Anyhow, thank God for movies, sudoku, and iPod shuffle, I somehow managed to keep myself entertained in between passing out. But actually early on the flight, with my earphones on, I could hear something that sounded like a muffled humming...it took me a little bit to figure it out, but I finally looked over to the seat right next to me, and it was one of the girls that I was travelling with...singing...to the music on her iPod...not loud...but within the earshot of the seats right next to us...ooohhhh boy!! The flight just got a tad longer. But it's all good...she was nice enough to volunteer to sit bitch, even though it was my assigned seat, and I ended up on the aisle...so Christie...sing your heart out!
So we touched down at 8am, 12/27, Thursday - Sydney time .... translation = 4pm, 12/26, Wednesday for NY (1pm for L.A.). And yes, I know, I told some of you that we don't land until the 28th...but for some reason, this boy was under the impression that Xmas was on Wed...don't ask!!
Anyways, I guess it was early enough that there was not a whole lot of people at customs, so we breezed through it. And then we got to the agriculture line...that's when the adventure began!
The two ladies I was traveling with were first to go through, and they ended up being held by one of the customs officer. I couldn't hear much from where I was, but they clearly were having a little argument with him...not a heated one...not yet at least...It turns out that they were caught with a little fib on the declaration form. On one of the questions, it says "[are you carrying] Any food"...which is not ambigious in itself, but it went on to say something like "- processed, canned, etc". All three of us misinterpreted this as dairy products, meats and what not...so we all marked No to this question. And in one of the plastic bags that they were carrying were candy bars, cheetos, crackers, including left over snacks from the airline. So the officer was telling them what the question really meant, and Lisa was trying to "explain" what we interpreted it as...and everything was just fine until the officer uttered the words "you do speak English, don't you"...ding, ding...round one!!
Nah, Christie stepped in before the first punch below the belt was thrown...she managed to calmy explain to the officer the situation, and he agreed to lower the punishment from $200 AUD to just putting their names down in the system and will stay there for 2 years.
And then, it was my turn to go through the same line they did...and guess what I was carrying in a plastic bag...Man, you guys know me, I am no slouch when it comes to eating snacks, but I tell ya...by the time I handed that bag over, it was emptied in record time! Well it was either that or scratch off my answer on the form and be arrested for cheating.
Morale of the story, boys and girls...declare everything! Even the gum in your mouth, just in case.
So outside the airport we went...we put our bags in the trunk of a taxi, I go around to get in the passenger side, and as I opened the door...lo and behold...there is a steering wheel attached to the dash board. I turned around, and the cab driver was right behind me with the look of "stupid American" on his face...I know this face expression very well since I got the same one when I went to Dublin, Ireland.
So off to the hotel, and the directions from the web was that it is right on the corner of such and such street...well guess what, it was one of those 5 way streets that you can't figure out which sign goes with which street...AND...the place changed their name. So we got dropped off at one of the corners, and we got our exercise for the day finding this place. And when we found it, it was too early to check in...6 hours too early. We're tired, in bad need of a shower, and we're hungry. The concierge was kind enough to offer to hold our luggages as we set off to find someplace to eat.
Where do you go to eat after traveling all this way to Sydney...dim sum...naturally! Hey we were right next to China town.
After lunch, we head off to Darling Harbour where we first ended up in Sydney Wildlifeworld, where you can see all the Australian animals...like reptiles, snakes, kangaroos and, of course, koalas.
Then we went to the Sydney Aquarium where you can see all the marine animals including sharks.
Then it was off to the shopping mall where we ended up having lunch at a cafe that almost felt like you were in Panera Bread...almost the same kind of meals.
By this time we have more than made up the 6 hours, and it was time to check in. On the way back, we found a massage place right next to our hotel. Of course, we had a brilliant idea of having a relaxing 1-hour massage before dinner. And by the time we had our massage, showered, and got ready to go out to dinner, it was around 9:30 or 10.
Who knew there was a 9pm curfew on food in this city! We ended up in an area called The Rocks, and all the restaurants that we walked up to said they were closed...even the ones that said open from 6pm to late. I guess "late" means whenever they damn well feel like closing. Actually, their bars are open...it's their kitchen that was closed. So after walking to about a dozen restaurants, we ended at a place called Pancakes on the Rocks...it's a glorified Denny's (or Diner, for my east coast pals). The same kind of place that you usually find yourself AFTER a night of drinking and your craving for some grease.
So if you've been keeping count of how many authentic Australian cuisines we've had...that would be zero! Hopefully, tomorrow will be different in that respect.
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of photos so far, especially outdoor ones, since it was really gray and drizzly pretty much the whole day. But it should be a different story after I get back to the US...I should have a ton of images for you guys to enjoy. This is very typical of my travels...same thing happened when I went to Chicago...the weather sucked when I got there, but I usually bring great weather and it turned out to be a great adventure.
First, a shout out to Kristy...Happy Birthday!! Hope you are having an awesome day!
Anyways, we finally decided to go to the Sydney Tower figuring it's a touristy place where it afforded you a 360-degree sky view of the whole city. And the restaurant inside was one of those rotating deals, so it must be open...well it was...jackpot!! And then the lady behind the counter said you need to have a reservation for lunch...okay so we've been walking around for a good 30 minutes, and it is now around 12:45pm...with a big smile on our faces, we asked when is the next available one...and she said 1pm. Man, this lady was lucky she said 1pm coz there could have been a serious incident...murder came to mind.
So we're finally eating lunch, buffet style, and we got our first taste of kangaroo. Not bad. Does it taste like chicken? Actually, it has more of a consistency of, I'd say, London broil..and it does have an unfamiliar after taste (not anything overpowering, just a hint). BTW, they don't refill sodas here for free...it's $4 AUD a pop.
