Blogs from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 680

I'm reclining here at Circular Quay, very close to Sydney Opera House, as I write this. It's been kind of neat being back in Sydney. So far I have revisited all the old haunts from back in August such as the Mercantile Hotel, Sydney Harbour, and George Street. I am staying with my cousin's friend and his wife's house in Birchgrove, which seems to be a very posh area of Sydney. What a great day. The whole Sydney is absolutely glowing in a post-Olympic celebration. It is only a couple after the festivities ended on Sunday night. I have seen people from all over the world. I saw a couple of Cameroonian gold medal winning soccer players and many people are still walking around with their Olympic credentials triumphantly swinging from around their neck. I was ... read more

Pris and I were on the phone with each other watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics on tv, when we were hit by a brilliant idea to catch a flight there for a day. We thought it'd be good to at least watch some event so we bought tickets to the women's indoor volleyball. Weather wasn't really good the day we went but that didn't stop us from snapping pictures and walking in the rain. At the volleyball, we saw Gustavo Kuerten the Brazillian tennis player. I was too chicken to ask for a picture, but he was giving out Brazil t-shirts and we got some (Brazil was playing that night). They're really noisy party people, the Brazillians. But you need atmosphere like that to really enjoy yourself anyway.... read more

I've been thrown back into winter. It gets dark around 5:30. It was raining today and it felt like London around late February or early March. It's weird. I don't even feel like I am in a foreign country. Like when I am in the United Kingdom or Ireland I am aware that I am a foreigner in a foreign land. But here in Sydney I feel like one of the crowd. There is also none of the reverent respect that one would give to the country of one's forbearers. But it is really strange to be all of a sudden in the midst of a "British Isles" winter. I feel like I'm back in Dublin in my own little traveling world. Hey, whatever. Sydney really feels like a Big city, and I can't wait to ... read more

Can you beat that? I am leaving for Sydney with my nephew who is migrating to Australia. Thought it would be sweet to travel with him and bid our farewells there. I chose not to bring a lot of stuff as I know he would need my baggage allowance for all the stuff he wanted to bring. And he wanted to bring so much! We were asked to shell out as much as US $400 for the excess baggage. I looked at my nephew and he did not look like he was about to part with some of his books and CDs. We stepped out of line and rearranged our baggage, handcarrying some of the books (dear me....) and tried again. We settled on the additional fee of US $200. And I told my nephew I'd ... read more

Geo: -33.6996, 150.939Met by F who was supposed to be in Brissy so good surprise, staying in city in Chippendale... read more