Friday, January 21, 2011

Another sunny day coming up. Yesterday we got to know a bit about Sydney by taking the 3 hour FREE walking tour. When Kim travelled through Europe she had told us what a great way it was to get oriented into a new city.They are usually run by college students who get college credits for them and they live off tips. Ours was run by a young girl and her boyfriend who had set it up as a business. We saw all the main highlights and heard so much about the history of Australia as well as Sydney.I would highly recommend it as a starting point to a trip.  It gave us an incite into what we want to do the next few days. We met up with another Canadian couple - she was a retired teacher/ principal from St John, NB so we had a lot in common.We managed to find our way to a pub to share a pint for lunch .

The night before we had heard a lot of noise outside our window and we found out it was fruit bats. Coincidentally we spent the afternoon at the Botanical Gardens and the trees were hanging with these rather large bats - hundreds of them. They can have a wingspan of 4-5 feet and are fascinating to see hanging from the top branches of every tree.
Sydney is an expensive city - we wonder what the average income is . A bottle of sunscreen is about $20. Glad we brought lots!! Restaurants range from $20 and up even for lunch.We have found a lot of Familiar names - KFC, Mac Donalds, Subway, Starbucks - they really need some Tim Hortons.
We have been told to eat kangaroo while we are here - time will tell.
Another busy day  ahead.

4 comments:

  1. What was the SJ Principal's name?
    Oh do try the Roo- so you can tell us about it. C'mon Peter- where's your adventurous spirit??

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  2. Sounds like you are having a great time, Ralph says "Try the bats, they'll be cheaper!" Enjoy. MMM Hamburger wombat MMM.

    Deb & Ralph

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  3. When you get home you should read Diane Akerman's "Moon by Whalelight". It has 5 fascinating chapters, the first about bats. After reading it, you will LOVE bats and recognize their incredible impact on our food supply.

    Hope you DO try kangaroo and let us know what it is like.

    M.E. and P

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  4. This blog is great. It's really interesting to hear what Australia is like. How are the hostels? Cindy and I used them a lot in Italy. Looking forward to more info.
    Dot

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