Sydney/New South Wales

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We've now added a new country, let alone a new continent, to our 'been there' list: Australia. We arrived early on Thursday, 09/29. We've been in and around Sydney since, and we're really enjoying ourselves.
First off, the weather has been terrific. The sun has been shining daily and the temps have kept up around 30 degrees C/+- 80 degrees F. Awesome. We've been downtown (Opera House) and out to the beachfront-both North(Manly) and South(Bondi). Sydney is a totally world-class city. Great transportation (buses and trains) and great ammenities everywhere. Fairly similar to big cities in the States, so its not to exotic. But, really safe.
We began our stay in the Kings Cross 'hood, where all the blokes in the city hang out, along with all of the intl. backpackers. Kind of seedy, with strip clubs everywhere, but pretty safe. Comparable to the red-light district in any city, but full of tourists.
Last week a local rugby team became champions of the 'Grand Final' and everyone was partying pretty hard 'round us in Kings X. There was even a player named Hodgson who kicked all of the conversions and was known as the hardest partier on the squad-partying for 48 hrs. straight after the victory. Imagine that.
For the past few days we've been in the North beach community of Manly. Its really awesome out here, totally beautiful and laid back beach community- a la Santa Barabra, CA. We've befriended a couple of Aussie dudes who couldn't have been more friendly and stoked to meet some Americans like us. We'll surely see them again.
For now, we're very content to hit the beach, take walks around town, and crash out in our quaint guest house away from downtown.
Soon, we'll be off to either the North Shore/Gold Coast (Brisbane and Cairns) or to New Zealand. We'll surely do both, but one at a time. That's all for now.
PS- Sad but true, the Aussies haven't figured out that the whole VonDutch fad is sooo VonDon't. Pretty ridiculous.

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