After 8 full days in Melbourne, we were scheduled to fly to Sydney on Monday. Our flight was around noon, so we didn't have to wake up too early. We got up, packed all of our stuff, and got on the rain for the final time to head into the city. Adam had to go to work, but Sofia was nice enough to come along with us. We got off at Southern Cross station and went to the airport shuttle. We said goodbye to Sofia and then got on the bus for the 30 minute or so ride to the airport.

At the airport, there wasn't an express check-in and the regular check-in line was fairly long. Getting through security in Australia was really easy - I could keep my shoes, belt, and watch on and didn't have to take my laptop out of my bag or put liquids into 3 oz bottles.

We had plenty of time before our flight and figured we should eat something, so we got chicken sandwiches from a fast food chain called Oporto. We boarded our plane (a 737) and the plane took off. The TVs on the plane showed some national news, which included fairly in-depth coverage of the Samoan tsunami that had just happened. I don't ever remember getting to watch intelligent news coverage on a flight in the US (or on the ground). Then, in an even more un-American way, we each got a sandwich to eat during our hour-and-a-half flight. We each got two half-sandwiches and they were kind of interesting. One was some kind of egg sandwich and another was some kind of sandwich with chutney and rocket. Chutney is kind of like relish-flavored jelly and rocket is apparently Australia's very-misleading word for arugula, which is our misleading word for leaf.

Anyway, we landed in Sydney and our luggage showed up really quickly. The airport was on the train line, so we went to buy our tickets and fortunately there was a teller who was able to sell us the tickets we'd need for the train and for the next 5 days in Sydney. Then, we got to the train platform and the train showed up really quickly. The only tricky thing was that Sydney's trains have an upper and a lower level and carrying luggage to either one is a bit difficult. One cool thing, though, was that the seats were reversible so we could reverse our seats and face forwards and put our luggage on the backward-facing seats. It was only a couple stops to Museum station, which was pretty close to our hotel. Unfortunately it wasn't accessible for heavy items, so we had to carry our luggage up more stairs. Once we were at street level it was pretty easy to get to our hotel, though the lack of people out and about was a big change from Melbourne's constantly bustling CBD.

We checked into our hotel and asked for (and got) a room with a decent view. We could see eastward to Hyde Park and St. Mary's Cathedral, though we couldn't see the water or any major landmarks. We didn't stay at the hotel for long and decided to go check out the city. Our hotel was pretty optimally located in the heart of the CBD, but after being spoiled by Melbourne's convenient tram system (and people who knew which trams to take), Sydney's lack of a tram system and our unfamiliarity with the bus system meant we'd be doing more walking. We walked north on George Street towards the water, absorbing the sights of Sydney.

Strand Arcade in Sydney CBD on Vimeo.

Our first destination was the Rocks area of Sydney, which is one of the oldest parts of the city and is located along the water. We walked through briefly and then walked along the water, looking at the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Sydney Opera House on Vimeo.

Opera House and Harbour Bridge on Vimeo.

We then decided to walk on the bridge and had a bit of difficulty figuring out where to get on it. Once we found it, we decided to walk to the tower on the other side, however we saw storm clouds in the distance. The week before we arrived, Sydney was sunny with temps in the 70s, but there was a lot of rain forecast for the time we were there. We didn't have an umbrella with us and decided to press our luck and continued on to the far tower. We took plenty of pictures and enjoyed the view of the harbour. As we were walking back, though, it started to sprinkle.

Sydney CBD from the Harbour Bridge on Vimeo.

By the time we made it back to the Rocks, it was raining fairly hard and we were getting pretty wet. We were looking for a place to stop and eat, but it was Australian Labour Day and we didn't find much open. So, we found a bus stop and got on the next one, assuming it would take us toward our hotel, so we could dry off and get an umbrella. The bus got us close to our hotel so we got off and went to our room to dry off.

By that time we had started to get hungry, but hadn't really seen many places to eat while we were out. We decided to walk to Darling Harbour to find food places there. There's a monorail that we could've taken between the CBD and Darling Harbour, but it's not that far to walk. Darling Harbour had a big shopping mall and a lot of upscale places to eat, along with a shopping mall food court. After walking around some, we found some mediocre Thai food to eat and then had a chocolate hot fudge sundae at Lindt, a chocolate bar place like Max Brenner. The sundae was really really good, but I'm embarrassed to say that we paid $15 for it. Darling Harbour was kind of neat, it was a harbor, obviously, and there were people there and some live music and a neat pedestrian bridge. After our time there we walked back toward the CBD and saw a bunch of stuff to the south of where we were staying. We walked around there, past a downtown mall, and some restaurants and cafes, including a really nice McDonald's (with chandeliers). That area reminded me of Melbourne's CBD. After walking through, we headed back to the hotel for the night.