Sydney and Beyond!

I thought I was an alien until I met this guy.



Bondi Beach.


Taxi Boat (Left: opera house, Right: harbour bridge).

View of the Opera House from the Taxi Boat

G'day people! I'm in the land of the roos, but have yet to see

a kangaroo or a wallabi. This is my mission while I am in Australia.

Meanwhile, I arrived in Sydney after a night flight from Singapore on the 16th of October,

and reached my hotel wearily as there was not much sleep during the night flight.

My whole day was thus taken up sleeping and not seeing much of Sydney.

When I did eventually wake up (the next day), I stepped out to bright sunshine and Sydney's

Darling Harbour was litterally footsteps away from my suitably located Holiday Inn.

I spent the morning touring around on a boat taxis and taking photos of the famous sights of the harbour (the Sydney Opera house, the Sydney Harbour bridge, etc). The night was alive and kicking with drunken Australians and tourist all over. It was, to my liking, a bit too chaotic.

So, the next day, I headed for somewhere more peaceful after a swim and coffee at Bondi beach.

In the afternoon on Sunday, I took the train 3 hours north of Sydney to Hamilton, Newcastle, where Darius awaited me and took me to my sleeping quaters for the next few days, at the Aikido dojo where he teaches. I was lucky to meet a wonderful group of Aikido people and we already had some nice lessons today in the morning and in the evening. We finished the day with a tastey and inexpensive Japanese take away.

I feel comfortable and welcomed in this remote but pleasant dojo away from Sydney.

In the next days, I plan to tour around a bit and see if I can find one of those roos somewhere.

Hopefully I'll be able to train a couple more times with Darius before I head for Sydney on the weekend.