Morning in Sydney

In Bryson’s book he comments on the efficiency and ease of the Sydney airport, so I made note of a few checkpoints myself.  6:35 am, plane touches down.  6:40 am, walking through the gate.  6:47 am, through customs.  7:04 am, baggage collected, in the lobby.  7:08 am, money changed, in the taxi queue.  Pretty quick, I’d say. 

 

The morning was chillier than expected: 9 degrees Celsius, but since I have no idea what that means, I estimate it in the low 50s.  It is winter, after all.  But the sky is clear and beautiful, and the temperature is expected to rise to 19 or 20, which, again, is no help. I’ll take a jacket to be safe.

 

The taxi driver drove on the left, and despite being in the biggest city, downtown, at rush hour, on a weekday, there was only light traffic.  Our initial impression of the city is that it is clean and pretty but somewhat unremarkable.  I could have been in Ottawa.  The most striking features of the Sydney skyline are the opera house and the harbor bridge, which we haven’t seen yet (though our hotel is quite near both).  I will say that despite Sydney’s pleasant unremarkableness, Melissa did have one of the happiest grins on her face I’ve ever seen.  It feels damn good to be here.  It’s Melissa’s first time outside North America, and we have a feeling Australia will be a great start to her intercontinental escapades.

 

The hotel allowed us to check in early, so we’re relaxing and showering before setting out to see what we can find.  Our hotel room is not overly-large, but comfortable and chic.  We initially were perplexed that the lights didn’t work, and then we figured out the card slot which enables the lights and saves electricity when we leave the room: a reminder of how Americans are somewhat less cognizant of wastefulness than Europeans and their southern hemisphere brethren. 

 

Right before we left for the day we checked out some Australian television.  I was pleased that the first two channels were rugby and cricket.  Australia lived up to expectations.  The next two channels, however, were The Simpsons and Family Guy.  Australians must have a great impression of American families.

 

Off we go...