G’Day!

Yah that’s my Australian greeting. I figured it was a good way to start this blog off. Anyways I feel quite amazing writing this right now. I am actually up on the roof top terrace of my hostel looking out over Sydney while typing this and editing some photos from my trip for Facebook. It’s cold but blogging on a rooftop 10 stories up in a foreign country is hard to beat.

My flight over went well enough. I really see why Air NZ has such great service and continues to win quality awards. On the way over we were served a hot breakfast with a small omelets, chicken sausage, fruit, muffin, and choice of drink. The food was actually really good especially the omelet. Apparantly the American way to spell omelette is just with one t and neglecting the e. I guess my grammar has changed a little.

The guy sitting next to me looked homeless in his dress so that was interesting. Blue sweatpants with a large beanie (also different color blue) and another off blue sweatshirt. He kinda smelled but apparently was a student, ohh well. The IFE was good and I got to watch 2 movies. The one with Steve Carrell and Tina Fey, Date Night, was a little disappointing because I like both of them as comedians a lot. It felt like a really reused role for Carrell.

The other movie called Band Slam was actually really good. It has Pheobe from Friends (her real name is Michelle something) and some other unknowns. I would actually recommend it. Although it does take the assumption that High School is the absolute most important, epic time of your life. But most shoes nowadays tend to do that.

We landed and it was awesome watching the other planes fly approach patterns in. Before we had takn an east to north approach but this time we took west to north and so we could see the parade of aircraft landing. They didn’t leave too much space in between. On the ground were some amazing A380’s (I counted 4) and the Delta 773 I will be flying home! It was nice to see the delta livery! J

I (So OMG I just got interrupted by a very weird older American guy. Sigh at the people you sometimes get to deal with. I guess you live and learn and carry a gun right?) got into the long line for customs which seemed to be mainly Asians and Brazilians. It seemed like a good third of the Asians had a cough. I’m not very germaphobic but I didn’t like that.

Customs was all in order and my bags were out within 5 minutes of me clearing customs. To be fair the line was a good 45 minutes. I then went through quarantine inspection and the best question was “Do you have a crab in your bag?” I said yes and they wanted to know what it was made of. Apparently ceramic is fine.

I then walked through the mass of people and went to the first Vodafone desk I saw. I waited for a good half hour before being told there was no prepay data plans available in Australia. The guy was unhelpful and I knew he was wrong about there being *no* carrier. So I went to grab the train with my luggage. At this point I had my full packed backpack, my school backpack and my rolling duffel. Probably a easy 50k. I got on the train and found the hostel. I was fortunate enough to be able to check directly into my room from in the morning so I didn’t have to pay any luggage fees!

The room is nice and the hostel is very nice. The biggest one is Oz apparently. You pay, but it isn’t that much more than the real cheap stuff on the market (8 per night).

I then sat out looking for Peter Pans travel to store my bags. I found it and confirmed with the lady and will be delivering it for storage tmmrw or Saturday.

I then sat out to exploring the city. I did a lot today so I apologize if I am a bit brief. There are apparently only two free information stands in Sydney and I was lucky to find one of them near the town hall. The rest that were marked information were actually just street vendors. I got a guidebook with a map and planned what I wanted to see while sitting next to the town hall.

Sydney has a lot of things to do. No wonder there are so many Asian tourists! I walked through some of the city gardens and then St. Mary’s Cathedral which was massive and beautiful. I couldn’t take any pictures but it was epic. The second biggest Cathedral I have ever seen. I then checked out the Musuem of Australia or was it Autralia Museum.

There were tons of kids there and some of the exihibits looked a bit dated. The building itself was really cool as it was the oldest museum in Oz. I spent few hours in there and as I went on the exhibits got much better. They had some of the really good interactive tables and such too which were fun. I would say it was worth the $8 but the kids were still loud.

I then sat in the sun in Hyde Park for a good 30 minutes looking at my plan and thinking. I then sat out for the Anzac Memorial, only about 200m away. It was the biggest one I have seen (then again Aus is much bigger than NZ so things are scaled up). It was beautifully done and they had a really impressive little museum to go with it. I asked some questions and was shown a short film and got the statue explained to me.

I then proceeded towards the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge via the  botanical gardens. It was a nice walk and I have just really noticed that there are a lot of people here. It was very full unlike Rotorua and Tauranga and even Wellington. But then again it is a city 7x the size of Welly. So I will have to get used to it.

On the way I passed lots of typical asian tourists snapping hundreds of photos with just slightly different facial expressions and the quintessential peace sign. To each their own I guess.

I was hoping to have a spectacular sunset at the Harbor Bridge but it was partially obscured by clouds. I still got some good shots though. I helped a few others snap some photos and walked around the ferry wharfs and the quay towards the bridge. It was a nice walk but I was hungry. I spent some time there at the water thinking as I often do and then started the walk back towards the hostel. That was about 5:30 or so.

On the way back I really fell in lust with Sydney. It was bustling with people for the full 2 hours I was in the Rush hour traffic. People going every which way and tons of shops and outdoor/indoor malls. And buses and people. It was really neat. I enjoyed seeing all of the activity. I think I have greatly missed the hubbub.

I spotted a mobile phone store and went in to inquire about a sim card because $2 a mb isn’t really kosher. I had to wait for a good 40 minutes to be served as there were a surprisingly high number of people in the store and all 5 employees were busy. I got it worked out and have plenty of calls/texts/ and 150mb of data for the next 13 days for the low price of $40. I got him to waive the cost of the Sim Card as well! I was happy to say the least. BC without google maps life can be tough!

I then went into the grocery store I had scouted before, Woolworths which was only 6 or so blocks from the Hostel. I went in and at first had trouble finding where the real groceries were. I eventually found them as it was a three level store. The grocery store was uncomfortably packed and people were always going this way and that so it was hard to shop in a completely unfamiliar store. I made it though and bough a reusable bag to bring home.

I got back and was hoping to rip into my bags and such. Unfortunately one of my room mates was asleep (it was like 7:30) so I tried to stay quiet. I cooked dinner (pasta of course, 8 of my last 9 meals J). I then went back got my laptop and came up hear to type. All in all it was a good day but very tiring. I am planning to go to the Blue Mountains tomorrow which I believe is just a 2 hour of so train ride out of the city. Should be fun!

Anyways it has been a great day in Sydney. Although I didn’t get to see my friend Jonathon from Tech today, I know that we both attempted the effort so that was good. I definitely didn’t know there was so much to do in Sydney or I would have considered spending more time here. It feels like a good mix between the soul of Wellington, the largeness of Auckland, and the business of Atlanta. My opinion could always change though.

So my fingers are freezing so this is the end for me! All the best!

-Mathias