Nighttime

Since I’m living in a hotel, I eat at restaurants every night. The other night I sat outside under a very warm heater. It was actually pretty nice. I was on the harbor, looking out at the ships, bridge, and tons of people walking by. There were people all dressed up walking to the opera, people looking for dinner and checking the posted menus, people jogging, teenagers being teenagers…
[this isn’t the view, but it’s me at night. close enough]

Also I positioned myself so I could see part of the sky over the city skyline, and I got to see the Southern Cross constellation. This is big for me since that checks off a Life Goal. It was pretty easy for me to spot, because I’ve been seeing it for days on flags all over the place.

Also the other night (a different night, as I did not eat dinner twice), I sat in a restaurant with a view of the bridge from the other side (that would be North), and a view of an amusement park right next door (as seen in the window reflection). There’s also a pool right below the ledge, but you can only see a small corner of it. I did not swim there, because it is cold here.

It appears that the some of the maids at this hotel have a good sense of humor like the ones in Tel Aviv did.

So, do you remember when I was saying that driving is a bit challenging here? Well, now that I’m on my second week I can’t say it’s natural to me, but I’m managing fine. However, here is a picture description of why it took me a few days. Anything look wrong to you?

Taronga Zoo

The weather has been fairly consistent in the low 60s, windy, and sunny. Since today there was not a cloud in the sky, I thought it would be a good day to visit the zoo. I bought a combo ferry/zoo ticket and got a great view of the skyline as I traveled across the harbor.
I was disappointed when I arrived at the zoo because they had posted signs stating that their skyride was not operational, the seal show was cancelled for maintenance of the pool, and their world-famous bird show was cancelled for reasons beyond their control, whatever that means.

I decided to ignore the disappointment, and I started to walk around the zoo. I did get to see some elephants playing soccer during their keeper talk. I also ate a burger that did not taste like beef (also it had beets on it?). I hope it was not kangaroo. Kangaroo seems to make it onto a lot of menus around here. They are too cute for me to eat though.

I eventually covered every single exhibit at the zoo, which I'm pretty proud of. Here are some important highlights:

Saw some koalas. Didn't pay $18 to have my picture taken with one.

Saw a kangaroo. Decided it wasn't dead because it was twitching. (I actually saw a lot more kangaroos after that, but they didn't look as dead)

Saw a wallaby. He was cute. Soon after this picture he jumped across the gap to another rock, but my picture-finger is not that quick.

Saw a platypus. Forgot to take a picture. It was very much smaller than I had pictured in my head. It was about a foot long. I had pictured them more about the size of an otter. Oops. Maybe there are different versions?

Saw meerkats!!

Saw lions and tigers and bears, oh my. Saw a peacock with his tail up. It looked heavy.

Found out where they put the naughty birds.

Saw an emu. He was kind of boring, so I won't post his picture. Same with the dingos. Saw a short-beaked echidna. It is like an anteater. Also it is spiky.

Saw a kookaburra picture...

... matched the picture to a real one in the tree, laughing.

Southern Hemisphere

I have done some official experiments involving my bathroom sink and toothpaste.
The water definitely drains clockwise.
Now the question is...

which direction does the water drain in the Northern Hemisphere?

Sydney Opera House

Once I got to the hotel (after driving around downtown Sydney several times trying not to hit the marathon runners that were making me detour) they informed me that my room wasn’t ready yet, but I could check in at 3pm and I should go out and enjoy the city. That’s fine, I really didn’t need a shower after being on a plane since Friday afternoon.

View from hotel, which is on a one-way street :)

I got a chance to walk around the city a bit, so I signed up for a tour of the Opera House.

While I was waiting, I took a quick jaunt through the Botanical Gardens.

Palm tree

Ibis (with the long beaks [no clue how to pluralize their name])

The tour was well worth it. I learned about the construction and got to see some videos, and inside several of the theater areas. I couldn't take pictures inside for copyright reasons [?] but even the lobby areas were neat.

Arrival in Sydney

I found out on Wednesday that I needed to be in Sydney first-thing Monday morning for work. Sydney, Australia. That is like… the other side of the world. So I left on Friday night, flew from Seattle to LAX, and from LAX to Sydney. Arrived Sunday morning, which is still Saturday in Seattle, which means I somehow lost a day. I’m kind of sad, I usually quite like Saturdays.
Not only the other side of the world, but winter in August.

I sort of achieved a goal this weekend (in addition to adding another continent to my list); I’ve now flown on every kind of Boeing airplane in service today. 737, 747, 757, 767, 777… this one was a 747, and let me tell you that plane was HUGE.

Free pajamas!

I arrived at 6am on Sunday morning, and then I sat in my car for about 20 minutes trying to psych myself up for driving on the left side of the road, in a car that has a steering wheel on the right. Maybe someday I’ll stop hitting my windshield wipers when I want to change lanes.