Day 2 (Mar 7, 2013): March 6, We Barely Knew Thee!

Day 2: March 6, We Barely Knew Thee!

The Quick Facts:

* 14+ hour flight, Carrie still talking to me (amazing!)

* Easy train from Sydney Airport to Downtown Sydney
* Free walking tour of Sydney
* Ferry to Manly

The Good:

* Transportation to/from airport
* Ferry to Manly is inexpensive way to see the city skyline and sights from the water
* Manly is a lovely beachfront town
* The people are super friendly

The Bad:

* Australia is expensive!!!!  I feel like I got mugged by that really nice old lady that lived two doors down growing up.

Fun with the International Dateline: we left LA on Mar 5, traveled 14 hours, and landed in Sydney on March 7!  Wednesday March 6 never existed for us.  AND, when we travel to New Zealand, even though we’re going east (seemingly closer to the US), we actually will go from 14 hours ahead of EST to 16 hours ahead of EST.  I tell ya, being on the bottom of the world is pretty crazy.  Maybe the toilets *do* flush counter-clockwise down here…

So, yes, here we are: arrived in Sydney at ~8AM local time on Thursday morning after ~14.5 hours in the air.  Here’s the view from our window somewhere over the South Pacific:

We had about 10 hours to kill before our flight to New Zealand, so we day-tripped it into Sydney.  After an easy (yet expensive -- $30 roundtrip each for a ~20 minute train ride!!!!  For that money, I was surprised not to have a butler waiting to give me a foot rub as I boarded) train ride to downtown Sydney, we hooked up with a free walking tour of Sydney started by a young guy and his girlfriend (www.imfree.com.au).  The tour was 3 hours, which was time we didn’t have, so we ditched out on our own but I would recommend the tour as the tour guide was very good.  Here’s some of what we saw on our walk:

Then we took the ferry to Manly, which is a must – it’s like taking the Staten Island Ferry in New York, a cheap way to get a boat tour of the city.

 
Once in Manly, it’s a lovely beachfront town that reminded me of South Beach and a warm San Francisco all rolled into one.  We were disappointed we only had 2 hours to spend there, but I may have added a city to my list of places I want to own a house one day after I make my millions.

 

And that’s that!  Next stop: New Zealand!  We’re coming up on our ~49^th hour of traveling without a shower, which is a lot of airline, airport, and airplane bathroom funk to get rid of.  Needless to say, a hot shower and the ability to sleep in a vertical position are now highly coveted things.

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