Customs and Money
Australian Customs agents use beagles dressed in official-looking orange vests. After sniffing one of the bags on our baggage cart, the dog started pawing, snorting and growling. The Customs officer politely asked to see our declaration cards and explained that the dog was trained to react that way if he smelled meat products. The dog was well trained -- we had just dumped some salami that we had carried onto the plane from California. Heed the warnings about Oz's tough quarantine laws (Aust Customs link, attached), and declare anything you're unsure of. And if you're wondering, processed cheese, dried apricots, sunflower seeds and crackers were okay to bring in when we arrived (Oct, 2000).
A quick word on currency, Oz uses the Australian dollar, the world's most colorful paper currency. As of May '04, one US dollar buys $A 1.433, or $A 0.698 per USD. Click here for current exchange rate. All prices are quoted in Aussie dollars, unless stated otherwise. The US dollar is weaker than it has been for awhile currently. When we were there, the USD was near the peak of its strength, with the exchange rate was 2:1 AUD:USD. Even now, hotels and restaurants will be less expensive than most of Europe or Japan.
Finally a quick disclaimer about price and service. Prices quoted are as of Oct, 2000. Because prices go up, management and ownership changes and everyone's experiences differ, the author can't guarantee that prices or your experience will be the same as ours.
A Note on Time
Australia covers 3 time zones. NSW, Queensland and Tasmania are 18 hours ahead of San Franciso (10 hours ahead of London); South Australia and the Northern Territory are 17.5 hours ahead of SF (7.5 ahead of London); West Australia is 16 hours ahead of San Francisco (and 6 ahead of London). Adding to the confusion is that some states in Oz observe daylight time when the Northern hemisphere is on standard time. Queensland, Northern Territory and West Australia (I think) don't observe daylight time, while the other states do. This means that when it's 3 PM in San Francisco, it's 8 AM the next day in Sydney in the San Francisco summer or 10 AM in the SF winter. Trying to figure out what time it is at home can be very confusing, especially if you're there in October (like we were) when the Northern Hemisphere has set their clocks back. During the year 2000 when we were there, Sydney (but not the rest of NSW) had set their clocks to daylight time early to accommodate the Summer Olympics. As such, were it not for the time conversion software on my laptop, I don't think we would have ever known the correct time at home.
First Impressions of Syd
The weather in Sydney was mostly cloudy with sprinkles, the air warm and sticky with humidity. Being mid Spring, tulips (and many other flowers) were in full bloom. The city center is compact and easily walkable. Our hotel, the 4 Points Sydney, was on Darling Harbour, southwest of the city center and about a 20-25 minute walk to the Rocks, Sydney's historical city center, between Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay. My wife Erin and I, were going to meet a friend of mine, Jeff, who worked in my firm's Sydney office. Afterwards, we would hook up with Rich, a friend who was travelling with us across Oz for the next couple of weeks, who was flying in from Auckland, New Zealand, his place of residence.
Upon checking into the hotel at 9:30 that morning (24 hours after leaving home in Sausalito, CA), we were advised that our room wouldn't be ready until 1:30 or so. I called Jeff, my friend in the Sydney office to advise him that we had made it to Australia, and to warn him that we wouldn't have the benefit of showers to erase that just-off-the-plane look. Since we had two and a half hours to kill, after shaving and taking a deodorant and cologne shower in the hotel lobby, we walked from the hotel to Circular Quay (that's pronounced 'key' for all you Yanks), the arrival point for all of the ferries from the suburbs on the north side of the harbor. Adjacent to Circular Quay lies the Rocks, which has buildings from the original settlement of Sydney in the late 18th century, a number of restaurants, coffee houses and upscale shops. Continuing up George Street one ends up underneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which along with the Opera House are Australia's most recognizable icons. Although not cheap, for $155-225 per person, you can sign up for a guided climb to the top of the bridge, something I would have done had we had more time and money.
My first impression of Sydney was that it didn't feel like a city of 4.5 million people. This opinion is based on seeing only the city center, without seeing any of the greater metropolitan area or the scourge of American cities, endless suburban sprawl. With exception of large number of diesel vehicles on George Street, it's a clean city, not a lot of litter laying about. Sport and fitness are popular; walking around Farm Cove through the Royal Botanic Gardens between the Opera House and Mrs. Macquarries Point, we saw more joggers than in any other locale that I can think of. This was supported by Jeff's mention of my firm's Sydney office competing in sports leagues for several sports, the large gym/pool across the street from the office and that there were showers in the office for employees who wished to jog/cycle on their lunch hour (lunch hour???)
Eating Croc
For lunch, Jeff took us to the Australian Hotel, an Aussie-themed pizza joint, with the staff adorned in tight Aussie flag t-shirts. I tried crocodile for the first time of my life, in the form of crocodile basil pizza. Stick with the pepperoni. The pizza arrived with what looked like a covering of very thinly sliced parmesan cheese. As it turned out, this was the croc meat, which is very white. It tasted like extremely tough abalone without the abalone flavor, with a slight infusion of mildew and hints of undercooked chicken. I had the opportunity to try croc a little later in the trip and it was actually chewable, but I think it's an acquired taste.
When we returned to the hotel at 2:00, there was no sign of Rich, so Erin took a nap, and I went off to unsuccessfully try to find some replacement lithium battery cells for my camera. After several sales people attempted to sell me a re-charger with an Aussie plug and rechargeable nic-cad cells, I figured out that AA batteries would work (without being as durable) and settled for those. As it turned out, Rich's flight was delayed and he had called Erin around 3:30, while I was out.
With Erin still napping, Rich and I took a walk around Darling Harbour just outside the hotel, which is newly developed and somewhat tacky, but with nice views of central Sydney from the pedestrian bridge crossing the harbor and the largest flag/flagpole combination that I have seen outside of Kew Gardens in London. Part of our mission was to find a place for dinner. After scoping out the possibilities, we decided to go with one of Jeff's recommendations, Doyles, which is between Circular Quay and the Sydney Harbor bridge on the water. The restaurant, while not a budget place, was fairly priced, had excellent food and great views of the Opera House, Sydney Harbour and the Harbour Bridge. And there was no crocodile on the menu. If you like fish, give the barramundi (seen on American menus as giant perch or sun perch) a go.
Before Dinner, we took a walk from the Opera House, through the Royal Botanic Gardens, an arboretum on the other side of the opera house. The arboretum is on the water and contains well-manicured gardens and lots of cockatiels, one of many parrots native to Oz. After walking along the small bay enclosed by the gardens, we arrived at Mrs Macquarries Point, where we took some snaps of the Opera House with the Harbour Bridge in the background, hoping for a nice sunset which didn't happen.
After dinner, we walked to the water to take in the view of the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Sydney skyline, and take a couple of more, until it started to rain, more fiercely than before. It was time to retire for the night, as we had a 2 hour flight to Adelaide the next morning.
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