We're Here!

After a 15 hour flight from Vancouver we made it! We were very fortunate to fly executive first class (thank you Kurtis!!!) so the trip was very comfortable... and I slept for 12 hours of it (thank you Gravol and melatonin!), so the remaining 3 hours was just right for breakfast and a movie! Our first day in Sydney began with us lugging our 8 70 lbs. suitcases and giant 70 lbs. Tupperware bin through the airport, out into a sunny, humid, 31 degrees, and into a van cab. We spent the day exploring the downtown area and harbor located near our hotel. For the first 2 weeks we are staying in a hotel suite. It has a little kitchen, living area, bedroom and bath. The great part is it is right downtown so we are in the middle of all of the action! For the month of January there are many events happening around the city for the Sydney Festival. On Saturday the 24th in the evening the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performed in The Domain, which is a botanical gardens just a few blocks from our hotel near the downtown. For such a large city (4.2 million people!) there are many green spaces and lush areas, even in the downtown. Everywhere you look there are palm trees, and other forms of vegetation. For the event there were thousands of people gathered on the grass, and the music was beautiful. Much to Kurtis' discomfort and my delight, there were literally hundreds of large fruit bats that were just waking up, flying overhead looking for their breakfast! My photo that looks like a flock of birds, is actually a flock of bats!

Summertime is in full swing here in the Southern Hemisphere so we took advantage of a day off and headed to spend the day at Manly Beach... Ok, it was actually an hour at the beach, in which time Kurtis got a roaring red burn, and I a touch of colour. I was prepared with a giant sun hat to cover my face and shoulders, and of course loads of sunscreen. Apparently Australia has the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world! Yikes! Bring on the hats, t-shirts, beach umbrellas, SPF 45 and zinc! We were see-through when we stepped off the plane so we will be exposing ourselves very gradually from here on in (will we ever learn?). Sunburns aside, it was so great to be by the ocean! There were people practicing their surfing skills on the waves and I was watching their every move, trying to figure out some techniques. After watching some pretty hard falls I will definitely be taking some lessons before I head out with a surfboard!

In order to get to Manly from downtown we took a half hour ferry ride. This is when we saw the Sydney Opera House for the first time! Very cool. It is fantastic to see such recognizable monuments in person. The details on it are beautiful and the whole view was stunning from the water.

We have also commenced our quest for an apartment! We had a bit of an adventure using the bus system for the first time, but once you know what you are doing it is a reliable and convenient way to get around such a large city. Kurtis was very thoughtful and bought a street map to help track down the places on Saturday... only the map book did not include the Coogee are where we were looking. Slight problem. After wandering around aimlessly for a few minutes a friendly local responded to our cries for help and came down off her balcony to assist us by giving us her 2004 phonebook, which had a handy street map... Did I mention it was the hottest day Sydney has had in 3 years?! A whopping 38 degrees! Phonebook in hand we ran, but missed the first appointment. We continued our ridiculously hot journey and were lucky to find  a lost taxi driver to take us to the second place, which ended up being a miscommunication and was not showing that day. Urgh. With no other choice but to give it one last go, we walked in the heat for 20 minutes to our third and final destination. It was worth the sweat, and carrying the awkward, heavy phonebook/map. The apartment is 2 blocks from Coogee Beach on a side street above the cutest funkiest cafe I've ever seen! We had some time to kill so we sipped lattes (or "flat whites" as they call them here) ate fresh savoury muffins and pumpkin, goat cheese quiches, ad if you couldn't tell already, completely fell in love with the place! We will be applying on Tuesday and (fingers crossed) we hope we get the apartment!

Monday is a national holiday: Australia Day (the same as our Canada Day). We happen to be 2 blocks from where the big celebrations are taking place in Darling Harbour so we will have perfect views of the fireworks right from our balcony! We intend to spend the day enjoying the festivities at Bondi Beach and then head back downtown on the bus to finish the day off at the harbour. 

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