Sydney

It's been a few days since my last post, sorry for not keeping up. On Monday I spent my last morning in Perth before heading to the airport for my flight to Sydney. I used the public transportation and it took me quite a bit longer than I had planned and cut it real close to not making my scheduled flight time. Fortunately it was delayed a half hour so I was saved from having to solve a serious problem. I got into Sydney quite late, around 9:30 and took the train into the city where I found that the east coast is significantly more humid than the west coast. In Perth it was hot in the sun but as soon as you hit the shade you cooled right down whereas in Sydney if it was hot, it was hot, regardless of where you standing. Every time I go to get a clean shirt from my bag it feels damp from the humidity, but I can't complain since I'm loving it here.
Yesterday when I got up the forecast said it was going to be the warmest day of the week so I decided it was a great day to check out Sydney's most popular beach: Bondi. Took the train to the station closest to the beach and was told by a lady in a nearby hostel that the beach was just 20 mins up "that" road as she pointed up the neighbouring street. So I walked, and I walked, and I walked, and walked until 45 mins later I figured maybe a accidentally took a turn somewhere and stopped in at a convenience store for directions. It turns out the first lady I asked had sent me in the complet opposite direction..... I'm sure you can imagine how upset I was and ended up taking a bus since I was not in the most patient mood to now walk another hour or so to get to the ocean. When I finally did get to Bondi Beach (pronouned bon-die as I was frequently corrected) it was a bit smaller than I expected but one of the nicest beaches I've been to. It was pretty busy for their winter season and I found a spot to read for a couple hours and doze off thankfully with plenty of sunscreen on. I was able to catch another sunset but noticed that there was alot of smog or smoke nearby and it smelled a bit smokey, but didn't really think too much of it. Later back in my room when I was watching the news I found out it was in fact smoke from controlled burning of forests on the outskirts of the city which they do frequently here along with Perth. I had another Australian meat pie again last night but this time from Harrys Cafe de wheels, apparently a landmark in the city. It looks like a chip truck and they serve all sorts of meat pies and I got the tiger pie, which is not made of tiger like I'm sure your thinking but is a steak pie with mashed potatoes, peas and gravy slathered ontop. Soooooo good and as was checking out some old pictures on the side of the the truck I noticed that there were quite a few pictures of celebrities eating pies from Harry's. Most were older actors/actresses but I thought it was hilarious that there were about 3 or 4 pictures of Pamella Anderson eating a pie, an advertising scheme I guess???
Today I basically toured around the city and saw the infamous Sydney Opera House which really is so differenty from any other building I've seen. I walked over Sydney's Harbour Bridge only to find there really isn't much on the other side of the harbour other than houses and apartments. Next I checked out the Rocks which is the neighbourhood still standing from when the Europeans settled in Australia and is now a huge shopping district. I went into a souveneir store and was amazed at how pushy the store owner was, coming up to me every time I picked something up to show me what it was and how it worked (in the case of the boomerang I humoured him and listened to his description of throwing it and having it return). Making my way through downtown I made it to the Sydney Tower (basically their version of the CN Tower but not as tall) and got there just in time to catch a few minutes of sun and get a 360 view of the city at 250 metres up. When I got back to the bottom little did I realize that an OzTrek Movie showing was included in the price which turned out to be a cheesy movie about Sydney's history while sittin in moving seats-which I have to admit was kinda fun. I walked around the downtown core a bit more and saw what i could in dark of night before getting back to my hotel.
Tomorrow I'm getting picked up early and heading to a beach somewhere outside the city for a full day of surfing lessons. I'm super psyched and am hoping that 1 day is enough time for me to figure out how to get up properly.