Day 72-73

After two excellent weeks in Australia, my family returned to the States on Thursday morning.  Between my mother and I, we took almost 60 gigabytes of photos and videos, which means that it is taking a while for me to go through everything!  (For the not-so-computer-savvy, that is quite a lot of photos.)

I mean really, who needs seven hundred photos of one koala?  Apparently I do.

But let's start where we started: in Sydney.  My first impression of Sydney was the airport, and it reeked of trash and stale pee.  Thankfully the rest of Sydney was perfectly pleasant, and we spent our two days there walking around the city and visiting beaches.

We all met up in Sydney on Thursday the 22nd of September, and most of that day was spent finding our hotel--our cabbie didn't understand the difference between 55 and 555--and sleeping off the jet lag.  We did manage to make our way to the Sydney Observatory, and we ate dinner at Subway because frankly we could hardly afford anything else.  A burger with chips (that's fries for Americans) cost a minimum of $17, and we couldn't find a grocery store.  Our hotel was lovely, though, with a great view of the Opera House and the bridge.  We were even treated to a spectacular show of thousands upon thousands of bats flying overhead!

Me and my grandma in front of the Opera House!

Me and my mama in front of the bridge!

Another one with the Opera House!

There's a kookaburra in this tree!  He was clearly not afraid of humans, we were close enough to touch him.

Kookaburra!

I wonder if a lot of tourists got hit by cars or something?  In any case, it's nice that they remind us which way to look.

This dude was playing some very cool didgeridoo music.

A view from the bridge.

The Opera House and a bit of the bridge.

Friday was more lively, and we took a ferry to Manly Beach.  The schoolkids were on holiday that week and there was apparently a bit of a riot right before we arrived, judging by the mass exodus of young people we had to push through to reach the beach.  The beach was absolutely covered in trash, although to be fair, a riot had just ended so perhaps it is not always quite so filthy.  If you're wondering how I knew there was a riot, here is your answer:

Yes, that van says "RIOT SQUAD."

There were about 15 cops milling around, so I asked one if there was any problem happening.  His response was, "You're safe with us here."  Now if that isn't reassuring then I don't know what is.

We left Manly and walked along a seaside walkway to another beach, which was much cleaner and nicer.  There were water dragons all over!

Australia apparently has a rabbit problem, but this is the first rabbit I've seen since I got here.

And that's about all I have for Sydney!  Stradbroke Island photos are coming soon.  :)

Cheers,
Ashton