Well, I finally made it to Sydney after my exhausting day of traveling and my fourteen hour flight over the ocean. Luckily I slept quite a bit of the flight and was sitting next to a girl from St. Louis that had actually studied abroad in Sydney, met an Aussie, married him and now lives here. However, it was disappointing that I didn't have my own TV screen to watch the terrible movies they had playing. But after I touched down it's pretty much been non-stop going and fighting the jet-lag. As soon as I got to Paula's house, about 7:15am, I took the ferry to a place called Circular Quey and walked for hours and hours around the Opera House, Botanical Gardens, and near the Harbour Bridge. For the most part that's how my first two days of being in country went; waking up extremely early and wandering around downtown Sydney for most of the day. The views and sites in the city are amazing and the gardens actually house a huge day flying bat that makes an awful screeching while it flies five feet above your head, pretty scary. Paula's house is unbelievable, or at least the view is. We live in Abbotsford, an inner-west suburb of the city, about a twenty minues ferry ride to downtown, and have the most amazing view of the skyline, bridge, and harbour. Waking up in the morning and sliding the massive glass window out of the way to eat breakfast on the patio was absolutely worth coming all this way. Friday night Paula invited me to tag along to her work friends 50th birthday where I met quite a few interesting people from all over the world. One woman had just gotten back from living with an aboriginal community for seven years in the middle of Australia which was ten hours from the nearest town of 10,000 people. The dinner was nice and the conversation seemed to stay around what I should concentrate on doing in Australia with people offering to show me a side of Sydney most wouldn't get to see. Yesterday I went with Paula and some of her neighbors to an Australian Rules Football game at the olympic park. It was pretty poosh as they say; we had our own corporate box stocked with all the meatpies and beers you could want. Although the Sydney team got the hell beat out of them it was fun and the closest I've ever sat at a real sporting event. After the game we got to go to an after party with more free drinks, the players, and Sydney celebs (who really meant nothing to me). After the game Paula came home and went to bed and I went over to drink more with the neighbors for a while which was interesting to say the least. Today Greg, Paula's roommate, and I took an all day driving trip around the Northern Beaches and into the National Parks. Lucky for me Greg knew the area very well and took me to most of the best lookout spots on the best beaches and also gave a pretty detailed tour of the multi-million dollar homes that overlook the seemingly endless string of beaches. Later tonight I'm planning on going into the city to finally try and find some people my age to party and travel with. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with one of Paula and Greg's friends, Craig, to take his convertible out to some of the beaches and do some bushwalking around the area. Hopefully, tonight I'll find a nice group of travlers or at least a travel buddy to go with around the city to the Blue Mountains and other day trips I plan on taking. Mom, you'll also be happy to know that I may have found some weekend casual work in the city making great money (at least 15/hr just waiting tables/washing dishes) and am waiting to get my instructions on going to the winery.
All in all it's been a very exciting and tiring first couple of days with waking up early, touring the city by foot, and drinking with the older crowd but I'm hoping to keep it going and meeting some new younger people later tonight.
Also, to view pictures from my first few days visit:
http://s312.photobucket.com/albums/ll348/lucasodom/
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