We arrived in Sydney yesterday which was Monday here (Sunday in the U.S.). During the 16 hour flight, we crossed over the International Date Line thereby losing the day (although we’ll gain it on the way back). It was easier than I had expected. I enjoyed the time reading, listening to my IPod, and sleeping about 8 hours. In fact, when we arrived, I was like the guy in the movie Rocket Man. “Come back later. I’m only on the 3rd act!”
Since we are south of the equator, it is summer here now. Today was about 80 degrees and sunny. It is tropical here and there are palm trees and beautiful flowers everywhere. Many of the homes and apartment buildings have wrought iron porches so it reminds me of New Orleans architecture.
Everything runs backwards here - from the toilets to the sinks to the cars. They drive on the left instead of the right which will be a new challenge for us when we get our camper van tomorrow. Walking down the street, the locals walk on the opposite side of the sidewalk. We are constantly bumping into people as we adjust to the custom. Australians are delightfully friendly people so it it no problem. Males seem to have a much stronger accent than females and always call us “Mate”. The baggy pants of the U.S. teenager has either come and gone or never made it this far across the Pacific.
We walked a lot today covering much of downtown Sydney which is a city of 3 million people. It is coastal, and the Sydney Opera House sits right on the huge harbor. I always thought it was a bright white building and perhaps even made of a fabric or canvas, but in reality, it is beige and made of ceramic tiles. The design is actually a bit of a geometry project. You can see that in one of the pictures below. We are planning to go to a performance in the Opera House soon although not opera which we are not big fans of.
Tomorrow we are heading out of the city to see the natural beauty of this place and to do some camping. Talk to you soon.