Saturday, Dec. 8th:
Here we are - upside down 'downunder' with a lost day to boot (we 'mislaid' Friday the 7th of December) and very very far away from any other meaningful country! Yet, it is surprisingly 'normal' here except for the weather which is quite hot and steamy for us "Northern Lights". First impressions about country and people: Excellent! Sydney is very cosmopolitan and multicultural, has tons of friendly open-minded people who are easy and fast to talk to, whether it's in the store, info booth or the monorail.
One thing though that blew our minds: We had no clue that the Aussies are even more anal than the Americans about things that tourists might bring into the country. Basically nothing is allowed that has the faintest connection to being 'natural', i.e. fruits, veggies, foods in general, herbs, medicines, even the ones you have to take in order to stay alive. All will be scrutinized. Worst of all - nobody can leave the airplane and has to stay seated until an official goes around the length of the plane with a puny aerosol spray bottle (that has to be shaken here and there) and sprays into the overhead bins to "kill all foreign bugs, fungi, viruses etc."... Nobody knows what's in that spray and if and how it works. It was RIDICULOUS to say the least.
After arriving yesterday super punctually at Kingsford Airport (kudos to Air Canada) we got a taxi to the "Aspire Hotel", took a quick nap and went out for a stroll around Darling Harbour with its tons of stores and restaurants. The preparations for a big firework that night at 9 o'clock were in the works and masses of people were already congregating in the vicinity. We ate dinner at one of the many restaurants at the harbour seawalk with a great view of the impressive surroundings.
Luckily our hotel is in walking distance to downtown and the harbour, so we can walk or take public transit.
We had planned to go back to the fireworks last night but once at the hotel we crashed on our bed and fell asleep. We did get to see some of the fireworks though from our hotel balcony and therefore didn't feel too badly about not having gone back to the city.
Here we are - upside down 'downunder' with a lost day to boot (we 'mislaid' Friday the 7th of December) and very very far away from any other meaningful country! Yet, it is surprisingly 'normal' here except for the weather which is quite hot and steamy for us "Northern Lights". First impressions about country and people: Excellent! Sydney is very cosmopolitan and multicultural, has tons of friendly open-minded people who are easy and fast to talk to, whether it's in the store, info booth or the monorail.
One thing though that blew our minds: We had no clue that the Aussies are even more anal than the Americans about things that tourists might bring into the country. Basically nothing is allowed that has the faintest connection to being 'natural', i.e. fruits, veggies, foods in general, herbs, medicines, even the ones you have to take in order to stay alive. All will be scrutinized. Worst of all - nobody can leave the airplane and has to stay seated until an official goes around the length of the plane with a puny aerosol spray bottle (that has to be shaken here and there) and sprays into the overhead bins to "kill all foreign bugs, fungi, viruses etc."... Nobody knows what's in that spray and if and how it works. It was RIDICULOUS to say the least.
After arriving yesterday super punctually at Kingsford Airport (kudos to Air Canada) we got a taxi to the "Aspire Hotel", took a quick nap and went out for a stroll around Darling Harbour with its tons of stores and restaurants. The preparations for a big firework that night at 9 o'clock were in the works and masses of people were already congregating in the vicinity. We ate dinner at one of the many restaurants at the harbour seawalk with a great view of the impressive surroundings.
Luckily our hotel is in walking distance to downtown and the harbour, so we can walk or take public transit.
We had planned to go back to the fireworks last night but once at the hotel we crashed on our bed and fell asleep. We did get to see some of the fireworks though from our hotel balcony and therefore didn't feel too badly about not having gone back to the city.
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