Day 1: Tuesday, February 5, 2002
Arriving in Sydney

Our flight, from San Francisco non-stop to Sydney, Australia, left SFO at 10:45 pm on Sunday, February 3. We arrived at the airport at about 8:15, checked in without any trouble, and then waited. (This time, they really seemed to check our bags carefully, which was nice to see.) We were on a 747, which has a 3-4-3 arrangement of seats. We were on the side, and since I'm Premier Executive on United, they gave us a window and aisle and left an empty seat in between us. Unfortunately, the flight was completely full, so they put someone who was on standby in that seat. So I moved over to the middle so we could sit together. Even though we supposedly have extra leg room, it felt very cramped. The flight was ridiculously long - 14 hours. We listened to a book on MP3 for some of it (American Gods by Neil Gaiman, which started out interesting but then get weird), but mostly we tried to sleep. I was too tired to work or even read, but I think I slept only about 4-5 hours overall. I'm amazed my back held out fairly well, at least until the last hour or so. When we finally touched down, I was very glad the longest flight of the trip was over.

Wentworth Hotel

We arrived at about 8am local time on Tuesday, February 5, 1.5 days after we took off. Monday had just disappeared! We picked up our bags and went through customs without any trouble, then walked outside into pouring rain. Sigh. We got a little cash at an ATM and grabbed a cab. Even though it was rush hour, it took only about 20 minutes to get to our hotel (The Wentworth), for about AU$23 (US$12.50), not bad. It was still early, about 10am by the time we got there, so we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get a room, but they had one available, which was a relief. We had to wait about 15 mins while someone from housekeeping checked that it was okay, but then we went up. The Wentworth hotel had a feeling of a once-elegant place that had gone downhill. It had a roomy lobby and lounge area with fancy shops in the entrance, but the furniture looked worn and the fixtures weren't kept up well. Well, for only AU$140/night (US$70), we weren't too disappointed. We took a basic room and it was pretty nice but small. There's not a lot of room to walk by each other. Still, the bathroom is made of marble, and the furniture is nice enough. And the location is great, just three blocks from Circular Quay and from the main business area. So we weren't unhappy.

Walendo relaxing in Wentworth hotel room

Walendo said he felt pretty good, but I really wanted to take a nap before doing anything. Nonetheless, Walendo still fell asleep before I did. :-) We got up at 12:30, took a quick shower, got oriented, and then went out to get something to eat. As soon as we stepped out of the hotel, we could see this wasn't going to be easy. Not only was it pouring but the wind was blowing hard. An older woman was standing on the street corner with her umbrella completely inverted, the wind too strong for her to even try to re-invert it. And this is during the heart of summer! Walendo suggested we not go out just yet. We ducked into an ATM to get cash, and then went back into the hotel to talk to the conceirge, asking for some indoor destinations. He pointed out a few, and when we asked about the weather forecast, he brought up Yahoo weather, which showed rain, rain, and rain, with some clearing by Friday. Sigh.

Wet Walendo at lunch

We started out again, heading down toward the harbor, still with the rain coming down hard and the wind blowing. It was only 2-3 blocks, so we figured we could make it. Still, as we walked along, we saw one man get blown down onto the wet grating on the sidewalk, quickly getting up and looking embarrassed. Almost at the harbor, we saw an indoor mall and ducked in to find a newstand, where we could buy a weekly transit pass. We bought a green pass, which allows you to travel on any bus, train, and most ferries for the week, for just AU$36 (US$18), not bad. (The Red pass is a little cheapter, $28, but it didn't cover the ferry to Manly, which we wanted to do.) The conceirge said they're trying to push people toward SydneyPasses, which are much more expensive and give you access to the same areas, so we didn't see the point. (Maybe the buses are nicer or something, but who cares?) We got our tickets, and then walked through the mall, which had a lot of little eating stalls. Walendo immediately spotted the cheap Asian stall and decided he was ready to eat, so I got a focaccia turkey sandwich. It was ready-made, so I hoped for the best. It had brie cheese on it, and I'm not a big fan of brie, so I ate what I could and then Walendo gladly finished up the rest. There seemed to be a lot of business people in the mall, or at least people who were dressed nicely. Also a lot of Asian people, but no more than we see at home.

Sydney Opera House (tour tickets sold below)

Once we'd finished, we were ready to get wet again, so we walked the one more block to the harbor. Of course we immediately saw food places that looked much better than where we'd stopped. But that was okay, we could go there later. We decided to head toward the Opera House, figuring we could go on a tour, which was indoors. The rain had let up just a little by then. After having a bit of trouble finding the tour office (it's in the lower level below the main steps to the Opera House), we signed up for a tour in about a half hour (3pm). In the meantime, we got a coffee and hot chocolate at the shop nearby. (The tour ticket, AU$16 per person (US$8), gets you a free tea or coffee at that shop, $1 extra for hot chocolate.) There were lots of Asian tourists about, plus some British and even some Australians. As we sat with our drinks and waited for the tour to begin, I was very happy to be there. It didn't feel like we were half-way around the world. It seemed very much like any American city to me, although a very pretty one, but still very familiar looking. Still, it was new and we had our whole vacation ahead of us, so I was very happy.

