Oz, Some: Sydney

(By the way, I went back into my drafts and there's a draft of our trip to Boston in 2012 for the Boston Marathon. I'm not sure why I never finished it. I think it's my life.)

So: Sydney. Plan was to spend 4-5 days there, then decamp for Melbourne. Really, our ultimate goal was to spend the bulk of the time in Tasmania, and I'm glad we did.

Here's one of the approximately 700 signs you see at Sydney airport requiring you to get rid of all the foodstuffs you're smuggling so as not to infest the country. Good on them:

Con: I had to get rid of all my raw chicken and fish heads.

1.5 hours to San Francisco. 13-ish hours to Sydney. 4 hour layover in between. 

Who needs a shower? Us upon arrival. Guess whose room wasn't ready upon arrival?

So we stowed our bags at the hotel and carried our heavy carry-ons to the harbor to hang out in the shade for a couple hours. Sydney smells good--eucalyptus, vaguely tropical. It's both familiar and foreign. The air was heavy with humidity, cigarette smoke, perfume (they LOVE their perfume in Oz, why is that?). The plants were large, sprawling, a little obscene. We have a banana plant in our backyard in Portland. In the height of summer here, it's about 1/20th of the size of this one in a random city park:

We took pictures of things around the harbor from the vantage point of our comfortable bench:

Harbor bridge:

Opera house:

 More of the bridge:

And the opera house and someone's sleek boat: