The (bad? Well, let's just say "other") news is that I rekindled my affair with the bottle. Last night (my first night in Sydney) was the birthday of an Irishman that Tim and I met at our hostel.
And about that hostel. So, Tim and I had left it pretty open when it came to meeting in Sydney. We figured that we'd just email each other when we knew more. However, I left Melbourne before any of the internet cafes had opened, so I was pretty much flying blind. And to make it worse, there were no internet cafes in the Sydney airport, so I had to hop on the train without knowing where I was going. (Well, in all honesty, there was one internet terminal in the Sydney airport, but it was on the other side of security, and I didn't want to risk declaring Yaqona, again.)
Anyway, I took the train to Sydney Central Station. I figured that any "central" station couldn't be too far from wherever Tim was. I arrived at the station about 20 minutes later, and I found a nearby internet terminal. I had an email from Tim that told me to meet him at Town Hall by 4pm. It was 3:30, so I had about 30 minutes to 1) figure out where Town Hall was, and 2) get there. I felt like I was in a spy movie, racing against the clock. But then again, I always like to pretend that I'm in a spy movie.
Ok, wow, so before I revealed my inner 12 year old, I think that I was talking about an Irishman. His birthday had us drinking beers at a local pub. And drinking, and drinking, and drinking. (For the record, every time I've used the toilet lately, I check to make sure that I haven't crapped out my liver yet. It's only a matter of time.)
By the way, Tim and I also played tourist yesterday, and took a tour of the Sydney Opera House. You may have heard of it.
Thank you, thank you.
The rest of the photos were taken up close. Notice the individual tiling on the outside. The television shots don't pick up the grandfather's-bathroominess of the place.
Inside, at the intermission bar.
Me taking a picture of Tim taking a picture. Deep.
Another late night gem, taken from the Opera House grounds.
And that brings us to today. First stop: Sydney aquarium. Some highlights: The Eastern Long-Neck Turtle. Aka The Eastern Way-Cute Turtle.
I love this sign. Only in Australia.
And these are the f'ing pigeons. I love this place.
Our next stop was a harbour cruise. It was part of a package of attractions that we purchased (like the aquarium, etc.). A surprisingly filling fish and chips lunch left us both too tired to get a lot out of it, but I did get a photo to prove that I was here.
The evening was capped off by a pub crawl in The Rocks, Sydney's semi-touristy drinking district. We chatted with some of the bartenders, after noticing that most of them had an Irish accent. Turns out that they (and 13,000 other Irish 20-somethings) were on work-holiday visas, like Shawn, my non-kleptomaniacal roommate from the last hostel.
One of our stops was a German-owned, Oktoberfest-themed booze barn. They happened to sell one-liter beers.
Sigh.
My birthday present to Tim is a ticket to tomorrow's Sydney Roosters rugby game, so if I don't post again for a while, it's because I'm hungover.
M
