Ciao Bella

Well Sydney has been interesting so far. We're staying in Kings Cross which isn't in the nicest part of town and the showers really really suck but we've been making it. Imagine showering under the equivalent of the kitchen sink sprayer and you basically have to be touching the wall in order to be under it... I can fit about one shoulder under it at a time. It's really pretty amazing. We've been walking all over the place and in our first day encountered all manner of unusual species. Most of the two legged variety.

We started out the day with a big walk through the Botanic Gardens which ended with a great view of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. We followed that around and then decided to get tickets to see Romeo and Juliet that night at the Opera House ("well since we're here we may as well see something..."). We then wandered some more and saw a couple guys playing the bagpipes under a statue of Queen Victoria. A little further down the street we saw two preppy little boys picking a fight with 2 goth girls and a whole big group of both sides' friends standing around trash talking each other. The highlight of the exchange was when one unfortunate looking fellow from the gothic side shouted, (and I quote)

"I'd like to see you take as many bullets as 50 cent!"

What? We literally hid behind a sign laughing.

We walked on. Ended up by the Anzac memorial so we spent some time in there. We noticed that all the counter-culture kids (dyed hair and piercings, usually aged 11 asking us for cigarettes...)hang out around the stairs of major buildings and attractions. They had put a sign up around the Anzac memorial though that said no one could sit on the stairs so they had to be content to lurk around the edges of the reflecting pool instead.

We went back to our hostel and a crazy lady in green was talking to herself and moving about as if possessed. Slightly scary but we sort of wondered if maybe we were on Candid Camera.

We headed off to the Opera house and we were walking in a kind of dark area and this guy came up and said "?" (we didn't know what he said at first because, it turned out it was a different language. Italian to be exact) We kind of kept walking but stopped and said "What?" At which point he repeated it and it turned out to be "Ciao Bella." This then sparked a 30 minute long conversation that covered everything from the length of our legs and their attractiveness to sharks (they wouldn't bother us), what we should see and do in Sydney and Cairns, "What, only staying for 3 weeks?! You should stay for 3 months at least!", our long legs ("They're covered with jeans right now but I can just use my imagination."), flying foxes and probably 100 other things in between all of that. We also saw a bunch of bushy-tailed opossum, which are nicer to look at than our little rat-tailed fellas at home.

We then continued on to the show which was great except for the fact that I hate Romeo and Juliet. However during one of Murcutio's monologues he did throw in a little Chewbaca so all in all I think it was worth it. We made it back to our hostel and after another lovely shower, we decided against joining the four "ladies" on the corner and called it a night.

Today we started off the day heading in the direction of the bridge. We ended up underneath it so we had to backtrack a ways so we could actually get up on it. We did a quick walk across and ended up on the north side. We ate our PB&Js and took a nap on a concrete ledge. Oh it was amazing. We then decided, since I (Adriane) had picked the Luna Park nose in Melbourne, we should probably do the one in Sydney too. (Those pictures will be coming later, so try and be patient, cause I know it's hard to wait for gems like that)

(Sidenote: right now we are in a weird little internet place where there's way too many people wasting their lives away playing internet games, and some Asian in the back corner just said, "Oh my gah, Made in China!" This really is too much)

We took a ferry to Darling Habour went through Paddy's market (wow if you need a wig this is the place to go) and then went to a free didgeridoo performance at a cultural center. It was really really amazing. Probably one of the coolest things we've seen so far (apart from the street fight that is...). Seriously though, it was really cool and we learned alot actually. Turns out the little didgeridoos that you can get for $35 and manage to take back home in your suitcase don't actually work because they're way too short to be able to create enough vibration to make noise. So I won't waste money on that I guess. We had some food and now that brings us up to the present time. Creepy little internet basement. ("Paragon of ridiculous power" is what the kid that just walked by said... wonder what game he's been playing) Anyway we gotta go before we get sucked into the madness. More "members" keep strolling in and I feel like we're in someone's seat.

On that note, we'll make our merry way home.