4 posts tagged “australia-bound”
Well that's about it for Australia. Today we took a ferry out to the beach town of Manly for lunch. Among the very few things in Sydney that are cheap, the ferries are a great way to get around, and as a bonus, offer probably the best views of the Sydney Opera House. We're going to futz around our little neighborhood here, then get ready for tomorrow, otherwise known as the Longest. Day. Ever. We leave at 2pm-ish local time and get back into DC at 9...after 20 hours of flying. Weird business.
Final verdict: Sydney rocks. The city is beautiful, diverse and culturally stimulating (also expensive, but who's counting?). If you ever find yourself in this hemisphere, I strongly recommend stopping in for a visit.
Excelsior!
Today was a good day. After a week of conference rooms and long work dinners, CarrieNation and I finally got out and about in Sydney. Our first stop was the outer Sydney suburb of Blacktown for a visit to the Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary, where we had it on good authority we could have a Koala "encounter."
We chose Featherdale because it had a reputation for being an actual sanctuary, rather than just a place where they hang bedraggled Koala's on tourists (though we hoped there would be a little of that too). I'm happy to say that Featherdale delivered in every way. While they don't actually hang the Koalas on you, they do let you pet them, which is almost as good.
Here's what I learned today. Koalas are not mean. Koalas are not drugged. At least one Koala (pictured here) is capable of leaping fairly substantial distances through the air. It was something to see.
Although the Koalas are clearly the stars here, the other animals were pretty awesome too. Various kangaroo variants just roamed throughout the park, mooching alfalfa off of sentimental tourists. My favorites were these little walaroo guys. One took a little nip of my finger, but I could swear he looked apologetic afterwards.
It's day two for me in Australia, and I might be starting to get the hang of the time difference.
I got in yesterday at about 6:30 a.m. local time, and made it to the hotel by 8ish. I checked in, video chatted with CarrieNation (who is on her way here now) went to the gym and grabbed a quick shower. I figured I'd take a quick nap, then go out and see the town.
Five hours later, a call from one of my colleagues woke me out of a dead slumber just in time for the sun to go down. So the town will have to wait.
I DID manage to make it to my first ever Australian Rules Football game as the hometown Sydney Swans took on the Collingwood Magpies at the Olympic stadium here. Verdict: Awesome. I'll try to put up some shitty cell phone pictures later, but suffice to say the game is even more fun to watch in person (and it's not bad on TV).
We really need to get this game in the U.S. It's got everything we like: violence, high scores, violence.
Sydney reminds me a lot of London, with a couple minor exceptions. The weather is better, the people are nicer, and all the young hipster dudes wear white canvas boat shoes. I'll get back to you when I figure that out.
In the past two years at my job, I've been dispatched to Brazil, France and Egypt, and just barely missed a trip to India. Although these are hardly pleasure cruises, I am fully aware that all this international travel is a pretty sweet deal.
Tomorrow, I'll go as far away from my home soil as I've ever been as I embark on a 24-hour exodus to Sydney, Australia. I am both excited and nervous. Excited, because a free trip to Sydney is much, much better than a swift kick in the eye, and nervous, because air travel makes me nervous and I'm about to do a whole heck of a lot of it.
Still, I think excitement trumps nervousness at this point, and I'm actually kind of stoked for my first trip on a 747.
For those interested in that sort of thing, I fly from Washington to San Francisco, have a 3-hour layover, and then go from San Francisco straight to Sydney.
Unlike past trips, CarrieNation is actually joining me on this one, and will make her way out to Sydney two days after I leave, making things a lot more fun.
The only remaining consideration is how this will affect my 104P52W obligations. Australia is approximately eleventy billiion hours ahead (behind?) making hitting deadlines a tricky business. I may keep one clock set to Eastern time just in case. I don't intend to let my victory pies escape me, on account of a little trip around the world.
Excelsior!
