Sydney At Last

I left from San Francisco at 9:00 PM on Sunday and arrived in Sydney at 9:00 AM on Tuesday. June 1st did not exist for me. Did anything monumental happen while I was traveling through time?

The flight from San Francisco to Sydney is rather long during the best of conditions... but it is even longer when you have to stop over in Aukland for a few hours... and longer still when you have a very unhappy baby in the row behind you. During the first hour of the baby crying I felt bad for the baby. During the second hour, my sympathy changed to the parents, but during the third hour I just felt bad for me. I fell into a rhythm of sleeping when the baby was sleeping and then watching movies when the baby was crying. As a result, I squeezed in 3 1/2 movies (The Reader, Taken, Bride Wars, and about 1/2 of Confession of a Shopaholic) during the 13 hour flight. I even squeezed in 2 more on the 3 1/2 hour flight from Aukland to Sydney (Last Chance Harry and something else that I've already forgotten).

After 5 1/2 movies and 2 breakfasts, I could wait to start my exploration of Sydney. I met up with Angie and her family at the airport and helped Angie and her brother Paul send off their parents and sister back to the states (to make room for me). Then we headed to Paul's flat. I have to say that the first 15 minutes I could have been in any city USA with the exception of the cars driving on the wrong side of the road. But then we rounded a corner and suddenly both the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge came into view. I finally felt like I had arrived and couldn't wait to start exploring. Of course, none of that could happen until I took a must-needed shower.

After my shower and a bit of unpacking, Angie and I went on a walkabout (I've decided to refer to all walks in Australia as walkabouts because it makes me feel more Australian) in the area surrounding Paul's house in Neutral Bay. We got some great pics of the Sydney skyline before heading back inland to window shop along the main drag.