Day 1 in Sydney.
Arrived at 6:30am this morning after 15 hours on a plane. Surprisingly not nearly as long or as painful as expected.
By 8:30 we had made it through customs, picked up our luggage, gone through quarantine, picked up a local phone with the ability to make international calls (when necessary), exchanged money into local currency, booked a train to the hotel, and checked in to the hotel.
Most intriguing part - apparently people do not talk on public transportation/this specific train. Stephen and I had to whisper so as to not disturb anyone.
Since the hotel didn't have our room ready, we dropped our bags and found a small gourmet espresso/sandwich shop, picked up some amazing sandwiches, and headed to a pier to eat in the sun. You can kind of see the bridge in the background of the picture below.
After finishing breakfast, we spent the next two hours at the aquarium. Coolest things we saw - biggest frickin' crabs - they were unreal! and the giant shark tank - we're now slightly closer to being mortified knowing what will be in the ocean when we go scuba diving this weekend. Pictures of both below - we'll let you figure out which picture corresponds to which comment.
After the aquarium, we then wandered all around Darling Harbor, through a kids' playground, along lots a hot restaurants and bars, in 50 degree weather and sunshine with live jazz musicians playing in the park. One of the pictures below is of what we felt qualifies as what could be one of the most awesome swimming pools ever (if you could actually swim in this one).
The last picture was a really neat fountain we passed. We then ventured around the rest of the harbor, found lunch in a bistro next to a restaurant called "Pancakes on the Rocks", and ate on the steps of the harbor. Everyone else was wearing trench coats, wool jackets, gloves, scarves, and boots. It is winter here, apparently. Stephen and I rocked the jeans and hoodie sweatshirt look. We've clearly lived in cold locations - since 50F felt warm.
After lunch, our hotel room was ready, so we opted for hot showers and practicing hygeine as it had been a lot of traveling and we'd started to look a little grungy. We relaxed some more before heading out to the Sky Tower and dinner in town. Pictures below include the view from our hotel and multiple views from the tower. The best picture that wasn't quite captured is the last one - the moonlight is what is completely illuminating the Pacific Ocean. Sorry some pictures are sideways - you'll have to suffer through. :)
So, this should be more than enough for today. Headed to the Blue Mountains tomorrow - will hopefully have more to report then!
Sounds like you guys were in a silent car on the train...or maybe they are all silent cars! Have fun swimming with sharks :)
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