Sydney

So, I'm still adjusting to this blog thing. I'll use a bit more brevity to make the posts a bit shorter, a stop giving in to my ramblings so much.

Day 2 in Sydney: With much of the rain letting up, we walked (yes, more walking! Greg informed me that he thinks we walk more on holiday than we do in real life. It's probably true) to the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Opera House, Circular Quay (where most of the day ferries and cruise ships dock in Sydney), and The Rocks - Sydney's historical neighbourhood. While explore the Opera House, we decided that we should try to see a show there, and because we're under 27, we scored a half-priced tickets to see Taming of the Shrew that evening at one of the Opera House's venues. (Hooray for youth!)

We walked through the Royal Observatory and got a quick lesson on the Southern sky, Southern Cross, and Australian astronomical heritage.

Day 3 in Sydney: We took the ferry to the zoo! But... not first without some scouting. I read on the zoo's website that you could get a buy one entry, get one free by using a coupon available on Kellogg's boxes of cereal. Music to Greg's ears: have you seen how much cereal this man can consume?! So, we went to a few grocery stores, and scored our "golden ticket" on a box of cereal bars (thank goodness we didn't need to buy the extra large box of Cocoa Puffs). The coupon worked like a charm.

We decided since we saved so much on our entry fee, we should indulge in a koala encounter, so we had the opportunity to visit with 3 koalas and a koala expert for about 20 minutes. Most importantly: we had out pictures taken very close to the koala. In New South Wales, you can't touch koalas (it's against the law), but you can get as close as you can! Interesting facts about koalas:

• Koalas sleep about 20 hours a day, since their primary food (eucalyptus) doesn't provide much energy.
• They don't drink much at all.
• They are territorial over their feed trees, but other than that, they are fairly friendly.
• Their fur is super soft.
• The primary predators for koalas near urban areas are household dogs. 

After the zoo, we went to Bondi Beach - Sydney's closest surfing beach, and the home to one of the oldest lifegaurd clubs. The beach was pretty dessert (thanks to cloudy, rainy weather), but there were still some die-hard surfers out there.