In some ways I started my Australian adventure by waiting for a hurricane. Hurricane Dorian made it’s appearance and initial wrath known a few days before I was due to leave. It was horrible to watch even from a distance. You would think that because it was not likely to impact my area and because I was going to be on the other side of the world by the time it got to my area, that I wouldn’t pay it much attention. If you’ve ever encountered a hurricane that changed direction at the last moment you’ll understand. Never turn a blind eye to a hurricane.
I did make it out of the Charlotte area before Dorian even made it up to Florida, which was good news. That bad news is the Bahamas got the devil beat out of them. At this point any complaint I might have about leaving two hours late is really minor. I did have a long enough layover scheduled into the plan so that it wasn’t an issue. I was able to make my flight in LA for Sydney without issue.
It’s been a very long time since I have seen the full size of an airport of that magnitude. The amount of walking to get from one place to another and the shear size of the ticketing area for the international terminal were a surprise for me. As I passed the ticketing area I was on a second floor and the view out over it all reminded me of something out of a sci-fi movie that was showing a galactic space port or something. Or maybe even a similar scene in a ‘Men In Black’ movie.
Aside from a delay getting out of Charlotte, the travel to Sydney was uneventful. That’s good travel as far as I’m concerned. The flight from LA was via Qantas and even in economy I felt pampered. I think they fed us about every three hours. And as it was an over night flight it was nice and dark for sleeping. It was so dark that if felt a little like we were chasing the night. I got some sleep which was a good thing. By the time I got settled my east coast body clock thought it was 2:00am. I was fortunate in that the middle seat for my row was vacant. That gave me and the lady on the aisle a little more room. She was very nice and helpful when it came to understanding what to fill in on my entry for and to getting through the initial immigration kiosk. I was a bitl leary of the whole process and very glad it went as smooth as it did.
My arrival in Sydney coincided with their peak time. Our rush hour. It was an interesting ride and my driver was really nice, helpful and informative. Turns out the hotel I’m staying at is in Chinatown. There is a fun novelty in that. As I my room wasn’t quite ready and not really wanting to waste my time in Sydney, I’m only here a couple of days, I headed out towards the Opera House. The desk clerk provided me with directions and a map of sorts and off I went. To be sure, on my way there, I was too overwhelmed, a bit out of place, and probably still tired, so taking in everything and not getting run over as I crossed streets were challenges.
The walk was farther than I expected but then I really didn’t have any way of guaging how far that was going to be and since I have little practice with metric, trying to understand how far it really was if someone had said it was X kilometers wasn’t going to help. I knew though, that I was going to be there in plenty time to meet my afternoon tour of the Sydney Opera House. I was in fact quite early so I walked around the entire area and took pictures and sent a couple of messages off to people in the states. I had a bite and a coffee and a harbourside cafe and saw wild Lorikeets hanging out in the umbrellas looking for hand outs. And I sat on the steps of the Opera House and watched groups of school children coming in for a tour or to participate in a program for the school children.
The tour of the Opera House was great. There are 6 or 7 theatres and we saw 3 of them. We got to see the main concert hall which I was really pleased with. The history of it being built and the controversy around it was interesting. The tour I was on was a small one, there were 3 of us not including the guide. And it turns out for some reason they are having quite a slow season. Something the guide said is very unusual. It was nie for us because with it being small it made it easy to ask questions and to get around. I came to Sydney specifically because I wanted to see the Opera House. A friend I texted with said something to the effect of ‘How could you go to Australia and not see the Opera House?’ To which I replied that ‘I couldn’t’.
While I was walking around near the harbour and the Opera House I found a cafe for my sister. She’s a fan of chocolate so to come across a Chocolate Cafe was fun.
Next up is a harbour tour boat ride today. It’s about half the day and I’ll be walking to it. It doesn’t look to be as far a walk as yesterday so that’s a good thing. Then tomorrow I get on a plane and head up to Cairns for a couple of full days.
Here’s some pictures of the adventure so far.