Sunday in Sydney
My first day in Australia turned into a total bust - just too exhausted from the trip to do anything more than check into my guesthouse, take a nice hot shower, wash some clothes and wander the neighborhood for an hour. At 4pm I lay down for an hour's nap that lasted all night long. Every experienced traveller knows you should adjust yourself to local time by staying awake until bedtime and putting in a normal night's sleep. My normal night's sleep just turned out to be 14 hours.
This morning I got up early and strolled through the quiet Sunday streets, enjoying the warm weather and sunshine and registering my first lucid impressions of Australia. A place is never what you expect it to be. It's too early for me to pass judgment on Sydney, let alone Australia as a whole, but first impressions are all good. This is a mellow place, with friendly people and an international atmosphere. My taxi driver yesterday was Lebenese (Al, who told me the people in the neighborhood I'm staying in, Glebe, are "rubbishy"), my morning coffee was purchased from a Vietnamese bakery owner and the guesthouse is staffed by an older American. And there are plenty of Aussies around.
Here is a picture of Sydney as I saw it for the first time, from the air. The view is of the city south of the airport:
By the way, Glebe is awesome, not rubbishy, with friendly people, great ethnic restaurants and lots and lots of used bookstores. My kind of place.
This morning I got up early and strolled through the quiet Sunday streets, enjoying the warm weather and sunshine and registering my first lucid impressions of Australia. A place is never what you expect it to be. It's too early for me to pass judgment on Sydney, let alone Australia as a whole, but first impressions are all good. This is a mellow place, with friendly people and an international atmosphere. My taxi driver yesterday was Lebenese (Al, who told me the people in the neighborhood I'm staying in, Glebe, are "rubbishy"), my morning coffee was purchased from a Vietnamese bakery owner and the guesthouse is staffed by an older American. And there are plenty of Aussies around.
Here is a picture of Sydney as I saw it for the first time, from the air. The view is of the city south of the airport:
By the way, Glebe is awesome, not rubbishy, with friendly people, great ethnic restaurants and lots and lots of used bookstores. My kind of place.
posted by Matthew Klein at 9:15 AM
4 Comments:
Nothing to be ashamed of, Packmonkey. That's a well-deserved 14 hours. Have a great time in Sydney!
Touchdown on adventure. Congratulations!
I love the use of the zombie hut drinking vessel as your blog icon.
Perhaps rubbishy means friendly with a trashy aftertaste?
If so, sounds like my kind of place too.
Wankers be damned!
Such a beautiful picture! Oh, I want to be in the great wide open right now. I am jealous. But I will use that jealously motivationally - to get myself some vacation time and out of nyc - instead of using my jealously bitterly, wishing no one could travel :) Good for you, man. You are livin' the dream! And for the record, I actually thought that the Grand Canyon wasn't worth the hype. I know, it's a terrible thing to say, but I like places with more trees.
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