Sydney Day 1

Planes, Trains, and Ferry

So, Rachel and I decided that since it was 6am local time when we landed, that we needed to power through the day to beat the jet lag. So, we navigated the public transport taking a bus to a train station and the train to a stop just down the street from our hotel. Since it was 7am, we could not check in to our hotel yet, but we ditched the bags there and began our Sydney

adventure. We began with a walk from our hotel to Circular Quay (pronounced key). We cut through the botanical garden on our way up. This is a huge park with loads of labeled trees and plants. Runners seemed to particularly enjoy it (at 7am). From this park we were able to reach Sydney Harbour and catch our first glimpse of the famous Opera House.

You can see the bridge in the background. We then made our way across the Quay to the Rocks where we toured a craft fair that was going on. Some pretty cool stuff there, although we ended up not buying anything. At this point, we were starting to feel the pain of jet lag, but we decided that we had to press on. A nice ride on a ferry seemed a good way to relax for a bit while

keeping on our site seeing mission to stay away.

So we headed back a got a ticket to Manly Beach. Nothing I saw there that made me think Manly in particular, but I have to say the Ferry ride out was spectacular way to view Sydney. We arrived at Manly Wharf and then traversed the isthmus to the other side where the beach was. A nice stroll on the beach watching the people and still giggling inside whenever we would hear the Australian accent. We watched some volleyball as we strolled on the strand and then started to get a bit hungry so we stopped at a beach burger joint called- Burger Me. I was tempted to go for a Kangaroo burger, but decided against it. I thought the burgers cost a little bit much, until I saw the size of them! We then took the Ferry back and headed back on a train to the hotel.

We were so tired at this point that we actually got off at the wrong stop and then had to walk a little extra to make it back to the hotel. Once we got there, we were impressed by the room to no end!

It was really nice, with a great view of Hyde Park and St. Mary's cathedral and you can even see a bit of the harbor in the distance. We were supposed to go to a museum, but I killed that idea and opted for just resting a bit. We then made it out for dinner back at Circular Quay, where we had Fish and Chips and watched the "Lighting of the Sails" where the project all sort of cool patterns on the opera house. That was enough for us, and we were dead asleep by 8pm. Sad. I then woke up at 4am wide awake. Awesome. I tried calling home on Skype but my family was nowhere to be found. Apparently, there were all watching Toy Story 3!

I'll post more on the next day when I can, and I'll try to post a bunch of pictures up on Facebook as well.