A hop over the Tasman to the West Island

Or the name that the residents of this large, dry and deadly country like to call it: Australia.

After a couple of days in Auckland I stepped on a plane bound for Sydney, a city that until I was a teenager I always thought was the capital of Australia, before I found out the administrative centre of this former British penal colony outpost of a country is instead located in Canberra, which according to Bill Bryson is an infinitely more boring and frustratingly homogeneous city someway inland of where I am now. I'll take his word for it.

Sydney AIN'T boring. It's fragging cool, to use a pseudo-swearword-cum-adverb that I am known only to use when I'm praising something in the superlative. (The English experts amongst you would be correct but pinickity to remind me that the superlative of fragging would in fact be fraggingest; please don't waste your time emailing me). Anyway, to get back to the subject. I was quite taken aback when I had my first nighttime view down William Street towards Sydney's main CBD (it has two) on my arrival in the Kings Cross district. All the skyscrapers were lit up and shone high above the busy streets below. It really is a beautiful city at night.



Unfortunately the flash on my camera doesn't work. In fact, the camera makes crunchy noises when the lens comes out and as such, I don't have any good nighttime shots of this city, so you'll have to imagine it. I strolled down in to the city and explored some of the many parks before reaching the harbour. My stomach leapt when I had my first view of the Opera House. It looked great in the photos but it's something else to see in the flesh, glistening and crouching over the edge of the water. On the other side of the harbour is the rest of Sydney, and the Harbour Bridge hangs between the two like a coathanger destined for greater things.





For all of Sydney's charm I am, after all, on a tight budget, and when you are on a tight budget in a city where you could happily spend away the entire inheritance of an heir to the throne of a minor Emirate country in just one evening, you get bored quite quickly. Therefore, I'm quite looking forward to getting to Melbourne tomorrow. I've heard it's an equally fragging cool city. Possibly the fraggingest coolest nizzelest city in Australia.