Sydney 2

[I apologize in advance if this post ends up a little short, I just wrote the whole thing, then there was a problem posting it and now it's gone]

Day4: This pretty much concludes my visit to Sydney, tomorrow I catch an hour and a half train ride down to visit a Colgate semester abroad group led by a former professor, then a long train to Melbourne for the literary festival the day after that. But in four days I feel I've seen a good amount of Sydney, at least Sydney Central/Harbour and Darling Harbour. I walked around a lot and explored, did some tourist stuff, but the one thing I've probably spent the most time doing was visiting opal shops! I'm almost a little reluctant to post that in a public forum, but hey, it's fun, and there's some amazing stuff here, and this is the best place in the world to find it, to shut up! :P There's actually a national museum here that features opal fossils, and they have incredible specimens, including a full plesiosaur skeleton, all fossilized in opal! I visited at least a dozen different shops in 3 days, and spoke for a while with several of the vendors, even ones who knew that their stock began above my price range.

People here are very friendly, which is known about Australians. What I didn't expect, and should have probably, was how strong the Asian influence is. Australia is quite close really, but I hadn't made that connection before. I might have seen more Asians than Australians this weekend, though the Asian population does seem to run much of the tourism in the city; probably differs elsewhere. It influences the food too, both just being everywherem but also blending with other cuisine, which doesn't always work. But I have found the style of gelato that they had in Beijing (!), and I've discovered pumpkin soup, which is amazing!

This city is huge, but very well planned out: the lightrail/monorail system is fully integrated with the city plan, it runs on this track above the sidewalks, then just slips right into one of the buildings' second floors, where there's a station. Walkways and bridges are really easy for pedestrians to get around, and despite the layout of the harbors, the city maintains a good amount of a grid pattern. Almost makes up for driving on the wrong side! :P

The next couple days will be busy until I'm settled again in Melbourne, so the next post may be long in coming, but pictures soon! I promise!