Sydney

Lisa and I are getting toward the end of our “week” in Sydney. We have been to the Sydney Opera House and bought tickets for Edward Scissor Hands for tomorrow. It is a ballet.
Taronga Zoo is across the harbor, and we took a ferry to get to us. The ferry was from Circular Quay (pronounced “key”). We saw a bird show in the zoo and a seal training. I was really impressed with the seals. Peacocks were walking freely around the zoo. We must have seen about 8 of them, and a few were in the café where we snacked! I guess they like the crumbs :p The giraffe enclosure overlooks the harbor and the Sydney bridge. They were in the same enclosure as a “cute fat zebra,” as Lisa called it. The giraffe had food (branches) hoisted up on a chain so they were the correct height. They looked really funny when eating off the ground because their front legs were spread way apart. Of course, the zoo experience had koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas… but the platypus was MIA.
Hyde Park and the Botanical Gardens are really pretty. There is a hole garden of herbs that Lisa and I went around smelling. We never found any mint. Maybe it is the wrong season. Leaves for curry smell good, so did a bush, and some random unnamed plant. Mom, we found Stevia- plant form. I took a picture.
As I was told the food here is more expensive. In the grocery store apples are about $2.5/kg, milk is $2.7/L, eggs are stored in an open (not cooled) spot, a loaf of plain white bread is $2.7, orange juice was $6, and bananas were $1.5/kg. I can’t think of anything else more specific now. Lisa bought Vegemite.
The city appears to be about 30% Asian. Our hostel is in Chinatown, and Chinese is the second most spoken language in Sydney. There are almost no blacks or Hispanics- just Asian and Indian. Lisa keeps eavesdropping on the Asian languages.
Tomorrow we will hopefully go on a Blue Mountains tour and Saturday we are meeting up with my friend from Sydney (we met in Prague) and going to The Rocks market and then our ballet. I have lots of questions for her- schools, uniforms, gas (haven’t seen a station – we walk everywhere), manual cars, busses, snow…
BTW: I have seen 5 Miatas :p

Australia and Japan 2008

My sister Lisa and I are about to leave for our big trip. The Australia part of the trip is more open because there wasn't anything to work around like the 7 day Japan Rail Train pass. Here is the plan:

26 May- arrive in Sydney - day trip to Blue Mountains too
1 June- fly to Cairns - Jungle tour, scuba/snorkeling, parasailing?
5 June - fly to Osaka - stay with Lisa's host family
6 June - Mt Koya
7 June - Himeji Castle, Hiroshima, and Miyajima Island
8 June - Tokyo
11 June - see Mt Fuji
12 June - Kyoto
15 June - Nara, return to Osaka and host family
16 June - visit Lisa's old family etc
17 June - head back to the US