G'Day Mates!

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How ya goin? We have arrived down under. The travel went pretty much without incident. We were hoping for a celebrity sighting in the Los Angeles airport and the stars did not let us down. Who should walk right past us but Marilyn Manson and his gargantuan girlfriend. Andra was hoping for George Clooney…but alas Marilyn had to do.

We arrive in Sydney at the lunch hour, dropped our bags and headed out to wander. First stop was Darling Harbour. Lots to eat and drink here. We found a perfect happy hour spot that had cheap booze and $5 pizza (The Blackbird Café if you are looking).
In the city center you’ll find Sydney’s Royal Botanical Gardens. This is worth a stroll through. You can get a spectacular view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. It is also a busy place…it seems as though all Sydneysiders like to run in here. The place is packed with runners. And who can blame them…the park is gorgeous. We had our first encounter with the large Australian wildlife here….look up in the trees and check out the enormous flying-fox bats roosting in the trees waiting for nightfall….YIKES!

For a bit of Sydney’s history, we’d recommend a visit to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. This building first was used as convict quarters for IK criminals who were sent to Australia as an alternative to local prisons in the IK. Later is was used to house immigrants (mostly single Irish women) and then used as government courts. This most interesting parts of the museum for us were the transported criminals history and the immigrants history. Apparently in the early 1800s, stealing a horse and manslaughter carried the same penalty - transportation to Australia for life. We gotta steal us a horse! ;-)
It was interesting to learn that because the prisons were so crowded in the UK that shipping criminals off to a faraway land was the alternative. Apparently some were also shipped to North America. We also found records for 2 Canadians that were shipped to Australia for their crimes.
That’s all for this post. Will post again from Sydney soon.
Off to throw some shrimp on the Barbie….

Chris and Andra

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Photos

Opera Bar
G'Day Mates!

Opera House and Harbour Bridge
View from Royal Botanical Gardens

Bats!
Bats roosting in the trees in the Royal Botanical Gardens.....I hope they don't fall on my head!

Hyde Park Barracks
This is what a $200 a night hotel gets you in Sydney.
:-)

Darling Harbour
This hardly feels like Christmas here