I got in Sydney was a nice one in the heart of the Rocks an older touristy place
that is close to most of the big attractions, the harbor bridge
and the opera house
.
I think the weather was nicer in Vancouver. I arrived in Sydney early in the morning on the twentieth having lost two days
during the flight over. Next time I go there I am definitely spending more for
the direct flight saving the needless trips through US customs, that and the
layover time. The first hotel
I got in Sydney was a nice one in the heart of the Rocks an older touristy place
that is close to most of the big attractions, the harbor bridge
and the opera house.
I think the weather was nicer in Vancouver.
The one of the first walks
I did was around the botanical gardens. The gardens are pretty nice but infested
with bats
.There
are also a tropical places own version of pigeons
.
There are also real pigeons around but I didn't take any pictures of them.
Later on my first day Duncan
took me to all the pubs in Balmain, some in Sydney to, I lost count after around
6 jet lag will do that to you. Once thing to keep in mind when looking for a
pub in Australia is that you should be looking for hotels 
.There
is some arcane rule about places that server alcohol need a place for the drunks
to sleep it off.
On the second day I had acquired some change so I took a picture of it 
the values left to right are 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents, 1 and 2 dollars. You need
to be careful with the dime sized two dollar coins they are easy to loose track
of. Once interesting thing is that there are no pennies everything is rounded
to the nearest 5 cent mark when you buy things which I think is pretty good.
Other then I did not do to much other then walk around the city some more it
was raining so I didn't take many pictures.
On my third day I took a trip to the Blue Mountains a 4x4 excursion not that
there was any actually 4x4ing the vehicles where cool though
.
We did go places a normal tour bus couldn't have gone 
so it was pretty good anyway. The first part of the tour was breakfast at a
zoo, a koala (not a bear)
, Tasmanian Devil
,
Common Death Adder
and a Peacock
.
After breakfast we stopped for lunch 
.
Then went to look at the three sisters 
some girls that and evil witch doctor turned into rocks
.
We also rode on the worlds steepest railway 52° 
.
Day 4 I moved out of the hotel and into Duncan's place which he and Sarah
where generous enough to let me stay at. That day Duncan, his friend and I went
to the auto show it was interesting seeing a few cars that we do not get in
Canada. One vehicle that is unique, I think, to Australia is the Ute
a car pickup thing in this case a fancy one, but you see them rigged up with
flat beds and other things you would see on a normal truck in Canada.
Day 5 I was suffering from internet deprivation so I spent most of the day
surfing the web. There are some nice beaches by Duncan's place
.
It was still kind of rainy so I headed off to a warmer place.
Day 6 off to the Whitsundays 
but the beaches are no better.
Day 7 Fishing 
the tuna was a group effort, one of the guys caught the fish that was used as
bait, the guide had the rod till he got a bit, I reeled it in till I was to
tired to continue, should have had a bigger breakfast, then one of the other
guys actually brought it on board. We where all fishing with hand lines so the
boat was anchored the tuna was brought in with all muscle power. The tuna weighed
in at 12kg.
The charter I was on was the M.V. Jillian it was pretty good and would recommend them to others.
Day 8 Walking around Airlie Beach 
Day 9 Crocodile tour 
we didn't see any big ones because some idiots where racing up and down the
river scaring them all into the water. Probably not something I would do again
the swamp boat ride in New Orleans was much more fun.
Day 10, Flying back to Sydney, movie night with Duncan and his friends. Movies are expensive in Sydney $16 the movie we saw while kind of interesting wasn't very good. It almost put be to sleep and I don't normally fall asleep during films.
Day 11, I should have stayed up north what is with all the rain. I spend a
few hours in the Australian Museum
.
I liked it but didn't have time to see it all as Duncan was hosting a BBQ at
his place that afternoon. We had guess the sausage, kangaroo and lamb. guess
the sausage was Duncan and Sarah had bought 5 really good sausages and everyone
had to try and guess which one was which, they were all really tasty. I liked
the kangaroo to, all the food was really good.
Day 12, It looked like rain so I planned an indoor day, the Powerhouse museum
and the aquarium. The Powerhouse museum was cool they had the third steam engine
that James Watt built running 
and lots of other steam engines running 
and other cool things 
.
The aquarium had lots of fish 
and some sharks 
.
Day 13, Duncan took me out on a tour of the real beaches of Sydney we walked
from Bondi 
to
the one past the graveyard
,
I should have taken a picture of the map with all the names on it. Art on the
beach was just starting people where setting up their exhibits 
some where already finished 
I was coming down with a cold so I didn't do anything else that day.
Day 14 Back to Vancouver, nothing is worse then being on a plane with a cold.
For all the photos go here.