January 22, 2007 Sydney, Australia

January 22, 2007
Sydney, Australia

We woke up this morning at around 8:30. As we attempted to wake up we wondered into the common room and checked to see if the NFL Playoffs were on TV. They weren’t. We were forced to make our way to a sports bar down the street.

We settled into some seats and watched the second half of the Bears-Saints game. Next, we watched the entirety of the Colts-Patriots game. It was the first football I have seen in about a year. Sadly, both teams I was cheering for lost. Still, we had a good time hanging out with some fellow Americans.

There were more Americans at the bar than I have seen in one place since leaving home. We met several ex-pats now living in Sydney and a few fellow travelers. Most interesting of all, we met an OSU Engineering alum. We discovered that we had a few mutual friends. Incredibly, he got a phone call from his best friend, Mike Hass, as the Bears were playing…

By the time we left the bar it was a few minutes past 13:00. We returned to our hostel and grabbed some lunch. After eating and getting ready for the day we went out on a long walk.

Our first stop was the botanical gardens at the center of a large park in the city. As we wandered through the trees we were surprised to see large bats hanging from the trees. They were the largest bats I have ever seen (we later saw a sign that informed us that they were fox bats and are among the largest bats in the world and can have a wing span up to 1.5 meters!). For the remainder of our walk through the gardens we had our heads looking to the sky, watching the marvelous creatures.

Eventually we made our way to the steps of the Sydney Opera House. To our surprise there was a jumbotron showing the Australian Open. We sat on the steps of the SOH and watched James Blake (an American) give up during his match and lose miserably.

We then entered the SOH and looked around for a few minutes. Unfortunately, most of the structure is closed and people are not allowed to wander about. Instead, we went back outside and did a lap around the building.

From there we began our journey home. On the way we stopped at a few scenic points and took a bunch of photos of the Australia’s most famous structures (the harbor bridge and the opera house).

At about 18:00 we arrived back at Mates Place. We were overjoyed to find that it was free pizza night at the hostel. The owner ordered 35 pizzas from Pizza Hut and everyone got really full, for free!

Totally full, B and I sat down and used the internet. I spent a long time chatting with Jackie and doing some more research on cool places to go in Australia.

The plan for the remainder of the night is to pack up our bags and then maybe wander the crazy streets of Kings Cross for a while.