Safely in Sydney, and Jetlagged Beyond Comprehension

Sydney!

The computer in this hostel is uploading photos at about the same speed at which my brain is working, which is to say approximately molasses divided by snail, so this may be a short, poorly illustrated post. But we made it!

We hopped on a plane in Newark and flew directly to SFO. I hadn't thought particularly hard about the fact that we were driving from San Francisco to New York and then flying from . . . New York back to San Francisco; it didn't really strike me how ridiculous that was until we were over Ohio or wherever and Justin peered out the planer window and said, morosely, "Look at all those miles being deleted." In any case, we waved at Ghiradelli chocolates in the international terminal, made our connection with the only hitch being our sore backs, and then spent 14 hours in the air to get to Sydney. We watched the sun rise over the Pacific.

We've stayed alert and awake all day with flat whites (not entirely sure yet whether that's a cafe au lait or a latte, but it's my Australian in-country coffee order, and I'm not going to fiddle with it) and a long meandering walk through Sydney's astoundingly beautiful harbor area. It's a shiny city, and gosh, what can you say about the Opera House? We have tickets to see a guy who is reportedly the best tap dancer in the world there tomorrow night, so we'll get to spend more time among those shiny tiles. And we triumphantly walked halfway across the iconic Harbour Bridge.

We stood underneath where the flags are! That is the scientific definition of the middle of a bridge.

We also discovered that the commonest Australian birds look totally crazy. I think that us taking photos of the ordinary local fauna must look like the equivalent of tourists in the U.S. taking photos of pigeons, but I can't help it. I'm stocking up on weird Australian trivia, which I will share with the universe at a time when my brain does not feel like tapioca. We've successfully stayed awake until 9 p.m., and are now declaring victory and going victoriously to sleep.

G'day mates,

Meredith