Back in Sydney

I'm done. I'm ready to go home but not looking forward to the cold and snow.

Staying the evening at the Rydges Hotel at the airport.  It's not disgusting but I wouldn't want to stay here too long.

I definitely recommend visiting Australia. The country is beautiful.  The people were friendly to me but it might be because I'm white.  I would not go so far as to call the people here racist but the bankers made uncomfortable comments about the Asians who have moved here. There were also some weird comments about hispanics. 

And then there was this sign in the bathroom at the Cairns Airport

Flying home tomorrow. See you soon.

Another bucket list item checked off

Today, I snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef.

The reef is breathtaking. All the fish... big ones, small ones, blue ones, rainbow ones.  And the coral...  like trees, like brains, stiff or waving, red or blue or yellow.

It looks like something off the page of a Dr. Seuss book.

I wore a stinger suit since I did not want a repeat of the Barbados jellyfish incident.

Tomorrow, I have a relaxing day before I return to Sydney.

Tuesday I make the 10,000 mile journey home.  

Do one thing every day that scares you

There are 2 ways to get out to the Great Barrier Reef: by boat and by helicopter.

The boat takes 2 hours to get to the snorkeling platform.

The helicopter takes a 1/2 hour and flies over the reef before dropping you off at the snorkeling platform.  

I'm ok with heights but over water... not so much.  This is a small helicopter too.

But the boring boat ride.  Not looking forward to that either.

I picked the helicopter and I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about the flight.

I'm not sure that Eleanor Roosevelt had adventure travel in mind when she encouraged us to challenge ourselves everyday.

Scary helicopter

The helicopter ride was a little on the scary side but I survived. The overhead views of the reef definitely made it worth it.

In a corollary to Eleanor's rule, if you survive the scary thing then do it again the same day.  I hired the helicopter to take me back from the reef too.

Licking Ant Butts and Curvy Roads

Had a wonderful rainforest tour yesterday.  At 100 million years old, this is the oldest rainforest in the world.

On our way, we stopped to see wallabies which are like our deer at home. They are everywhere including lounging around people's yards.  My pictures are not great because we did not get that close but with the binoculars I could see the head of a baby sticking out from the pouch of one of the moms.

The road to the rainforest is the curvy Gillies Highway.  By curves, I mean 263 of them. It was more like a slalom than driving.

We also saw creepy bats (is there another kind of bat?), turtles, butterflies, birds, lizards, tiny kangaroos and the Cathedral Fig tree.

We also saw a platypus.  This was so cool.  You walk along the river looking for bubbles and then wait for the platypus to surface.  They surface quickly so I was never able to get a picture.

After a stop for dinner, we went back into the rainforest with powerful flashlights to look for the nocturnal creatures.  We saw more bats and 3 different kinds of possums. The possums here are cute. The guide asked me if it was true that American possums are ugly creatures.  It occurs to me that I don't know the difference between opossum and possum.

Sorry that I don't have very good pictures. My new underwater camera is not great at out of water pictures.

Are you wondering about "licking ant butts?"  They have these green ants that taste like lemon.  Really. I licked the ant. I have no regrets.

Today, I go snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.

Cairns

I have arrived in Cairns.

I hate to rub it into to all my readers at home but the weather is perfect. Warm and sunny with a nice breeze off the water.

I have booked a rainforest tour for today.  The tour includes both a day time tour and a night time tour.

Staying at the Hilton.   So excited to see that they have a real Italian restaurant.  My Google friends on the Sydney trip are great company but they do like their steakhouses.

View from the restaurant

View of Queensland from the airplane

Bondi Beach

I finally made it over to the famous Bondi Beach.

The weather was not great but the beach is tremendous. I could easily spend days here and be happy.

The water was not as warm as Barbados but it was definitely swimmable.

Funny story about my ride over to the beach.  Since I was rushing over to the beach in between meetings, I hired a taxi from my hotel.  The driver did not speak English.  I don't care what country you are in but the odds of getting an English speaking driver are slim to none.  The trip to the beach went through a neighborhood of small boutique shops so I said to the driver -- "What is the name of this neighborhood since the shops look great?"  He went on to explain that these were not the "Greek" shops and he gave me elaborate directions to the Greek shops and hotels.  He was being so helpful that I did not have the heart to correct him.  He then asked if I was from Greek.  The only correct answer in this situation was "Yes."

We had our last team dinner at a Korean BBQ place. More meat. We hit a bunch of bars on our way to the restaurant.  Sydney takes Valentine's Day very seriously as evidenced from these girls at one of the bars.

Tomorrow morning I fly to Cairns. I have a rain forest tour tomorrow afternoon and snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef on Sunday.  I will miss Sydney. I've only been here a short time but it is now one of my favorite cities.

Bankers

For those wondering what I've been doing here in Sydney, I've been meeting with a lot of bankers. I can say with complete confidence that bankers are really boring. I have never seen so many cufflinks in my life.

Nothing else to report today. I had a full slate of meetings and then we went to dinner at yet another steakhouse. I cannot wait to get home to detox.

I promise that tomorrow I will go to the beach.  

Is that Astoria or Australia?

Did any of my readers expect me to be in Queens? Like ever?

Here is a view of the famous Sydney Harbour bridge from the ferry.

Some of you might not realize that the design was influenced by the not quite as famous Hell Gate bridge in Queens.

