Day 2- Animal Park and Sydney Tour!

What a magical day. We left the city and headed to Featherdale Wildlife Park. This place had every animal indiginous to Australia (over 3000 species of birds, reptiles etc) I saw baby kangaroo's and wombats. I was lucky enough to catch an awake Koala, they sleep for 20 hours a day- sounds kinda nice right now as I am still pretty jet lagged. Anyways my favorite part of the animal refuge was holding a Dingo. Now I thought they were wild you know even if a bull grows up on a farm you can't pet it aparently not the same as the dingo. It was so sweet and even licked my face. Looked like a white sheep dog... very cute and cuddly but still when he went to lick me I was a bit afraid. But no worries (australian word :) it was a sweet gesture on the part of the dingo pup.

After the park we ventured out for lunch at Watson Bay outside of the city about 20 minutes across the bay from the harbour bridge. I ventured down a rocky road that overlooked the ocean, it was so breathtaking to look out to the vast ocean as it hits the rocks. Lunch was good and I had my second Tim Tam- quite possibly the best cookie in the world. I want to take tons home.

Then we headed for a walkabout the city. We visited so many great Sydney sites- St Mary's Church (the largest church in Sydney) , the Bontanical Gardens. the financial district, the Strand Shopping Mall ( which isn't actually a mall its more like a shopping strip in the states) and of course the Opera house, Harbour Bridge (and yes that's hows its spelled -harbour) and Darling Harbor. The tour had alot of intersting facts and I learned that prostitution is legal but that has reduced the crime rate, chili sauce is not chili at all but a sweet sauce almost like polynesian sauce, and Sydney is clean and a friendly place. I liked Hyde Park which is alot like Central Park in NYC. It was nice to get a feel for the city everything seems within reach of what I would like to do- which is everything :)

We met the neatest Aussie couple on the fairie from Darling Harbour who told us to visit Byron Bay so I'm going to keep a lookout for cheap tickets there. They also gave us McDonald's french fries, a taste of home they called it which I thought was pretty funny as McD's is not what I would call home food- maybe some barbeque or steaks.
Dinner was a neat treat and I got my first and probably only taste of Kangaroo- which is served rare and was kinda too rare for my taste. But it was a good lean meat and tasted alot like deer.

Overall my thoughts on the city is it has an incredible feel about it. People are everywhere but it's not like NYC with its hurried pace and self intersted people. Sydney has a true charm to it, people smile at you as you walk the streets. No one seems to be in a really big hurry instead they take the time to play rugby in the park, sit on the bench and enjoy the sunset and just people watch. It is such a clean and wonderful place... not sure I'm going to leave after 6 weeks.

Tommorow is Sunday and I will take some rest and go to the market. Then Monday its off to the races.

Until then--- G'Day!