G’day 1: Sydney

After 17 hours on a Qantas airbus from Dallas, we arrived in Sydney at 6 am. The humidity inside the airport gave us a hint of what we were up against. The palm trees outside were another hint. On what our tour guide would later exclaim was a gorgeous day, the city was stunningly tropical. And hot. Already stinky from the plane ride, the route from the airport to our hotel made us un-smellable. And shockingly, our room wasn’t ready at 7 in the morning, so we showered in the fitness center and ate breakfast before our “Essential Sydney” tour at 10:30.

What I, someone who never liked history class, remember from the tour:

1. Sandstone is hard, but soft
2. Australia was originally a penal colony, but all the criminals got along pretty well when they got here because the jail was an island surrounded by sharks, and nobody wanted any part of that
3. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is impressive, and I think it was finished in 1932
4. Mrs. Macquaries ordered the construction of a hospital and the Royal Botanic Gardens. Thank you, Mrs. Macquaries
5. The Australian navy is kind of a joke
6. Real estate in Sydney is very expensive
7. Keith Urban is Australian?
8. Red Bark Trees shed their red bark in January, and then they’re white which is confusing
9. During the 2000 Summer Olympics, the beach volleyball event took place at Bondi Beach, which is a historical landmark for surfing because I think it was one of the first places where it was filmed, maybe
10. You can’t pronounce “Cairns” with the “r.” You have to say it like “cAAins” in a really nasal voice

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It was really a very good tour. Maybe I should have taken notes. In the middle of it, we stopped at a yacht club for lunch, where I had my first legal drink. I’ll be 21 in March, but the drinking age in Australia is 18. Since I won’t be in the US to celebrate, my parents and I decided to celebrate it while we were all together during my first two weeks in Australia. So, my first legal drink was a beer called Fat Yak, and it was pretty good.

After the tour, my mom and I went shopping, and I was starting to fade. It was about 2 am in Virginia, and that’s 1 hour past my bedtime. We looked through some stores and wandered through beautiful Hyde Park. The trees are elegant, enormous, and arch over the paths to create tunnels of greenery- echo chambers for birdsong. It’s a romantic spot, and my heart ached at the beauty and for my love back home.

Something shocking: Opal Fossils are a real thing. In Australia, fossils are pretty rare to begin with, and opalized fossils are even more so. However, just like any other mineralization process, silicon dioxide and water can seep into the spaces in rock left by decaying animal bones, shells, or wood to create a dazzling fossil. An opal museum in Sydney showcases these rare finds for free (of course, the museum is attached to a jewelry store), and my mom and I stumbled upon it on our quest to find a new memory card for her camera.

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So far, I’m most struck by how the city incorporates nature and the outdoors in its form and function. There’s an unbelievable amount of green space here. Enormous trees line the streets. Buildings with balconies seem to be the rule instead of the exception. Even the color of the buildings, brown instead of grey, make it settle gracefully into the landscape. I didn’t know much about Sydney before I came here, and I still don’t know very much, but I’m ready to admire more of it tomorrow.