Hello Sydney!

Sydney made a good first impression on me mostly because the weather was much warmer than in Melbourne (if still not very sunny).  My first day was pretty low-key since I was completely exhausted from not getting enough sleep on the overnight bus.  A lot of reading, napping and just getting settled (laundry and groceries) happened as well as the requisite wander the streets and figure out where the heck I am and spotting the iconic figures of Sydney - Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

While I've gotten pretty good at remembering which way the traffic goes, at intersections without a light these signs can come in quite handy at times.  Haven't been hit by a car yet!

I'm staying a hostel called Base which is alright.  It's clean and the location is great, but it's huge and lacks a good common area so it's hard to meet anyone outside of your roommates.  Mine are, again, alright, but I haven't really made any friends out of them so I've been flying solo for the past few days.

My second day in Sydney a bit more interesting.  I went to Wildlife World and saw some crazy creatures, including:

The most venomous snake in the world - the inland taipan.  Not so scary when caged.

The cassowary bird.

 I walked through the city, Hyde Park, the botanic gardens and out to Mrs. Macquarie's Point for a great view of the city.  While the city has been great about putting up signs about the foliage and maps around the park and everything under the sun, I didn't come across anything about Mrs. Macquarie so all I know about her (from Wikipedia) is that she was a former Governor's wife.  At any rate, she found a great view of the city:

Something else that I happened to stumble upon was a neat project being put on by the city at the moment.  Several local textile designers have been allowed to clothe statues around the city, like so:

Kinda fun, right?

That's it for this post!  TTFN