Sydney Day 1

The day went by in a kind of jetlagged haze. We were able to check into the hotel despite it being about nine in the morning, and the room at we were given is, in a word, amazing. Here's a pic of the bedroom area.
We knew we had to fight to get ourselves onto Sydney time, so we headed out into the city as soon as possible. First was a coffee bar at an indoor mall called The Strand. The Strand is a pretty good example of the Sydney shopping mall, things that appear pretty reliably every block or so, and contain dozens of interesting little boutique shops. And they all look amazing.


Afterward, we took a quick trip around the city on the public monorail system. Its a bit like the Loop back at Chicago, but only its a monorail, and therefore cooler. We then went on to Hyde Park, the main central park in downtown Sydney. Its mostly filled with memorials and monuments, and has a pretty cool central walkway. My favorite, as with most places, was the giant outdoor chess set.



Soon after that we headed back towards the hotel to rest up for a little while. After a quick rest we headed towards the Royal Botanical Garden. This park was pretty interesting as well, as it was a relatively quiet and peaceful park despite it being literally right next to the city. At the north end of the park we were able to find a pathway to the famous Sydney Opera House. We hung out at the cafe there for a while, took a few photos of the buildings, then headed back towards the park.


Perhaps the most amazing thing we saw on our walk back that afternoon was the hundreds upon hundreds of flying foxes that we found roosting in the trees by the park entrance. For the unaware, flying foxes are sizable, bat-like creatures that eat only fruit, and are found almost exclusively in Australia. As I was unable to photograph these foxes close-up, here's a picture from the internet of one of them flying.


We both decided afterwards that we were too hungry and too tired to press on much more, so we started making our way back to the hotel. We ended up, after much futile searching, eating at a small Japanese sushi boat restaurant. We then went back to the hotel, almost falling down from the shear lack of energy we had left, and we were both asleep by 8.