not the case. This place is just nuts and I think I’m developing affinity for trees. These trees were awesome!! The pictures do a better job describing, but there were just some plants that seemed to beg for a giant dinosaur foot to step through them. Giant, giant leaves. Also- giant giant spiders! And bats! Crazy. Like, national geographic spiders. Bleck. After taking some pictures, it was back to walking. We walked through Hyde Park (my third one that I’ve been to!) and then, I think, back towards the apartment. Of course, by this point we were really far away but it was nice out and I was really enjoying the general Australia-ness of everything. The next stop was Hungry Jacks (Burger King) in Central Station. I didn’t get anything but had a bit of Dave’s onion rings and hamburger. These prices – shocking! Really, it’s just outrageous how much fast food costs here! Next was the Broadway mall for pinter cartridges, shampoo/conditioner for me, and then some groceries. Oddly enough, there were few stores that were american. The only store I recognized was FCUK. We went to Kmart for my items and I got cheap hair stuff which was still over $4 each for shampoo and conditioner for very small bottles. Next, Coles for some food. We got some kangaroo and other things to make dinner and then began the walk back. Phew. It had been a lot of walking but I would much rather do that than not do enough. Sitting felt lovely and we watched both 30Rock and the Office from this past thursday (hysterical!). Dinner was at Mariza’s with Travis and Bea. She had made this delicious Indian thing, beef based, with some tastey rice. It was awesome. We left shortly thereafter than didn’t do much else for the evening. So nice to finally be here!!
