Sydney

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House from bird's eye view

Saturday night's main attraction

The Queen something - huge cruise ship in Sydney Harbour

St Mary's Cathedral

Hyde Park Barracks

Not the same as in New Orleans...

Sydney Tower

Anzac War Memorial and Reflecting Pool in Hyde Park

First thing we saw when we got off the train at Kings Cross - for you Sopranos fans

Little Penguin - only grows to be 1 kilo as a full grown adult (for you Cindy...)

Jellyfish

Insert Steve Irwin/stingray joke here...

Dugong - not to be confused with a Dugas

Bullshark

More bullsharks




Snapshot of Darling Harbour

Former Real World House







Bondi Beach



Oh, Miss Corningstone. I wasn't expecting company. Just doing my workout. Tuesday's arms and back.

To say that Sydney is a melting pot is an understatement. Approximately 1/3 of its residents are "foreigners"; add in tourists, and it's safe to say that 40% of the people occupying the city are from outside of Australia at any given moment. During happy hour at the Lowenbrau on Friday, we heard at least 7-8 different languages being spoken at once. We were in the city for a little over 48 hours, and probably walked at least 10-12 miles. It was an extremely busy weekend, yet we barely scratched the surface of things to do.

The train ride from Newcastle to Sydney had great scenery (we will have to take pictures next time). It's about 100 miles, takes 2 and 1/2 hours, and takes you through the Australian bushland; the ride went over mountains, through them (literally), and over the bay at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. We easily spotted more kangaroos than people along the way.

Once we arrived in Sydney, we dropped our bags off and spent Friday touring The Rocks (where the original settlement in Australia was built), Circular Quay and Sydney Harbour, which included the Sydney Opera House. As amazing as it looks in pictures, it's even better in person.

Saturday sightseeing included Darling Harbour (home of the Real World Sydney cast), the Sydney Fish Markets (second-largest fish market in the world, only surpassed by Tokyo), Chinatown and the highlight of the day - the Sydney Aquarium. It included exhibits which took you into underwater tunnels, where dugongs (close cousins of manatees), stingrays, and several species of sharks were swimming right beside you. Very surreal moment.

Sunday morning/afternoon was spent at Bondi Beach, the most famous beach in Sydney (also where shark attacks are quite common on surfers). The beach itself was quite similar to the beaches of Newcastle, but the atmosphere/bars/restaurants/shops surrounding the beach was quite different.

As I mentioned, there's so much more to see: the Taronga Zoo, views from the 200-foot cliffs at Watson's Bay, Olympic Park, Sydney cricket grounds and the Telstra Dome, just to name a few. We will post more pictures from this Sydney trip later on - I can't tell you how many we took. We honestly could have made an entire album of "Pictures of Asian Tourists Taking Pictures."

March is going to be a busy month - trips to Watson's Bay/Port Stephens, Canberra and Melbourne, the beginning of the Asian Champions League for club soccer, Broadmeadow Race Course and a visit from Sam and Dawn. We are also taking pictures around the city and will post them soon to give everyone a better perspective of Newcastle.