Sydney, Day 1! Flight and Australian Nature

So, the flight was ridiculous. That was the biggest plane I have EVER seen! It had two floors (although I never did go up the stairs. Oh well), was SUPER long, and had rows of three seats across on either side and four across down the middle. And it was overbooked.

We sat on the runway for about an hour because apparently there was a balance problem. They kept moving people around to try and fix it. How disconcerting is that, that a few fat people in the wrong part of this ENORMOUS aircraft could cause such a problem? Very. Should not happen. But! we spent that hour talking to the delightful (and slightly drunk) Australian gentleman in our row. He works in IT and was very nice and offered to take us for a local's tour on Sunday if we call him ahead of time. Nice, but sort of weird, so we'll see.

Flight was looooooong. About 15 hours, I think, including the hour we spent on the runway. Mostly I slept (those black mask things you put over your eyes are wonderful!). Or read. And airline food was actually pretty good! At least, the vegetarian meals were. I mean, not restaurant quality, but better than a lot of what they feed us at school, which is pretty sad. FINALLY we reached Australia. It was really really exciting looking down and seeing a whole new continent. I've never left North America and even though I still have to stop and think about it sometimes, I think about here was when it started to sink in:

The plane circled all around the city before it actually descended. It was so cool! Peter (the Australian dude) gave us an air tour. And we got a great view:

Customs was sort of shockingly easy. They didn't x-ray or anything! They asked us some questions and had to look at my hiking boots (apparently it's bad to bring dirt in) and had quarantine sniffer-dogs that were adorable but that was about it. I have a stamp in my passport now! I've had it for two years and it finally has something in it!

The train ride to our hotel was weird. We talked a little to the families going to the zoo or something around us and I felt SO awkward with my weird American accent. That's never happened to me before. Even when I go down south to visit family it's not that odd to have a northern accent, and I even pick up the Southern accent sometimes. But here I feel weird talking to people. The train was cool and we managed to navigate our way to the hotel. After a little decompressing (and figuring out how to use Skype to call people at home, which I can do now!), a wonderful shower, and some food we went out and braved the city.

The money here is so pretty!

Apparently it is made of recycled plastic. Also, they have coins with actual value beyond laundry machines! Both $1 and $2 coins. Anyway, our first stop was here:

And here was where I made my first purchase with Australian money! As we got off the train I heard this ridiculous music. Turns out it was a guy sitting out on the street playing kind of techno-y music in the background with a didgeridoo. And he was selling CDs. I believe this is the perfect welcome to Sydney. I am listening to it right now, actually.

So if you go back up to the aerial view of the Opera House and the bridge, you see that big green space all around it? That is the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was an absolutely beautiful day so we decided to wander around there. And there we encountered: Australian Wildlife!

First Terrifying Giant Spider of the trip! I'm fairly certain this is a St. Andrew's Cross Spider. Low risk, just big and creepy and makes you feel like you are covered in spiders for the rest of the day. Also, this:

Which I'm fairly sure is a noisy miner.

A flock of quite tame sulfur-crested cockatoos:

And we also saw what I believe are spur-winged plovers and white ibises (ibii?). As we were walking I heard a sort of croaky, screechy racket up ahead. I was wondering what made that noise, so we followed the path towards it and discovered this:

All those dangling things? Those are bats. Flying foxes, to be exact. This was just one of the trees. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of bats altogether. In the middle of a city park. In the middle of the day. BEST. THING. EVER. I took about 700 pictures.

Also did I mention that my new camera is spectacular? Anyway, needless to say Sydney has thoroughly won me over after just one day. That evening I watched some cricket and Australian Rules Football on TV. I cannot figure out the rules to either of them, but they are quite entertaining to watch.

I don't think I'm particularly jet-lagged, which is exciting! I just have a normal person sleep schedule all of a sudden. I fell asleep around 10 last night and woke up at 7-something this morning. Now it's almost 9 and I should probably go get ready for Day 2!