Circular Quay

Flying to Australia from the US involves at least fourteen hours on a plane, plus you lose a day (it magically vanishes, poof! when you cross the international date line).

I can't sleep on planes, so the first day I was pretty zonked and wandered aimlessly around Randwick and down to Coogee beach. But after a good night's sleep I felt fine, and hopped on a bus and train to head down to Sydney's big downtown tourist area, Circular Quay (pronounced "Key").

This is a bustling harbor full of street performers, begging birds, crowded ferries, and tons of things to see, including the famous Opera House, the equally famous Harbor Bridge, the Royal Botanical Gardens (where one book had mentioned giant fruit bats -- but surely I wouldn't actually see anything that exotic!), the observatory (where I hoped to get a book on observing the southern skies, but the observatory tour was rather a bust -- not much to see, and no bookshop) and of course tons of interesting buildings and shops.

And yeah, the roosting giant fruit bats are very much in evidence at the Gardens (and, I was to learn, everywhere else in Sydney).

Next: Around Sydney and the UNSW.
Top: Sydney 2007.