The Land Down Under

I must say I enjoyed my time in California. It was a nice break from being busy and always having somewhere to go or something to do. It gave me a chance to relax and reorganize my back pack which desperatly needed to be done. About three days ago I left California on a five hour flight to Honolulu and then another ten hours to Sydney. Although I was only in Honolulu for an hour, and though I never left the airport, I can officially say that I was in Hawaii. The airport is set up so you have to walk outside between gates, so I had the chance to go outside and take a deep breath of the hot and humid air.

And now I'm in Sydney and it is truely a diverse and beautiful city. I have three days and four nights here and Stephanie and I are making the most of it. We did the Opera House, the Rocks, Darling Harbour, Royal Botanic Gardens, a ferry around the harbour, Kings Cross, and tomorrow we're going to the zoo. Unfortunatly its raining and it's a bad time to go to the beach, so we will miss it in Sydney but we figure that the whole east coast is beach so we'll have plenty of opertunity for that.

Everywhere I went on the above list has been amazing. The opera house is more impressive than the pictures show. the Royal Botanic gardens are huge and diverse. There's a little rainforest, a little wetlands, wildlife, some of this, that, and tons of green grassy feilds. And Kings Cross, according to the Lonely PLanet guidebook, is "a bizare cocktail of strip joints, prostitution, crime and drugs shaken and stirred. And a handfull of great restaurants, smart cafes, upmarket hotels and backpacker hostels." It's a remarkable place that I couldn't imagine by that description, but once I'm here I could see how it is true.

Our hostel is also very nice and close to the action. It's in the middle of the city centre and walking distance from everything. It is possible that I have done more walking yesterday than any other day in South America (the Inca Trail excluded).

Altogether it's a really good start to Australia. Our hostels are booked through new years, the Greyhound tickets are purchased and the flights are, well, pending. We still have some work to do. Anyway enjoy my newly updated pictures at http://uwo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2092937&l=8b8ac&id=58000349. Check back soon when I upload Stephanie's pictures to this album.