G'day from Sydney!

Hey everyone! Amy & I made it safe and sound to Sydney. The total traveling time totalled almost 28 hours...crazy! After saying goodbye to our Moms & Dads we took off from Seatte around 2pm, arriving in LAX around 5pm. Then we proceeded to enjoy almost an 8 hour layover as our flight to Sydney was delayed a full hour. To kill time we took a joy ride on a Westin Hotel Airport Shuttle and enjoyed a brief tour of Los Angeles. Bored we then sat around the airport forever. We boarded our flight to Sydney at 1am and took off in our Boeing 747 into the midnight sky. =] During the flight I immediately began talking to our seat partner, Pat. Amy, tired made me switch seats so that she could sleep while I chatted with Pat. Making friends immediately, I found out that she lived in Perth and by the end of the 15 hour flight she kindly invited us both to a personal tour of Perth once we arrive there on June 26th. So, already making good Aussie connections!

When we arrived in Sydney, we quickly found that although we arrived safely, our bags did not and were no where to be found! =( bad news for us. So, we then spent a good hour trying to process our claim through Qantas. Fortunately the staff were friendly enough, giving us $100 AUS to spend. But, as it still stands we have no luggage, and very few belongings.

Oh well. The most a traveller can do is to be patient and wait. There's not much else we can do at this point. But fortuantely it's expected that we'll recieve our bags by the end of today.

Boarding the train, we checked into our hostel; a sparse but comfortable place. Then Amy and I proceeded to walk downtown to the Quay, the Rocks and of course, the Sydney Opera house. The whole afternoon was absolutely spectacular!

Within 10 seconds of getting off the train, we encountered a crazy man muttering to himself about koalas
the next hour later, we already were hit on my male, aussie construction workers.

a very promising start to a auspicious trip. =D

We walked around all day and then crashed into our bunks by 5pm, expecting to get up for dinner at 7pm. But alas, we slept through our alarms...in fact, we woke up this morning at around 6am...giving us a grand total of almost 14 hours of sleep! I guess we're now over jet lag. thank goodness.

anyway, time for me to get going. There's much to see in the land down under. and it's much better weather today...actual clear, beautiful blue sky!

more later.