We arrived in Sydney on Wednesday Nov 13 at 7am after an overnight plane from KL. At the airport we did two very important things- took out money and found accommodations. We quickly learned that our money was not going to go very far in Oz, especially compared to SouthEast Asia. As a result, we had to adjust our accommodations expectations and settle for hostels instead of 2 star hotels. We took a shuttle and checked into a double room at the Boomerang Backpackers hostel in Kings Cross. The room had a TV but no air conditioning (although it did, as Jen was to find out later, have lots of bed bugs). After a short rest we left on foot to explore the city. A 15 minute walk brought us right into the city centre and an additional 10 minutes brought us to the waterfront where there were loads of coffee shops and restaurants that nicely lined the harbour. We walked around the waterfront, went to Darling Harbour and even had a chance to see the main casino. The city reminded us of Vancouver- both the relaxed attitude of the people and the layout of the land. We ended the night with a great pasta dinner at a local restaurant (and of course our first taste of Australian wine).

The next day we spent the morning making plans for our next 3 weeks in Oz. Given the time constraints, we were forced to give up our dream of visiting Ayers Rock and to spend our time visiting the East coast. We decided to rent a car and drive up to the Great Barrier Reef and visit a number of key spots along the way. We went to a backpackers travel agent and booked a package tour, which included accommodations at a number of hostels on the Eastern coast and 2 big trips- a 3 day sailing trip in the Whitsunday Islands and a 3 day camping trip on Fraser Island. Once that was settled, we walked to the circular quay at the harbour and enjoyed a picnic lunch overlooking the Opera House. Afterwards we headed over to the area called The Rocks, which is an old part of Sydney that has recently been restored. Here we had a great view of the Sydney harbour bridge and of the northern part of the city.

Later in the afternoon we decided to climb up the Pylon on the Harbour Bridge to take in the view of the whole city. We climbed 200 stairs to the top and along the way learned about the development of the bridge (a structural masterpiece for its time). The view from the top was amazing and we both fell in love with the city. After a short break (Dan broke down again at Starbucks) we wondered over to the Opera House and looked around. We then walked through the botanical gardens which featured plant life from all across the South Pacific. By this point we were exhausted, having walked all day. We ended the day with a steak dinner at a backpacker hangout.

The next day we slept in and missed our free breakfast. We then walked over to the Jewish museum, which was a new looking building that housed Holocaust information as well as the history of the Jewish people in Australia. We entered into the cinema room and caught a presentation being done by a Holocast survivor to a group of young Australian girls. Afterwards we walked through the museum, which was very well designed and very informative. Afterwards we grabbed a Thai lunch (since it had been almost 3 full days since we had good Asian food) and went to the grocery store to buy some dinner foods. Then we walked around Kings Cross which is remarkably similar to Church and Jarvis in Toronto. We then did some e-mail, cooked ourselves a pasta dinner at the hostel and watched a movie in our room. We left Sydney the next day having only seen a portion of the city. Our intention was to make it back to Sydney in 3 weeks and see the rest of the city.