Monday, January 25, 2010

We said goodbye to Rosie and Vic on Saturday in Canberra and took a bus up to Sydney that took about 3.5 hours. It was a beautiful drive through rolling green hills and farmland…at least that’s what I heard. I was snoozing and reading most of the time! We have been on the lookout for kangaroos, but only spotted about 3 of them along the way so far. We hear there are more where we will be house-sitting in Tannum Sands. The more North we go, the more humid it gets and it’s definitely sticky in Sydney! It rained the night we arrived and has been mostly cloudy since then. But, it’s no problem and we’re enjoying the nice break from the heat. Tomorrow is Australia Day (we’re guessing like our 4^th of July, Memorial Day, etc). Zach and I plan to spend most of the day at Bondi Beach, that is if we find room on the beach. It’s gonna be crowded! We’re staying at a Russian couple’s home in Bondi Beach, on the 6^th floor of a condo building. We have a great view of the beach and a small part of the Harbor. It is considered a house exchange, but they are out of town this week, so we have the place to ourselves.

~ Saying good-bye to Vic and Rosie (on the right) ~

~ Our view from the 6th floor in Sydney ~

Today we took the bus into the city/harbor and visited the Sydney Opera House, took a million pictures, then rode a ferry to Manly Beach, which is about a 30 minute ride through the bay. It really is a beautiful city, but Zach and I like parts of Melbourne a lot better. It is cleaner and public transportation is less expensive and easier to figure out. But, no complaints here – we’re having a great time.

Wednesday, January 27^th, 2010

We’ve enjoyed seeing lots of sites around Sydney. Bondi Beach yesterday was crazy. Zach and I got there early enough to get a good spot and could only take about 2 hours of the hot Australian sun. It was partly cloudy which helped, but of course we got sunburned. By noon, thousands of people lined the beach. We took the afternoon off and watched a lot of tennis inside our apartment. Good thing the Australian Open is still going on, cause that’s definitely entertaining Grammy and Papa when they don’t feel like coming along with us or when we just want to hang inside.

~ Australia Day = Crowded Beach! ~

Today, Zach and I set out for the city again. We took a ferry to the North Sydney side and walked back across on the Harbor Bridge. It was really cool to see the city from so high up. We walked through The Rocks area, which is an old colonial shopping/eating area. We’re trying to find some cool Aboriginal art for our place when we get back to California, but haven’t found the right one yet. We took another ferry to Darling Harbor and walked around some more. I think we walked 10 miles today! It got pretty chilly this afternoon, so we headed back and plan to watch tennis all night!