Sydney

Ok. so I am cheating on Melbourne with the new love in my life - Sydney! This place is absolutely beautiful. It is a city of 4 million with water everywhere and about 30 beaches to go play on. It is the city and the beach all mixed into one! We got here on Sunday afternoon and were supposed to do a city tour, but the streets downtown were shut down because of a St. Patrick's Day parade. Apparently the people of Sydney decided not to celebrate St. Paddy's on Wednesday because it was a work night. Call me crazy, but Sunday is a work night too, right? (And trust me, they partied into the night. Jake and I helped them shut down an Irish pub later in the night). But I appreciate the fact that they wanted to party. So we went on a tour of the beaches and residential areas until we could get downtown to the hotel. After we got all checked in, we went for dinner on a harbor cruise. We got to see the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House at sunset. It was amazing!!

This morning we got up and went to breakfast before heading out. Erica, our Aussie tour guide, was grossed out by Dad's new favorite breakfast - toast with vegemite and honey. She thought he was ruining the vegemite. I get that a vegemite/ honey combo is gross, but there is no way anything can make vegemite taste worse. Except maybe if it was mixed with liver or something. So we all got together and did a walk through the botanical gardens on the way to the Opera House. I was not a fan of the botanical gardens. It sounded like it was going to be so nice, but as soon as we got in there I knew I wasn't going to like it. There were birds everywhere. Birds are like kryptonite to me. I hate them. If I see one near me I either freeze up or run away. I realize this is an irrational fear, but I can't help it. To me they are just rodents with wings. But I sucked it up and went walking. Once we got into the middle of the gardens, things took a turn for the worse. There were literally hundreds of bats hanging from all the trees. Some were flying around, and they were all making the most horrendous screeching noise. It was like a horror movie! If there is anything worse than a bird it is a bat!! Everyone was talking about how great they were and taking pictures. I just hurried through and wondered if I was the only person in this tour group not on glue. These are BATS, people! They will get tangled in your hair and give you rabies!!

Once we got out of the gardens, thank God, we made it to the Opera House. It is a really amazing building. We went on a guided tour and got to see the performance hall where they always hold the finals of Australian Idol! Rockin'! After that there were some more tours scheduled, but we ducked out to head to the beach. Bondi beach is beautiful! It is a big white, sandy beach with rock cliffs on either side. Jake and I were supposed to take surf lessons, but when we got there the water was pretty cold. And the waves were pretty big. And it was really expensive. And I basically chickened out and Jake didn't want to go by himself. People were telling me stories about falling and scraping off half their face on the sand! Maybe I will work up the nerve tomorrow. But it was fun to watch all the surfers who actually knew what they were doing. It really was expensive though. Over $100 for an hour long lesson. Maybe I do need to learn and move here and get paid about $800 a day to surf. Sounds a lot better than the pharmaceutical gig!