Flight + Days 1-2

The flight was long, but pretty uneventful. They gave us 3 meals throughout the flight, they weren't terrible for the most part. The plane was huge- 2 floors and 10 seats in each row. I slept through all of the movies they showed, Date Night, How to Train Your Dragon and some other movie I'd never heard of, but I did get to watch an episode of Big Bang Theory! Customs wasn't as bad as I expected, and it moved very quickly. Baggage claim took forever, but all of my luggage made it to Sydney! My flight landed at 6:30am-ish, so I had the whole day ahead of me still.

The shuttle driver was very nice and brought me right to Dr. Benedict's house. Dr. Benedict is a relative of one of my best friends from home. When I left the airport, the weather wasn't looking so great- overcast, cold and rainy- but it got better as we drove and it was sunny by the time I got to the house in one of the suburbs. I ate some breakfast, showered and then ran some errands with Dr. Benedict and her nephew. Her grandkids came over in the afternoon, and they were hilarious. A 5 year old boy and a 7 year old girl, cute kids. Then dinner and an early bed time.

Today, I woke up at 6:45am to get dressed and ready so that I could take the bus into the city with Gayan (Dr. Benedict's son who works in the city). Once we got off the bus in the city, Gayan pointed me in the direction of the Harbour and continued on to work. I wandered my way through the streets towards the Harbour, feeling pretty out of place surrounded by the business people in their dark suits and briefcases. I was glad I went early though, because it meant that I had less crowds to deal with outside the Opera House. I took so many pictures of the Opera House and the Bridge, it's slightly ridiculous! The I walked through The Royal Botanical Gardens which were really pretty, and saw the Government House which is inside the gardens. Then I walked around Circular Quay to The Rocks area. The Rocks is a really old, really cool part of town. The up to the Bridge, I didn't walk the whole way across (its a long bridge!), but I did walk part of it. Then up and down George St (one of the main roads through the CBD). Then over to Darling Harbour, which was pretty neat. Then I got tired and trekked my way back near George St. to catch the bus to go back to suburbia. When I got back to the house around 3:30pm, I crashed and took a 4hr nap.
Overall, it was a pretty spectacular day!