Sydney (The End of a Great Visit)

Sydney WOW, what a great city.... its lots of fun and full of friendly Aussies... has a very NYC feeling to it (It's super multi-cultural, open 24-7 and fast paced). I'm glad I stayed in Melbourne first and relaxed a bit before heading here - I was ready for it though - its really a beautiful harbour city and the clubs are GREAT ;0)


Even better, the sun finally came out on Saturday so I was able to really enjoy it. I took a ferry up to Manly beach on Sat. and watched the waves roll in with a freind - he took me to a place that night that only serves chocolate... I had one of the best chocolate lava cakes (or chocoate souffles as they're called here) I've ever had. I stayed until the sun set wandering down at the beach hunting for tidal beasties - I'd about had my fill of crabs, spiders and strange squirting things on the rocks when out of nowhere a bunch on Fairy Penguins came strolling up out of the water to their rooks.... it was SO great to finally see them out in the wild! (I couldn't take a pic as the flash in bad for their eyes, but they are damn cute ;0)



Not that everything on the beach was cute - I saw these bizzare and disgusting jelly doughnut looking anemones and I think this might be a funnel web spider (only the MOST deadly one in the world... yeah)

I also got some nice views of the city from the ferry on the way back and watched some people on racing sailboats... they got so close to the boat I was sure they were going to hit it, great fun to watch.

I also finally made it out to THE city beach (Bondi) and watched the surfers for a while, it looked very fun (you can see all the surfers in the 2nd pic).

It so happened that "sculptures by the sea" was happening that day... it was a bunch of artists showing there stuff right on the seacliff walls... very dramatic (the mow-hawk look is very "in" here):

I went back to Bondi yesterday (another 80+ day) with a freind and he introduced me to Aussie beach delicicies - Lychee Martinis and Sydney Rock Oysters... yum. I also went for my 1st swim, which was warm and wavy (and devoid of all the Blue Bottle Jellyfish I'd seen the first time I went there - one of them got me that day when I was walking down the beach... ouch).

I wasn't all bad in the rain though... I went to the aquarium (one of the best I've been to - reminded me a lot of the one in San Fran that Uncle Curtis and Aunt Terri took me to), especially the underwater tunnel with a huge gray nurse shark looming overhead (this revived my fear in sharks nicely [not to mention the story my friend told me about his surfer buddy who was eaten by Hammerhead Sharks in his home town not far from Cairns])... ahh well - there are worse places to end it all I guess.

I also went to see "Let it Be" @ the Sydney Opera House! It was a great show, good song/ singers and I got to hear some Beatles music I'd never heard before. This is the "wing" I was in, the accoustics were amazing...

For my last day in Sydney I took a bus tour out to the Blue Mountains (so named because the oil from they eucalyptus trees gets fried by the sun and makes a bluish haze over everything)... they're beautiful mountains with a huge canyon in them (which, along with angry aboriginals, wasn't a pleasant discovery for the early settlers (convicts). There are some great rock features there called the 3 sisters (which aboriginal tales say were the 3 daughters of a witch doctor who had to turn them to stone to protect them from a monster - which devoured him before he had the chance to turn them back to flesh...) The best part is you get to take a VERY steep tram ride straight down the mountain and walk around the bottom (and play Tarzan in the vines) - after taking a cable ride over the valley floor - with glass bottoms... there's NOTHING below you for a long way down ;0)

On the way there we stopped off @ a wildlife park and I was able to finally "cuddle" a Koala - they're cute but my friend Andy was right - they smell like stinky eucalyptus... the snake was a little too cuddle for my taste ;0)

It was a great way to end my time here - its been fun and I met some great people... I am looking forward to my train trip out to Adelaide through the outback tomorrow though...