The Sun never knew it’s beauty until it saw it’s reflection off my roof....Day 1

Well, I survived a 14 hour flight from LAX to Sydney, Australia, whilst losing April 13, 2011.  We arrived at the crack of dawn to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean.  My seat mates were a professional photographer from Melbourne and a mining engineer from Denver.  They were very nice and entertaining.

Day One -- Australia --

 We made it into our hotel, but of course it was too early to check in.  These people look at me as if I am from outer space when I open my mouth.  Seriously, they have accents too.  I have decided there are different languages and American and Australian are two different ones.  I am learning Australian from the bottom up, mates.

After somewhat checking in our hotel in The Rocks (quaint little area)  Holiday Inn Old Sydney-- you could almost envision ragged/haggard convicts alighting from their 9 month + ship journey from England.  And here we were ragged and haggard alighting from our taxi from a 24 hour journey -- man up ladies!

We hit the Circular Quay and caught our first view of the Opera House.  I do not have sufficient words to describe this site ---- MAGNIFIQUE!! AWESOME!! UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE!!   are my best attempts.  Paris has the Eiffel Tower, London has the Tower, and NYC has the Statue of Liberty. I have seen all of these, but I can assure you none of these compare to the Opera House.  The Opera House is more low key in some ways because it isn’t as “historic” or symbolic.  But it just seems more down to earth and friendly --- more accessible--- just like the people of this country.  

In the Quay was the BIGGEST cruise ship -- Rhapsody of the Seas.  There were tons of people getting on the ship, I guess they were leaving today.  Even that big it wouldn't be for me.

Whilst (loving these new words - don't know if I am using them properly, but who cares) eating my breakfast of fresh fruit from the CQ Cafe, we saw many people running around the Quay and going to work.  I saw one thing that quite threw me.  In a metro area, the ladies were wearing nasty cheapie flip flops to work.  I might have been wearing the same clothes for 24 hours and have had no shower, but that really got to me.  Ladies get some tennis shoes.  Flip flops with no pedicure are not a welcome site.  I will give them one thing -- nail polish down here costs about $12.50 a bottle so maybe they just can’t afford it.


As we were suffering from major travel exhaustion, we took the Red Double Decker tour bus and were joined by a very nice young man from Germany, who had also just arrived.  It was a fabulous day, about 75 degrees and sunny.  After touring the whole city, we took the tour to Bondi Beach and had lunch at Ravesi’s.  Our very nice waitress was a San Francisco college student that was going home next week.  The view was great and the food was good -- pumpkin ravioli with asparagus and cheese and kingfish and oysters ("don't eat the seafood if you can't see the water" and we were overlooking the water).

The people watching was pretty good too -- a bright pink haired lady hailed a cab, a Ferrari drove by at a great rate of speed and a young man in a Toyota got a ticket for something from a policeman in a bright yellow vest.  To top off the characters, there were skateboarders and some moron who kept doing back flips off the beautiful mosaic benches and planters.  

At the beach we saw young skateboarders and surfers.  In the water, we saw the older surfers hotdogging in the waves enjoying the beautiful Thursday afternoon. 

Back on the bus, we were granted wonderful views that overlooked the city. 

Our next stop was Hyde Park, I was pleasantly surprised with this place and think it is one of my favorite places ever -- I could sit there in the shade and just watch the interesting sites for hours.  The fountain was beautiful but dwarfed by the majestic trees that border the sidewalk.   Also there were creatures in the park, and I am not talking about the weird birds we saw (and heard) but the juvenile delinquents hanging out (they are the same all over the world - skateboarding through the people).  

The Sydney Opera House tour did not disappoint.  Martin was a wonderful tour guide who treated us to three theatre viewings -- the first is where they are staging “Much Ado About Nothing” (which I might catch on my trip back to Sydney); the second where they were practicing for the stage rendition of the music from Final Fantasy (I was told it was a Japanese video game - but I have never heard of it) -- this was great to listen to in this amazing venue, beautiful live music is always a treat;  and third to the small theatre where they were practicing for Madame Butterfly the ballet.  Great stuff and the inside is just as magnificent as the outside.  -- So we got a tour/history and saw a ballet and a concert -- what a great value. 

Once outside, we took a sunset tour of the Harbour on the Cook Cruise Lines. There was one shot we couldn't get -- the naked men on the shoreline near a residential area on the rocks.  I sure hope this was their backyard and not their neighbors. 

I have seen many a beautiful sunset in my day -- but this is in the top 5 for sure.  The sky was lined with shades purples, blues, oranges, and reds.   I have a friend who lives here and I hope that when he goes home at night, it is early enough for him to enjoy that site every day.  It was breathtaking to look at the Bridge and Opera House in that lighting.  I am debating taking the sunset bridge climb now, or go during the day?  Choices, choices..

As we troopered on, we thought it best not to go back to the hotel until we were done for the evening -- two more stops to make - the Shangri-La Hotel and a place to eat.  I have yet to figure out how a Southern Accent can melt someone, but whatever works, use it.  We looked like drowned rats, yet this very nice young man at the Blu Horizons bar let us in.  (The sign said smart business dress, and we were three steps out of a homeless shelter after not showering and having stained blue jeans and tennis shoes.)  Seeing Sydney from the 36 floor of this great hotel  was a memorable experience.  We watched the cars merge in and out and realized - Sydney drivers are much nicer than US drivers who don’t know what merge means.

After finding a forgettable restaurant in the Rocks, we went back to our room and plugged in our dead camera batteries (I killed two today) and dead cell phone -- we didn’t have time to plug it in at any airport due to our delays.   Note to self use those electronic chargers I packed.

This was a great shower as we hadn’t had one in so long. Went to bed with a wet head of hair and didn’t even care.  :)

And yes the tag line above was correct -- after the sights we saw today in my new third favorite country -- "The Sun never knew it’s beauty until it saw it’s reflection off my roof" tshirt in the Opera House gift shop.  I saw the reflection and the beauty and it was an awesome sight....Thank you Sydney for a great day...