Sydney Opera House sails

Our tour guide was a bit odd, but he was knowledgable, so it was enjoyable. We got to see the two large halls plus one smaller one. In all of them, the stage crew was out working on the sets, which was interesting to see. He told us some good tidbits about the building. We were both impressed by how much detail went into the construction of such a huge place. I was interested by the patterns of the tiles that make up the sails. I had thought of it as just white, but there were chrome tiles mixed with the white (to cut down on glare) in an interesting pattern. Once I noticed it, I realized that you do see a pattern on the sails. Most of the building was made of concrete, with the floors made of granite mixed in concrete. The walls were made of strips of a mid-brown Australian wood, which made a nice effect. I kind of wished we liked opera so we could come and see (or really hear) an event there. The acoustics are supposed to be wonderful. The tour lasted 50 minutes. It was interesting, but the price seemed a bit high for what you saw. I wonder if they make more money on the tours than they do on the events.

The Rocks area of Sydney

By the time we got out of the tour, the rain had eased up and was just drizzling. We decided to walk over to the bridge so we could get tickets to climb it on Friday when our friend Gordon will be here. (It just so happens he'll be here on a business trip.) We circled around the harbor area and wound up too far under the bridge, but meantime we saw some nice places to eat along the harbor. We wound up in the Rocks area of town, which has lots of interesting little shops and restaurants, our type of area. We stopped in one Australian store that was kind of touristy, but it had the type of oiled jackets that Walendo likes. Since he didn't bring any rain gear, he decided to try on some of them. Soon one of the proprieters came over and helped him figure out what size. He had tried on an XL, but she said that was much too small, that he probably needed a 3X or 4X. She said they came as big as 6X! He tried on the 3X and she still thought it was small because, she pointed out, he had such broad shoulders. Walendo thanked her for not saying he was fat. :-) She was a very friendly, chatty woman, but for the most part I didn't find her overbearing, mostly she was helpful. Walendo ended up buying the 4X, for a mere AU$175 (US$87.50). (If he wasn't going to wear it, he could have avoided GST, but since he would be "consuming" it, he had to pay. Silly.) The store had some didjeridoos, and the other proprieter told me a little about them and played one for me. They certainly have an interesting sound. He said the termites eat out the middle, and people just finish the ends and do the artwork on them. Talk about cheap labor!

Ellen in front of Sydney Opera House

Once we left, the rain had abated (of course) which bummed Walendo out, since he was now prepared. I promised him that it would rain again. We found our way to the ticket booth for the bridge walk and bought our tickets. The woman at the counter gave us a lot of information and was very cheerful and helpful. So far, everyone we'd talked to had been friendly and helpful, just as they say Australians are. We continued walking along George St, which had a bunch of boutique/craft shops and restaurants. I stepped into a shop with beautiful crafts (pottery, woodwork, jewelrey, belts, scarves) and lusted after much of it but managed not to buy (just yet). Meanwhile, Walendo snuck back to a shop that was selling meat pies and got us two. When I came out, we sat on a bench and ate them. Not bad, but not great. Still, I was glad we tried one.

We continued on George Street, which turned into more of a typical downtown shopping area, with lots of shops selling electronics and cheap goods. It was hopping with people getting out of work and heading home. Walendo continued to marvel at how cars were driving on the wrong side of the road, and he was glad we wouldn't be driving right away. We made our way back to the hotel where we relaxed for a bit. I was tempted to just go to sleep, but we needed to stay up longer to get onto Sydney time. We read for a bit and checked out the guide books to figure out what we'd do tomorrow. After a while, we went downstairs to check email at the hotel's Internet kiosk. (Walendo had tried dialing up several times as soon as we'd arrived in the room, but the modem didn't connect, we think because there was a lot of static on the line. What a disappointment. We're hoping we'll be able to connect from other places.) It was just $2 for 20 minutes (which turned out to be expensive relative to the Internet cafes), so he checked his mail while I got some tea, and then I checked mine. Nothing too urgent, but we let people know we'd made it okay. Then we decided to walk around the nearby area. I had already discovered some toiletries I'd forgotten, so we looked for a drug store (or Chemist shop, as they call them here). Most places were closed by then, though, so we just walked around just to check out the area. Walendo decided to get a bite to eat (I wasn't hungry), so he stopped in this interesting place that looked like a convenience store but had lots of different types of sandwiches and claimed to be healthy. (I think the name was Fast and Healthy or something.) He decided against the chicken and corn sandwich (corn?), and got a more traditional ham and cheese. He ate it back in the room, and said it was only okay.

I read as long as I could, but by 9:30 I was ready to sleep. We turned out the light and fell right asleep.

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