Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Six Days, Six Nights, the Sling and Sydney

As a get away for my birthday we decided to head to Sydney for a whirlwind week of sight seeing.  Day 1 we arrived after our 14 hour flight at 6am Australia time.

Luckily the hotel - the Shangri-La La La (okay I added the last two La's) let us check in early where we proceeded to sleep off some of our jet lag. 

The view from our hotel was pretty spectacular - it was a straight shot of the Opera House and the Circular Quay (pronounced Key, who knew?).

We ventured out into The Rocks which is where our hotel was located.  The Rocks is a cool Sydney neighborhood established during the early colonial days in the late 1700s, it was known for attracting sailors and the nefarious businesses that cater to sailors. 

They've done a great job of renovating some of the old sandstone buildings. Sydney is a city where old and new seem to be fused together.  Instead of tearing down a building they'll just build a skyscraper behind it, or next to it, or on top of it. Which made for some great photos - which I need to cull out of the 500 photos I took. 

But I digress. So our first day we walked for a few hours around the neighborhood - stopping at a local pub to have a tastey Tooeys (see left photo inset) and fish and chips.  I took a ton of pictures, got the most beautiful flower arrangement, accompanied by the best gift of all - a surprise video of my San Diego friends sending birthday wishes my way. 

It was most definitely the best birthday I've ever had, spent with the best husband I've ever had. 

No comments: