The Vacation Day 1 - Sydney

I say Day 1, but it was more like Day 3. Having left Baltimore mid-day on Tuesday and arricing in Sydney bright and early Thursday morning. We lost Wednesday somewhere over the Pacific. Getting there was pretty thrilling for me, having never been as far West as California, and then going past that. And overall 12 hours straight on the plane wasn't too bad. Of course I was still excited at this point. The flight back for the same amount of time was an entirely different story.

Once we arrived in Sydney and got to our hotel, we settled in and waited for our tour time. About an hour before the scheduled time we walked/meandered our way from our hotel to the wharves in Darling Harbour where the lunch cruise was to leave from. Seeing the city from the water was a lot of fun, even if the food left something to be desired.

After lunch it was straight off the boat onto a bus, for a driving tour within the city. Aside from the obivous jetlag, I was having a hard time distinguishing what country I was in. Sydney is a multi-cultural city and it certainly shows. We'd drive to one area and I was convinced we'd entered Italy. Another I could have sworn was Paris, parts that looked like Germany, and a chraming section that gave Prague a run for it's money.

We stopped up on a cliff and Andy and I ran out to the edge to get some nice shots with the sun setting on the bay. It wasn't until we were walking back to the bus that I noticed that the path we walked on went under some spiderwebs, and the biggest damn spiders I have ever seen. Not being a huge fan, I made Andy go first then I basically stared at my feet and walked as fast as possible back to the bus, praying that those things would not choose that moment to venture down from their homes in the trees.

Dinner that night came from McDonalds. I know, very tourist, but we made up for it later. We were tired, and just wanted something quick and easy and on the way back to the hotel. McDonald's was easy enough. Portion sizes in Australia are very different. You actually get the smallest size cup they have when you ask for a small soda. It was incredibly refreshing. I did however have to ask for ketchup to get some. And I had to call it tomato sauce.