As we mentioned earlier, Australia is Bizarro America in many ways. On the first leg of our journey, Cairns reminded me of Florida in some ways, but not until we arrived in Sydney did I believe I was truly in another dimension. Upon arriving at King’s Cross Station M and I found ourselves doing a double take as we walked to our hotel. If you were to pluck someone off the streets of Seattle and drop them in this corner of Sydney, I guarantee they wouldn’t know the difference until they spoke to someone.

M Notes – They would eventually look up an notice the blue sky but the feel of the city is indeed very similar.

Thing is, this wasn’t a bad thing. In fact it proved rather comforting to us over the span of the three days we spent in the city. On paper Sydney stretches out forever, but for tourists the area of downtown is the heart of the action. The area spanning from the Rocks to the Opera House and surrounding gardens proved entertaining for the better part of our first day following our journey up and down the Bridge.

Day Two we took the ferry to Manly Beach to visit an area an old colleague of ours recommended we visit.

Unfortunately Day Three the weather really didn’t cooperate, so we opted to pass in visiting the Taronga Zoo and instead revisited the Rocks to pick up some souvenirs.

Is Sydney an amazing city in terms of culture, heritage, and historical sites?

Ummm, not really…

There are no ancient temples, imperial palaces, or any magical/mystical whatnot.

For us it was a refreshing change of pace as we found Sydney a rather enjoyable/livable city with some beautiful greenery, stunning sites, and friendly people.

All in all it was a great trip. Chickens 1 and 2 challenged themselves quite a bit, ate some excellent food and really enjoyed the feel of Sydney.  If you ever get the chance be sure to go!