Sydney Day #1

12/1/07 – 12/2/07

On Saturday, December 1st, we were set to fly to Sydney. Unfortunately, we waited too long to try to book a shared taxi or bus, so we were going to have to pay at least double to hail a cab. Fortunately, at the internet café where we have been doing all of our internet stuff (which has been about 4 hours every day), the tech support guy was heading home and he lives close to the airport, so he took us! We were so grateful.

So we checked in for our flight, went through security, and sat down to wait for the flight. I think I told you how small this airport was when we first flew into Airlie Beach (there are no baggage claim belts, they just put your luggage on one of those luggage carts and drive it to the side of the airport building for you to take off of the cart), but I just have to reemphasize how tiny it really is. It is just a small building with two counters for checking in, two security screening areas, a two “gates”, both of which are half inside and half outside, so when we were waiting outside, we were being eaten alive by bugs! We thought the Key West airport was small, but that was nothing compared to this.

Anyway, while we were waiting at the “gate”, they announced that the flight was cancelled because a crew member had been hurt (which we found out the next day was because they had turbulence coming in and she fell down and hit her head and had to go to the hospital! – but thank goodness she turned out to be fine), so we had to stay overnight and get on the flight the next morning. We had to wait for a long time, but they finally were able to book everyone in hotels and got buses there to take us to the hotels. Thankfully, we got one of the nicer hotels (some people got crappy motels), and this place was really nice. Too bad we couldn’t enjoy it since we didn’t get to the hotel until 10:30 and we were being picked up at 6:45 the next morning, but it was still nice.

So the next morning, we got on the plane and got to Sydney. It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the low 70s, so we checked in and decided to walk around. We walked down the street and ate outside at this little Spanish tapas place (by the way, Sydney is going to be all about food for me :)). We had lightly fried calamari, artichokes marinated in a creamy vinaigrette, and scampi-like shrimp. It was all really good. And we had some really great sangria. What a great way to start Sydney!

Then we walked down to Darling Harbor, one of the many harbors in Sydney, and walked around. It really is a beautiful city. They have crazy fountains everywhere and a lot of landscaping, so there is a lot of green and beauty within the city (plus all the water, of course), which makes it so much nicer than when it’s all just buildings and concrete, like so many of the European cities. We walked to the Aquarium and walked around there looking at all the different types of salt and fresh water creatures. It was kind of sad because so many of the enclosures and tanks were so small! But some of them were pretty big, like the big oceanarium where they had all the Great Barrier Reef sea life, so we got to see again some of the animals we had seen when diving there, so that was cool.

After the Aquarium, we walked along the harbor and went to a couple of bars to just chill out and have a couple beers. It was really nice. Our plan for tonight was to stop by a kabob and pizza place on the way back to the hotel to get some pizza, stop and get some beer from a liquor store, and then watch the recorded ACC championship game in our room (the internet is really expensive here, but we figured it’s worth it). Unfortunately, when we got online, the game wasn’t available to watch! So we saw the score (30-16 – GO HOKIES!!!) and watched the highlights. It looked like such a great game! We are so mad we missed it! And, go figure, the Orange Bowl that we’ll be playing in is on January 3rd, and we’ll be in the air coming home at that time! But don’t worry, my parents will be taping it and we’ll watch it recorded.

Tomorrow we plan on walking through the city to one of the parks and then to the Royal Botanic gardens, which look absolutely huge on the city map in my guidebook. Then we’ll walk to a different harbor and have some good food. YUM!

Check out our first set of pictures of Sydney: