We flew into Sydney, and went to our crappy hotel. While there, this hotel happened to put us in a smoking room (that really annoyed us), also managed to swipe the health insurance card that I left in my room (which I did eventually get back), didn't get any messages to anyone in our group, screwed up a couple of taxi calls, and pretty much proved themselves worthless. I would NOT recommend staying at the Murcure Lawson (Ultimo) hotel - it sucks. Anyway, the first night there, we went for boys night out and ended up going to this really cool bar on George street called Scruffy Murphy's (I think), where there were about 5 foreigners for every Australian. After many beverages, we somehow ended up back at the hotel.

The next day we took the train down to Featherdale Wildlife park to hang out with more Aussie locals. There, we held koala's, fed kangaroos, and took a bunch of pictures of some really cool animals. We took the bus back to the train station, missed our train, waited for 30 minutes, then got on the 45 minute ride back into the city.

On our way back from the station to our hotel, we stopped and bought some fresh sushi rolls from one of the little shops ($1.70 each - would have cost $5 US in the states). Julie tried to put some of the wasabi on the first bite of her tuna and ginger roll, and nearly died. After turning red, blue, green, then back to red, and finally pink, she began breathing again, but not before her eyes lost about a pint of tears. Laurie and I then decided to "take it easy" on the wasabi. So right after that, Laurie only put a dab of it on her sweet ginger roll. After taking the bite she started coughing violently, shaking her head and turning colors (green, then red, then pink) then began breathing normally again. She also nearly peed her pants, and also lost about a pint of sweat. Being the wise man that I am, and learning from my other two friends misfortunes, I barely graced the edge of my teriyaki chicken and ginger roll with a smidge of the cursed wasabi.

After the paramedics revived me, the three of us decided that the evil green paste was not really wasabi after all, but instead was the very substance of hell brewed deep in the bowels of the earth by the Wasabi devil. We kept three packets of the wretched sauce with hopes of playing a very mean trick on one of our unsuspecting friends.

After cleaning up a bit, we continued our day by taking the city bus down to Circular Quay (pron. "Key"), then took the ferry over to Manly beach to have a drink and relax. We then met up with some others in our group - by the way, it was me, and 6 other women. We decided to eat some more Thai food that evening and dined at a quiet little restaurant right off the beach. There, the women proceeded to drink some more, and before you knew it, the entire place could hear our conversation. I learned two very important things on this trip. First, Americans are LOUD - especially after they've been drinking. Second, never be the only sober guy in a group of not-so-sober women.

After dinner, we took the ferry back to Sydney, and bussed over to an area called Kings Cross. This area of town is known for it's multiple "ladies of the night". Pretty much everywhere you looked there was a bar, and a strip joint (yet we never felt unsafe). We met up with the rest of our group at a bar called The World Bar, where they serve "tea pots" that are actually full of a whole bunch of shots - at a cheap price. The whole place had an eclectic feel, even the bathrooms were nicely decorated. Needless to say, the women proceeded with their loopiness. I snuck away with the fellas to another bar where we played our favorite bar room pastime, Golden Tee. Although the course was measured in meters instead of yards, and the wind in kilometers/hour rather than miles per hour, I still managed to shoot six under.

The next day we were scheduled to take a bus tour of the Australian wine country - Hunter Valley. To our group, this amounted to free wine, and an all day happy hour. On the drive out there, we went over the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge, and proceeded north. After getting out of the city, and nearly falling asleep, we got onto a "convict built" road. Apparently convicts built about half of the roads in Australia. And may I say their craftsmanship could rival any one of Americas kindergarten arts & crafts projects. We wound our way to the small town of Wollombi (pron. "WALL-um-bye"), where our bus group doubled the population of the town. We stopped in for our first taste of Aussie wine that made this little corner of Australia famous, Dr. Jingles Jungle Juice (or something like that). It pretty much it tasted like the college party jungle juice, only it was made of grapes rather than fruit punch. From there, we went on to Mount Pleasant winery, where we learned about the wine making process, ate a decent meal, and proceeded to "wine taste" our butts off. No, we didn't really get too bad at that place, but our group did end up walking away with about 3 cases of their wine (if that tells you anything). Next it was off to Rothbury Estates - another winery. Here, we learned "how" to look for a "good" wine. First you need to swirl it in the glass - depending on how fast the wine runs down the side of your glass will tell you how old it is (newer wine runs faster). Next, you should smell the wine - in order to get the "full flavor". Finally, you should taste the wine (rather than chug it). We ended up "tasting" quite a bit of wine at that place, but luckily, only walked away with a few bottles. Finally, we went to some winery that I don't even know the name of, pretty much drank way too much, and slept the whole way back to Sydney. Notice how the details towards the end of the trip got a little sketchier? Unfortunately, I think it's safe to say that my pallet isn't quite as developed as other wine connoisseurs. That night - yes, after all the wine - we managed to sleep it off - a small group of us went out and had dinner at the Rocks Cafe. It was a little European style restaurant that had great food.

Wow, what day is it now? OK, then on Friday, Laurie and I took a bus down to the Rocks area of town, which is located just beneath the Sydney Harbor Bridge. After doing some shopping, and walking around the Sydney Opera House for a bit, we entered the Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb. The bridge climb took us up ladders, across catwalks, and up the side East side of the bridge where we got a great view of the city from the top. Quite possibly the second best experience I had on the trip. After venturing down the bridge, we of course stopped by a local pub and got a pint of Toohey's New, which in the US equates to your standard commercialized light beer. Another noteworthy beverage that we had throughout the trip was Crown Lager, or "Crownies" as the locals call them, which is Australia's premium beer, and probably the best commercial beer I've had to date.

After our day on the town, we went on another bus tour, coined the "Sydney After Dark" tour. From the description, it sounded like we were going to be heading out on a pub crawl, go to the top of the Sydney tower to view the sunset, have a 5 star meal, then top off the night with a city tour and a drag show (Sydney is the regions gay/lesbian capitol I think). However, we encountered a big disappointment when we actually went to only 1 bar in the Rocks area, then went to a Disneyland type "adventure" on the second floor of the Sydney Tower. We actually got to sit down to a really good meal (the plus), then we crossed the bridge, and viewed the city lights from under the Harbor Bridge while sipping on (or chugging as some did) Australian Sparkling Wine (the rest of the world knows this as "Champagne"), finally topping off our night with a drive (no stopping) through the Kings Cross area (by now, people were wanting to be let off the bus), then to the Star City Casino in Darling Harbor where they gave us $10 vouchers and told us to "have fun". I think the highlight of the night (besides the good food) was to see all of the really cool architecture at Star City. I took a couple of pictures and called it good.

Saturday and Sunday were then our free days. Where else to go on a hot summer day in Sydney then world famous Bondi Beach. If you go to Sydney, go to Bondi Beach. Although the ladies of the group may not have thought so, the guys thought the "scenery" was great. I wish I would have taken my camera, but then again maybe not. One of the things I definitely remember about the beach was that it was huge, the biggest I'd ever seen, and that the water was a brilliant blue green. There were surfers, tourists, and a lot of beach bums - ;) That night some of the group went to a show at the Opera House, while the rest of us decided to party it up at yet another place in the Rocks area known as the Observer. They had great live music, lots of dancing, and happened to have not one but 2 (possibly 3) bachelorette parties, or as they call them "Hens" parties (the guys version would be the "Bucks" party). That night we met Richard.

As we drank our beers, and watched Cricket on the big screen (Cricket is HUGE down there), we noticed a gentleman all by himself sitting at a table behind us, periodically cheering and booing at the screen. The problem was, we didn't know what the hell he was so worked up about - since we knew nothing about the game. So we invited Richard to come sit at our table and educate us. I won't go into details about Cricket, but it's actually a pretty damn interesting game. Especially after 4 or 5 pints. Anyway, we proceeded to invite Richard, a 50 something local of Australia (but not Sydney), to play in a festive game of speed quarters. Only we had to play with the Aussie 10 cent piece, since that was about as close as we could get to a quarter without making it too easy. However, since we only had one glass, we modified our game a bit and employed the staple rule that every time a coin is made in the glass, the shooter got to hand out a drink, and shoot again. Somewhere along the way, and as the bar got more and more full, we managed to lose Richard. He was a good man, and you can bet that he'll think twice about sitting down at a bar with a bunch of stupid Americans.

Sunday. It was our last day in what I think might be the most beautiful city on earth (granted, I've been pretty much nowhere in comparison), but none the less, it was great. We laid low after our long night of "festivities", and ferried back to Manly Beach. Although more local, it is just as beautiful as Bondi. However, the wind and the mostly cloudy sky put sort of a damper on our last beach going afternoon. We took the ferry back to Circular Quay, and went back to the hotel to clean up. For our last evening, we went to have drinks at the Summit, a rotating restaurant on the 48th floor of one of the buildings in downtown Sydney. From there, we went to a small restaurant to have some good food. It just so happened that on both the ride to and from the Summit, we got cabbies that were from Iraq, and who both supported Saddam. Needless to say, we didn't like the situation all that much, but I don't really want to go into details about that. We had a great experience in Sydney, and again, I would recommend it to anyone - just avoid the Iraqi cabbies.

The flight back home was long, and the recovery was longer. If I get to go back again, I hope that I can spend at least a month there (and that probably wouldn't be enough to see it properly). Hope you enjoyed my story! Take it easy -

- Our Adventure Down Under (pt. 1) - Cairnes - Queensland			- Our Adventure Down Under (pt. 2) - Sydney - New South Wales
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