Sydney (for Feb. 10)

We checked out of the hotel at 10, toured around a bit, and checked out the Internet Café. It was very reasonable ($5/hr; $3/half hour), so we took the laptop back to catch up on posting our pictures. I found the reason that we were having trouble – they don’t support Netscape 8.0. Funny that it worked until now. Anyway, it went pretty smoothly after I used Internet Explorer. Celeste went for a haircut, but still had to wait quite a while for me as it took 2.5 hours for the blogging, email, and Japan Rail research I was doing. At the time, it seemed like a long time to spend, but necessary to get caught up. It was 2 PM by the time we got some lunch and hit the road.

We stopped at Nowra at 3:30 to tour Australia’s Museum of Flight at a Naval Air Station. Unfortunately, all that blogging time came back to haunt us as the museum closed at 4. I made a quick run through and we got back on the road.

Although it is less than 300 km from Bateman’s Bay to Sydney, it took us until 7 to get to our hotel, 4.5 hours after deducting the museum tour. Although the speed limit for the first 200 km was 100 kmph, we could not keep anywhere near that pace. Many timid drivers drove 10-20 kmph below the limit. Between the winding road and the heavy opposite direction traffic, the only place to pass was on dedicated passing lanes. Even there, it was difficult to pass more than one or two cars because other passers passed so conservatively. Then we hit 20 km of freeway, followed by 10 km of city driving, followed by another 20 km of freeway, and finally another 50 km of city driving. I guess it is hard to build freeway through a city that is already well established. The terrain was hilly and green with a roughly equal mix of forest, farmland with ample trees, and built up areas.

We squeezed into the world’s tightest underground car park and, after a bite to eat, we went out exploring. Boy, these Sydney guys sure are friendly! They all seem to walk in pairs around here, so nobody will be lonely. Except one guy we saw wearing leather pants and also a leather harness on his torso with no shirt. But I am sure he will find a friend soon. And there are some very interesting looking shops and bars. Carla and Tyler, did you ever visit Oxford Street?

Checking our guide book, we found that Sydney’s gay community, apparently rivaled only by San Francisco’s, is centred around Oxford Street, about a block from our hotel. And February is a month long festival for them. Party time! I don’t begrudge their right to live the life they choose, but, like nuclear physics, I just don’t get it. It’s all too much of a spectacle for a small town boy from Saskatchewan.