Sydney, Land of the Rude

I'm in Sydney now and though I left my last entry ridiculously bare-boned, I don't really feel like updating that entry right now. So I'll tell you about Sydney.

Derek, Marie, Ryan, Jamie, Kim, and Edith were also flying to Sydney so we all made it here about 6 am yesterday morning. I met my parents at the hotel and then met the friends at the Sydney Opera House. It was absolutely amazing.

In Australia there are discounts called "Concession" for students and pensioners. We are usually able to squeeze our way into the "student" price because we happen to be college students (though that doesn't warrant a concession price). Anyway, I showed my UC Davis reg card to the lady when I bought my ticket (thus saving around $5) and she got really angry. She said that it didn't have an expiration date and that "this card may mean something at your school, but it doesn't mean anything in the big, wide world." It was so patronizing and only said because I was an American. After being berated for around five minutes, she decided to give me the concession price anyway. This was the beginning of what I've experienced as rudeness coming from most Sydneysiders. It's disappointing.

The tour itself was very nice though. We got to see the two main concert halls as well as one of the four smaller performing areas. The interior is just as spectacular as the exterior. I wanted to get a ticket to see an opera or a symphony but there aren't any that I really desperately want to see, and since the tickets are so expensive, I decided to forego such a purchase.

After the tour, Marie had to head to the airport as she was going home. It was sad.

Afterwards we went to lunch and then walked over the pedestrian walkway on the Harbor Bridge. We went over to see Luna Park which is frighteningly like Luna Park in Melbourne. Then we walked back over the bridge with an aim to see the Sydney Botanical Gardens, but instead we were so tired (a red-eye flight allowed for no sleeping) that we ended up stopping and watching a street performer. This guy was really crazy but kind of funny. I got pretty bored and was about to leave when he called Ryan up and asked him to perform. Ryan had to lay down while the street performer juggled knives on a bike around Ryan. It was funny, but then Ryan had to stay up there for the rest of the show and we all felt bad.

Last night we had dinner and then went to this brewery called Red Oak. They serve really expensive gourmet beer, so I tried a Vienna Lager and an Oatmeal Stout. They were both very delicious but we got so tired from the heavy beer and the long day without sleep that we went home to our respective hotels/hostels and slept.

This morning I was supposed to meet people to go to the Aquarium but my alarm clock was accidentally set on Darwin time so I missed them and now I don't know what to do. Not having a cell phone is really annoying me a lot.