Sunbird21

Sydney Day 5-March 10, 2012 The next morning, I woke up, ate, and headed to Circular Quay. I wasn’t sure where the BridgeClimb office was, so I headed for the Rocks district. Since it was Saturday, they had the markets out, and the harbor and streets were filled with people soaking up the sun. I was glad that I selected an early climb time-9:30-because it looked like it was going to get quite warm that day. Luckily, once I wandered through the markets, I saw signs directing me to the BridgeClimb. I found it ten minutes later, and texted Anita to see if she was on her way. She called back, stating that she was “somewhere near the bridge and lost.” Uh-oh. I went into the office, registered, and tried to get some directions for Anita, ... read more

Sydney Day 3,March 8,2012 I woke up at a 7:30 the next morning, and after having breakfast in my room and getting ready, headed to the Sydney Opera House, where I had booked the “essentials” tour. If you book online, you can save $7! Unfortunately, the weather gods were not happy and it had poured throughout the night. It was still wet and rainy as I walked through Circular Quay towards the Opera House, and my poor Wal-Mart special umbrella was turning upside down in the wind. As I approached the SOH, I saw a huge staircase outside the building, next to an entrance, and I feared a wet climb. However, I approached a security guard outside who directed me to go in the entrance-whew! I was able to get my ticket easily, and was told ... read more

I managed to sneak a video of my landing in Sydney! We landed at about 8:50a.m.,and the view was gorgeous as we were landing! Since there were probably only about 100 people total on the flight,disembarking the plane took about 15 minutes.Immigration was also pretty quiet-I was at baggage claim less than a half an hour after landing. Unfortunately,it took awhile for the bags to appear...I began to worry that my layover in SFO HAD been too short.To add to the atmosphere,there was a big,burly guy walking around,asking to see everyone's landing cards and asking if anyone brought any food into the country with them. One guy was gnawing on a granola bar when he replied "No," to the officer."Well,ehere did you get that?" the officer growled. "I brought it on the plane as a snack," ... read more

The Adventure begins! Hi to all who are reading this...yes,I am taking another journet across our globe,this time all the way to the land Down Under!! This first part is mainly travel details,so for those looking for Aussie specific info,skip ahead... Day 1-Buses,Trains,Planes, and Their Wonderful Companions I began my travels yesterday,actually,with a ride on the Megabus from Hartford-NYC. First time I experienced that,and I have to rank it better than Greyhound but not quite as good as Amtrak. It was comfortable,had WIFI,and a couple behind me who seemed enamored with the capabilities of their cell phone to play drawing games. No,unfortunately,it wasn't a parent trying to entertain a 5 year old-it was two 20 somethings squealing over the discovery that yellow +green=purple. Don't ask. Good points about Megabus? The driver got us from downtown ... read more

Day Nine-May 17,2010 As I woke up the next morning,the little TV in my room was chock full of volcanic news. It seemed that once again,European airspace was closed down. Although we had originally planned to forgo our cheap tickets to Dublin,I received a text from Ryanair,telling me that our flight was cancelled(shocker).Upon looking on the website, I found out that we would be receiving a refund on our tickets.Yay!! (I guess it was a sign that we really were not supposed to go,anyway). We had decided to sleep in a bit today,but since I was awake,I decided to grab something to eat.First,I went to the hotel desk,where to no surprise,they suddenly had availabilty for that night.I confirmed my room for that night,and walked over to Queensway and grabbed a muffin from one of the ... read more