Arrived safe and sound
I arrived at 6:30am in Sydney International and was supposed to go through customs, get my bag and meet Agnieszka at the domestic terminal baggage claim. Everything in Australia is much more expensive then I thought. In fact, to get from the international terminal to the domestic terminal, the airport bus costs $5.50! And when I did the exchange, because of all the fees and everything, for 100USD, i got 103AUD, and that blows. Anyway, got to the domestic terminal to find no sign of Agnieszka. Apparently, she had deviated from the plan. I called her cell phone from a pay phone and she was over at the international terminal waiting for me cause she thought my plane was delayed, but it was not. Anyway, we met up and came to Phil and Svetha’s place here in Belmain just south of downtown Sydney. We all had breafast, which was really good, and then Anya and I went out sight seeing. I had just been on a 15 hour plane ride and Anya got up at 3am to make it to Sydney airport; i think she was more tired then I was, but we agreed we couldn’t go to sleep until at leasr 8pm otherwise our sleep cycles would be all messed up.
We walked down to the peire and took a ferry to the opera house which was beautiful. We’re going to do a tour of it some time today. We walked around The Rocks area and got some food and drink and then went down to Darling Harbour which is a very hip placec on the docks. We got some ice cream and then I dragged her into the Maritime Museum cause (it was free) I wanted to tsee the replica of the HMB Endeavor. That’s the ship Captain James Cook used to map much of the eastern coast of Australia. I read a book on him once cause I keep ending up in places he’s been like New Zealand, Alaska and the like. It was thought at the time that New Zealand was actually a part of Australia until he charted all around New Zealand and found that they were way off. We went around in the museum for a bit and then came back to Phil’s to meet up with Anya’s friend Lucy who was a lot of fun. Also, Phil taught us some drumming rhythms; he teaches drum classes down on Bondi beach. Lucy, Anya, and I went out to have sushi and wine and by the time we came back, everyone was asleep.
So that was the first day down under. Today, we’re headed to Manly Beach, maybe surfing, back to the Opera House and who knows what else!