In Sydney, Australia and Ready to Leave

Sydney is just about like every other big city. Noisy, dirty, loads of traffic, constant sirens and 5 million people. Everyone on the street looks straight ahead on a mission, not noticing who or what they strike with an elbow. Our hostel is a bit dodgy with what I like to call a "taco bed" but you get what you pay for. Sydney is a freakin' expensive city! We watched Indiana Jones for $16 a pop and the exchange rate is crap at $1.00 Aus $ to $0.96 US. We've been here about 4 days and we leave for Bali tomorrow. We are finding more and more that we are not big city people. Ya think?! I have to admit, I miss having any sort of fashion sense when I am in the big cities. I have to be creative.

Ah, with those complaints off my chest there are some wonderful things to report. The Opera House is a beautiful sight, with the famous shiny the sails glistening off the harbor waters. Tonight we see a performance there of some sort. We walked across the harbor bridge listening to Andrea Boccelli on the ipod and grabbed a beer and read the paper at a Bavarian Pub. We discovered an Acharyas Yoga studio and practiced a couple of times which was a relaxing respite in the hustle and bustle around us. One of my favorite spots is Hyde Park which has beautiful fountains, bright flowers and a giant old cathedral. It's close to our accommodation so we walk through it every day on the way to the city centre. We also went to the Art Museum and Botanical Gardens which has bats hanging from the trees. To save cash, we went to the supermarket and have been packing a lunch and eating our favorite breakfast daily on the hotel rooftop - muesli, fruit and coffee. One evening at dusk we were enjoying the rooftop views with a bottle of vino and suddenly the sky filled with thousands, yes THOUSANDS of bats! They were flying from the Botanical Gardens heading somewhere. We wondered what they were after for dinner that night. I pictured Sydney a vermin-free city because of these creatures, but we were wrong. An unbelievably overenthusiastic info center dude who ran, yes ran to get us brochures and his eyes bugged out as he spoke told us that they are fruit bats, not blood bats. There are 11,000 in the Botanical Gardens alone and fly each night to the wild fig trees to get a meal. If they don't eat each night, they die. Thank heavens they weren't after our necks!

We fly tomorrow on Royal Brunei (never heard of the airline 'til now either, wish us luck) to Brunei with a 5 hour layover before we arrive in Bali at 1:20am. Matt will be waiting for us and we'll hit the town. Apparently Indonesia never sleeps, so we'll be introduced to the island in party mode.