Well HELLO, Sydney!!

So finally, the enjoyable part of touring and traveling has begun!  After a few, draining days of swapping hemispheres AND leaping ahead two seasons, losing a day to some time warp trickery in the skies, crossing over what-seems-like 29 time zones and traversing nearly 8,000 miles from home, my frazzled mind and weary body are thankfully ready for the fun stuff. 

My morning started with a leisurely, filling breakfast at the hotel- buffet style after sleeping fairly regularly throughout the night.  I did wake around 3:00 a.m. for about an hour, felt totally awake and couldn't seem to fall back to sleep for an hour or so.  But eventually, I forced myself back into slumber.  My first order of business was to make my way to the Commonwealth Bank around the corner to exchange my American money into Australian cash.  Unlike most of my other foreign travel experiences, Aussies aren't all that impressed with Yankee dollars and don't seem to faint over the sight of a  five buck bill like folks in underdeveloped countries do.  I can't seem to give my American money away; they turn their noses up at it! 

The main attraction schedule for me today, thanks to my AMAZING travel agent, Kathy, was a harbor tour of Sydney mid-afternoon.  So with my handy city map (they have a whole pad of them at the front desk at the hotel to give away to guests), I set out to explore this enormous city of over six million people.  It had sprinkled a bit overnight, so the air was cool and damp as I set out to walk from my digs down to the Sydney waterfront.  Along the way, I shot scores of pictures as the sky began to clear.  I even got some great shots of the ibises in the park that I'd missed taking earlier, much to my delight!  

It was an easy walk from my centrally-located hotel to the harbor. For Seattlelites, think Capitol Hill down to the waterfront....just a couple of miles.  Sydney is a bustling, vibrant, modern city full of a blend of historical structures and contemporary, high-rise, cutting-edge architecture. It is easy to navigate, clean, graced with plentiful parks, beautiful fountains, churches, and lush gardens and inhabited by friendly people who are seemingly physically fit for the most part.  Today I must have seen at least a thousand joggers and not one obese person- not one, and I was on the lookout.

 

All throughout my walk, I could smell the familiar salt air that I love so dearly being a native of Puget Sound, and I knew I must be finally getting close to the harbor. Within minutes, I could see just a small slice of the iconic Sydney Opera House, and I think it was the very first moment so far on this trip that I actually BELIEVED I was in Australia.  It was a thrill to see more and more of it appearing as I inched closer.  Within minutes, I could not only see the unmistakable, curved, bone-colored, shell-like arches that have become known all over the world and represent not only a city and a country- but also an entire continent.  Another one of my world travel "thrilling moments" to add to the long (and growing) list. 

Along with the magnificent Opera House, Sydney's other waterfront focal point is the enormous bridge that connects downtown with North Sydney.  If you've ever seen the "fireworks from around the world" segment of the New Year's Eve report- you've seen it. For $300 bucks, you can climb up and over the upper arch, and there were plenty of brave people scaling the bridge today hundreds of feet overhead.

The two-hour harbor tour was splendid.  Sydney's harbor, discovered in 1770 by Captain James Cook sailing the HMS Endeavour, although sandstone carvings indicate that the Aboriginal people settled in the region as many as 20,000 years ago.  Sydney's safe harbor boasts 66 different bays or smaller, mini-harbors and over 260 miles of coastline. Apparently there is a considerable amount of wealth in this, the largest of Australia's cities, since the tour guide pointed out dozens of homes along the highly-coveted waterfront that are valued at over $20 million or more, including a palatial mansion belonging to Sir Elton John.  The prime views, of course, include the Opera House and the bridge.  

As the sun was setting, I started back home to my room on the 18th floor of my hotel, reversing my steps earlier in the day and not even needing a map to find my way back.  Sydney already seems like home.