Sydney - Day 1

We woke up this morning to Paul so kindly picking us up at our hostel...now, for those of you who don't remember, Paul made an appearance in an earlier blog post in the Stayton of Mind...he is one of the crazy fellows my sister and I met while on the train from Prague to Berlin!!! We exchanged info and when Colleen and I planned the trip to Australia, he offered to let us crash at his place! Ah, the wonderful spirit of the traveler! (That's is girlfriend Katy)

Once we got to his house and put our stuff down we hit the ground running...well, walking! We walked SO much that it felt like day had passed - sensory overload! We began our journey with a "walk-about" at the Rocks Market...there is everything there from boomerangs to all natural lotions. We then headed across the Sydney Harbor Bridge, turned around at the other side, and walked back! You can go up in the tower in the middle of the bridge - for a large fee :( But the views from the bridge itself were still AMAZING! You could see the Opera House perfectly and it gave us a better idea of how big the harbor really is.

We then headed over to Circular Quay (pronounced Key), which is the 2nd busiest port in the world next to Hong Kong!!! It is where all the small inter-city ferries and the HUGE cruise ships alike dock. Just past that area is the famous Sydney Opera House.
Here Colleen and I had a mini photo shoot trying to capture some of the best angles of the Opera House, but gave up and just started making silly face selfy pics...just being silly soulmates!
















Next we headed to the gardens and the old mansion - while we were there Colleen and I learned about proper table settings in the dining room. We also learned that it is not proper to shake salt on your food at the table. The proper was to apply salt is to sprinkle it on a with a little spoon. We then headed for the ballroom and finally out onto the private garden. It was there we realized how bad our hunger panges were and went in search of some cheap, filling lunch.

We ended up in Darling Harbor at an outdoor restaurant right on the harbor called Pontoon. We both ordered veggie sandwiches and as Collen went up to the bar & I went to another table to get "tomato sauce" (aka: Katsup), a woman started frantically hollering at me...I then saw Colleen running across the room waving her arms! It was only then I realize the woman was screaming "a seagull is eating your food! A seagull is EATING YOUR FOOD!!!" A HUGE dirty bird was helping himself to a generous portion of my "chips" (aka: French Fries)!

We then headed to Chinatown where we saw crazy foods, yummy restaurants, and these crazy, nobby hoola-hoops that were supposed to make your belly firmer...(note the sign..."you can make a Sexy Body!")

As the sun was setting we decided to ring Charlie (a guy I met in Kona, HI the day after the Ironman)...He invited us out on the town with his friends! With no time to change out of our tourist gear we headed to Cargo Bar where we somehow got in despite our garb and the loooong line we walked right past - VIP!!! Once in, we def got some strange looks at our Teva styles shoes and tank tops, but we had a blast anyway!!!