Before even boarding the plane I started to notice that there are some very distinct looks when it comes to Australians. Naturally it was easier to spot in a sea of Hong Kong's Chinese residents, but even when we land and when i finally leave the airport, I keep spotting them!! I appreciate this sounds a little odd but as I just can't put my finger on it, you'll just have to trust me.
I'm already at the hostel by 10. Have a shower and I'm out again, though, with my first friend in tow. He's a newbie to Sydney too, a fresh faced and disgustingly tanned Californian called Corey, just moved here for a semester at Sydney university. First event of the day for him - getting on his very first train. I don't know why this is so funny, it's almost mean laughing, but watching this boy stare madly out the window SO excited at how fast it moves was very entertaining.
Barely 3 hours in the country and I'm walking through Sydney's extensive and beautiful botanical gardens. To my right, Fort Macquerie poking out of the water and, to my left, the city's famous Victoria Harbour. I did consider asking Corey to pinch me - it's just insane that I'm here, in Australia, the other side of the world, looking at the Opera House that I've been looking at pictures of since I was a little kid. And with the sun shining, it was a bit of a wow moment.
The OH seemed a little smaller than I expected but walking right up to it, touching it (for some reason I felt the need... An alternative to the pinching...), it feels a lot more the size I imagined. Then we are recruited by some enthusiastic tshirt wearing 'yoofs' keen to break the record for biggest number of tourists jumping in front of the opera house. Pretty sure we can't have broken it but it's comforting to know I can look like a an idiot on both sides of the world :D
For dinner, I take the advice of the lovely Australian woman I met on the plane, and headed for Vietnamese. Only, as so often with me, I ended up with Thai. Delicious Thai coconutty goodness and carbs.
In the late afternoon I head off on my own to see the Hyde Park (yup, a lot of recognisable names over here...) Barracks where the convicts lived in the early years when Australia was a penal colony. A beautiful and very British-looking building is now solely a museum dedicated to the stories of these convicts and the orphan girls who also lived here once the convicts were were sent out to Cockatoo Bay (complaints from the neighbours, not a good look for the otherwise very classy looking street (just over the road is St Mary's Cathedral.. Stunning, no?)
The history I learned there was a great introduction to the city and country, helped all the more so by a woman who told me all about her convict heritage that she was tracing. I had been under the impression that the Australians didn't talk about that part of their history, out of some deep routed embarrassment or something, but this woman tells me the opposite - the Aussies are very proud of their ancestors who started and physically built a brand new colony from scratch.
It's 10pm and I have slept 1 and a half hours since yesterday morning. I don't understand how I'm still standing...
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