the walkabout…
okay so we didn’t do a ‘proper’ walkabout , but we did a lot of walking about the city!

the city of Sydney is very walkable. we were able to get to all of the major sites in a very short time. from our hotel near Hyde Park, we walked to the harbor (Circular Quay) where the beautiful Sydney Opera House and The Rocks are located near the Harbor Bridge.

we took a ferry (pedestrian only water taxi) to Manley Beach where we had a seafood lunch that was only hours out of the water. we watched a good number of surfers catch small waves in the not-so-cold water, which was surprising because it is mid-winter here now.

the area so far reminds me so much of San Francisco except for the exotic bird calls and crys which remind me I am not at home.

on the way back for Manley I sat up front/outside on the ferry to catch the city view for photos. Enter “Captain John”… John was a salty old sailor who was enamored with me – not in a good way. He eavesdropped on my phone call with M., and asked if I was from Melbourne once I had hung up. “No.” was my reply, him: “Sydney?”, me: “No, I’m from California – why do you ask?”, him: “really, you don’t sound American, you don’t have an American accent.” me: “I’ve heard that before, (which is true and weird)”. the conversation started like this and moved to talking about my hair, which he loved, and then to his sailing adventures around the world, a quick point to the right of the nude beach we were passing, and to the left, the passage out to the Pacific Ocean where I could sail home in 30-37 days. there was a request for a photo on his little flip phone (80’s), and his comments about teeth is where things got really weird. him: “why are your teeth so beautiful?, we get horrible looking teeth but you/blacks have beautiful teeth.” – oyyyy! luckily we were nearing the city and i could concentrate on my camera. he was a nice old man, and gave me my first authentic Aussie experience.

Sydney is lovely – the weather was beautiful, and I can’t wait to explore more!!