The San Fran of the Southern Hemisphere

James and I
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You know when you've run out of thoughts and ideas and you just need to talk to someone else to freshen up your perspective.  This is what Sydney has been for me!  Upon arrival, James was waiting for me by baggage claim, drives me to his house and his wife is waiting with a cold beer and a towel asking me if I wanted a hot shower!  But of Course!

Feeling new, refreshed and ready to go, off to a VERY nice Thai dinner after a spectacular ferry ride across the harbor.  It turns out James and Tiffany live in McMann's Point which is across the harbor from the Opera House.  So I get a full on night view of the skyline and the operahouse all lit up just hours after arriving in Sydney.

I'm sorry mates, you're just going to have to step aside, you can't come in!

The Opera House.. I really was here!
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Post dinner I find out that Australians are really NOT all the drinkers thier Fosters commercials lead us to believe in the states.  James and I did a bit of a pub crawl and found that on a Saturday night and found the bars were closing at midnight!!!  And I thought Americans were uptight about our bar rules.  Needless to say I tasted about every beer that Australia has to offer Saturday night and the good men at Lowenbrow just wouldn't let me in for one last one so the night was over and home we went.

Bottom of the World!
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In the morning, the sun is shining and we hop to the city to grab the harbor cruise and then explore around Circle Quay where the infamous opera house is.

FACT FOR THE DAY:  The opera house was budgeted to be built for $7M but cost over $103M to finish!!  now thats over budget!

Post cruise we had lunch and then I embarked on the climb of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  Yes, here in Aussieland you can actually climb up the span of the bridge to the top of the arch at 103M above sea level.  You can't take your own camera or anything with you so you have to rely on the guide to take and sell you photos at the end!  I'll see if I can upload a fw here in a moment.  The bridge climb was AWESOME!  Everyone should do it if the come here.

Opera House by night
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Then it was back to James and Tiffany's place, grab the tripod and take the night shots of the city and opera house followed by a nice steak dinner.

Tomorrow its off to Kiwi county.  I'm energized about my trip and have LOVED having someone to talk to for a couple of days.

G'day Mate,

Bill