Sydney, Australia

Sydney is a really excellent city. I cannot help but open my Sydney entry with those simple words. It is just a really, really cool place. I arrived Tues. morning, dropped my stuff off at a backpackers hotel, and within an hour was exploring the town. It is supposedly winter but the sun is shining, the air is crisp and warm, and the sky is blue with fluffy clouds here and there. I was crossing the street to the Botanical Gardens when I heard, "Excuse me...", I look back and a young, quite handsome man (with a cast on his arm) says to me, "You are beautiful" and walks away. I could not help but like Sydney right away.

To resist being impartial, I would like to take this time to list four of the coolest things I have discovered about Sydney since...

1. The "Tiger"
A meat pot pie smothered in mashed potatoes, topped with mashed green peas, and then covered in a sauce (cheese, gravy, etc.) of your choice to boot. All for about US$4.50. In my case I had the "Veggie Tiger", and the pot pie alone would have been heavenly enough. Ooh la laaaa!

2. Cockatiels
You walk along, hear a deep throaty squawk above your head, and look up to see what it is. Could it be a giant crow? A seagull? A bird, a plane...Superman? No, folks, it is a giant white cockatiel--now please forgive me if I spell him wrong--with a yellow trill of feathers on his head. If you feed the birds in the park you are guaranteed a flock of them to join in with the pigeons. And some of them will say Hello to you in an Aussie accent, how cool is that?

3. Free Beer
I really don't know how they can do this, but bars around the backpackers hotels have a Happy Hour where they serve free pitchers of beer! Not just 1 pitcher, the other day our group got 7 or 8 pitchers!! If there was anytime to learn to drink beer, now would be that time. (and I still wont touch the stuff...)

4. Cadbury Chocolate
My favorite chocolate company....everywhere! You can buy Cadbury Eggs year round, along with a whole plethora of chocolate bars and snacks. Even McDonald's shakes and sundaes use Cadbury chocolates. It is Shannen's chocolate heaven. They only downfall is a candy bars cost a buck fifty around here, ouch!

These along with the laid back Australian attitude, it being safe to walk about at night and a huge mixture of foreigners all make it a colorful, exciting city.

Today I went to the Koala Park Sactuary and got to see all the native Australian animals, feed the kangaroos and pet a koala. Koalas sleep 18 hours a day, what a life! The park ranger woke one up for us to see and get pictures with, and he was a total grog-case. After I saw a man sheer a sheep, and "chatted" with the cockatiels ("Hello, hello, hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye").

So far, a cool, cool trip. Monday I go to Melbourne, and the week after that to Tasmania.
Miss you all!

See pics at side bar