We took the ferry to Manly Beach for dinner at a supposedly good Italian restaurant.  After a long trip, I really start to crave a dish of pasta.  I was so looking forward to Italian food. Sadly, this restaurant was good but the pasta dishes all had Australian ingredients.  I had to beg them to just bring me some spaghetti with tomato sauce. At least there was no crocodile.

Manly Beach is this crazy sliver of land at the entrance to the Sydney Harbour. It is supposed to be where all the surfing happens but the waves are not very big.

Tomorrow is supposed to be good beach weather. I will go to Bondi beach if my meetings end at a decent hour.  

Sydney Harbour - Yes. Crocodile - No.

We walked from our hotel over to an area known as the Rocks.  This is where the fancy hotels and boutique shops are.

We ate pizza with crocodile and emu on it.  Emu was ok but I do not like crocodile. It tastes like gummy, salty fish.

We then walked across the famous Sydney Harbour bridge.  We did not walk across the top of the bridge but stayed on the pedestrian walkway.

Obligatory picture of the Opera House from the bridge

Even at night, the harbour is stunning.  However, I have to admit that as New Yorkers we were really not that impressed with the bridge.  It's impressive but it's no Brooklyn Bridge.

I am looking forward to seeing the harbour from the ferry tomorrow on our way to Manly beach.

Koalas

Another busy day of meetings.

We finished early enough to visit the Darling Harbour Zoo where they have Koalas. A trip to Australia is not complete without seeing a Koala in person.  It turns out they sleep a lot so don't expect any action shots.

The zoo also has lots of snakes... each more poisonous than the last.

And, we can't forget the kangaroos

We also met up with my new friends from the airport and tried the local rum, Bundaberg. I'll definitely be bringing a bottle of that home.  

Vegemite

Picture from the Google microkitchen

They actually eat Vegemite here. I thought it was just a joke. It is horrible stuff.  It is saltier than salt itself.

The food at the Sydney office is not very good.  Surprising for a Google office.

Not much else to report today. We had partner meetings all day and then went to Meat & Wine Co for dinner.  I ate some kangaroo.  It tastes like beef.

The ice cream cake from Messina was the highlight by far.  I'll probably have a dream about that cake it was so good. 

Sydney First Impressions

It's warm.  Hot is more accurate. I'm not complaining but it is definitely hot.

Sydney is very clean and the people are friendly. It is not a very exotic city.  There is a lot of activity on the water and a lot of outdoor spaces.  It's a nice walking city.

Given that I'm exhausted and I have no luggage, I stayed in Darling Harbour today.  Darling Harbour has a bit of a touristy Times Square feel to it.  There's a Hard Rock Cafe and a Madame Tussaud's.  Do I need to say anything more?

I went shopping.  The high end shopping district has all the same designers as any large city... Coach, Versace, etc. I went into Myer's to buy some t-shirts and underwear.  Myer's is a Macy's quality department store.  No surprise but many places sell Uggs.

Food is as expected. Lots of pubs. I went to Pie Face which would have been much more exciting if one had not recently opened on 23rd Street.

Top of the Sydney bridge as seen from the Google office

My meetings start tomorrow morning at 8 am. I am hoping to go to the beach one of these evenings. Stay tuned for more excitement from Down Under.

Qantas. Almost perfect.

After a 13 hour flight, I have arrived in Sydney.  My bag, well,.... that's still at LAX.  

Here's what happened --   Flight was delayed at SFO. There was a representative from Qantas waiting for us when we got off the plane and she escorted us right onto a bus and onto our connecting flight and we took off. However, there was not time to get our bags.  Qantas gave me a $100 prepaid card to buy stuff for the evening. The bag will be on tonight's flight and delivered to my hotel tomorrow.  Oh well. Not the end of the world. I met 2 nice people at the Admiral's Club who live here in Sydney. We are going to get drinks this week.

I am going to get some food and do some shopping and hopefully make it to the beach today.

Obligatory picture from my hotel room

"You don't have a ticket"

Those are probably the worst words that a traveler can hear.

At this rate, it will be amazing if I make it to Sydney at all.

Due to the weather at home, I called American tuesday morning and asked if they could fly me out to SF on tuesday instead of wednesday.  No problem, they responded. We won't even charge you a fee.

Unbeknownst to me, the nice women on the phone canceled my SFO -> LAX -> Sydney ticket.  After what seemed like an eternity waiting, the woman at the counter was able to fix the problem. Besides the wait, the most annoying thing is the women blaming it on me.  Really? How exactly was this my fault?

I'm now waiting for my delayed flight to LAX. Let's hope I make the connection. The woman at the Admiral's Club assured me that I have plenty of time. I'll be doing the OJ Simpson run through the airport for sure.

How was Mountain View you might be wondering. It rained. I thought they were having a drought here. It rained all 3 days.  I should not complain too much though. Raining and 50 beats snowing and 20 any day of the week.

The only good part of the trip is that Hertz upgraded me to a Corvette. Ford Focus to Corvette. Nice.

I leave Feb 5th. After a 2 day stop over in Silicon Valley, I leave for Sydney Feb 7th.

This is the worst time zone difference that I've encountered. Sydney is 16 hrs ahead and Cairns is 15 hrs ahead.

I don't know how interesting the blog will be as I have a lot of work to do while in Sydney. I'm spending the following weekend at the Great Barrier Reef. I bought an underwater camera so expect some great pictures like this underwater selfie: