The Trip Begins

So I made it. I had expected the flight to be excruciatingly long and painful, but the time actually went by surprisingly quickly. I was able to sleep for most of the flight, as the 11:00pm departure time and not having anyone sitting next to me allowed nap relatively comfortably and help pass the fourteen hours by. Since I've arrived in Sydney, Bill Bowtell has been a fantastic host, helping me figure out the city and the public transportation. With his help, I went down to the Central Business District of Sydney to see the downtown area and check out some of the well known spots of the city.

My initial impression of Sydney so far is that it really seems to be a melting pot of many different cultures. In some ways, the architecture reminds me of Boston, with brick buildings with a older feel to them alongside the water. But at the same time, certain buildings seem straight out of Miami with bright colors and futuristic lines. It's an interesting juxtaposition that gives the city an unique vibe.

There were a lot of street performers throughout the section of Sydney that I was in. The guy playing the drums was by far the best:

A shot of Martin Place from Pitt St:

Harbour Bridge:

The Opera House was definitely impressive in person, but surprisingly small once I got up close to it. My favorite part of seeing the building up close was finding out that the roofs were made of small, handmade tiles. Some serious time and effort went into that thing:

And I found the bottle we're drinking at my welcome back party: