I’m finally here!!!! It only took 3 flights and an entire day lost somewhere in the space time continuim. I did not have a January 19th this year. I mean, technically I did, but it didn’t last 24 hours. Thursday was lost to a 16 hr flight across time zones and the International Dateline. Thankfully, I slept for about half the flight, because the time I spent awake was brutal. Wedged in the middle of a 3 person row, with crappy food, uncomfortable seats and no escape because the other 2 managed to sleep most of the flight. I only peed twice the whole time. Yes, you needed to know.

When the plane landed, I was excited to see that it wasn’t raining. It had rained in my stops in Toronto and Vancouver and was forecast to rain in Sydney all day today. By the time I cleared customs and headed outside to the shuttle, it was pouring. Met a lovely couple, Erica and Junior, on the shuttle bus who are here from Miami for their honeymoon and also heading to New Zealand, so we had lots to talk about. Checked into my beautiful suite (it’s a 6 person male dorm room) and headed to my room. Open the door and one of my new roommates is asleep. I have yet to go to the room and not find someone sleeping. I can tell I’m going to love hostel life.

Thankfully, it had stopped raining after I had gotten settled and cleaned up, so I headed out to explore. Sticking true to my “I don’t have a real plan attitude,” I picked a direction and started walking. Huge success!!! After about 30 minutes, not only did the street lead straight to the Sydney Opera House, but right as I arrived, I bumped into Junior and Erica. We walked around Circular Quay and took the obligatory tourist pictures and then went our separate ways.

I started my walk back towards the hostel. Walking around Sydney is interesting so far. I’m afraid to jaywalk at times because I’m not really sure where the cars are supposed to be coming from. Also, I’m not really sure which side of the sidewalk to walk on. They drive on the left, so logic says they would walk on the left too, but alot of people walk on the right. I’ve been going with the middle and then dodging right or left depending on which side they are coming at me from. It’s basically like staggering drunk around the streets of Boston. What really made me feel right at home though, was that I managed to get lost for about an hour when all I had to do was take one street straight back. These aren’t nice, neat little blocks. It’s really got the “Fuck your map” Boston feel to it.

It’s alittle after 8 here and the post-flight adrenaline got burnt off by all that walking. Also, because it’s gross out. They tell me it’s 30 degrees out, but it was definitely like 80 with 90% humidity. The metric system alone is enough to keep me from moving here permanently.

PS….No kangaroo sitings yet.