Sydney

Before the motorcycle adventure in New Zealand began, I went for a bit of a walkabout around Sydney and Melbourne.

Sydney has been on my short list of places to visit for a while and it lived up to all the great things that I'd heard about it. As soon as I hit the ground, I jumped on the train to downtown* Sydney and began wandering around. This is St. Mary's Cathedral near Hyde Park:

[caption id="attachment_1118" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="St. Mary's Cathedral"][/caption]

On the train, between the airport and downtown, I met a man in his 90's traveling with his daughter. The two of them had just returned from Papua New Guinea where they attended a World War II ceremony. Later I found out that he is one of eight surviving members of the Australian Army who participated in the Kokoda Track Campaign. Unfortunately, the train ride wasn't long enough to talk more with him.

Another national event that was going on that day was the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne Cup is the biggest horse race in Australia and those who live in Melbourne get the day off of work for it. Part of the pageantry of the event is for women to wear dresses with matching hats and for men to dress in suits. Not having known this, I first thought that Australians simply had a very unique style of dress. Needless to say, I was very underdressed. People were in a festive mood that day; this is a bar called "Establishment" at around 4:00 PM on a Tuesday and it's packed with people:

[caption id="attachment_1119" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Establishment"][/caption]

In the next Sydney post, we'll see some beaches, some sunsets, and the obligatory Opera House.

• Central Business District is Australian for "Downtown"