Out of Oz

Sail-like arches

Hands down, Sydney is a terrific place. After a few days of drifting around its pleasant hills, parks and beautiful harbour front, we have little doubt of its greatness.

In our opinion this ought to have been the capital of Australia. Although we never quite made it to Canberra, the city that has denied so many fierce competitors the little blue plastic Geography wedge in Trivial Pursuit (yes, Canberra is the capital), it can surely not live up to the loveliness that is Sydney.

And we've had fun too, without going to any of the conventional attractions. First we enjoyed the non-alcoholic lunacy of the Redbull Flugtag in the Botanical Gardens, the best entry being a giant pink foam pig which flew a good 3 meters or so, before exploding upon impact. Then we partied at the MTV offices with a slick crowd of Graffiti artists at the 'Semi-Permanent' closing party, a four day long convention of uber-cool urban street culture.


Semi-drunk

The next day we watched brave surfers carving huge Pacific waves and dodging rocks at the world famous Bondi beach. We also saw the fantastic 'The diving bell and the butterfly' at an art house cinema, resurrected our backgammon league, had Thai food with our friend Sorhani, sampled the fine coffee at the famous 'Campos Coffee' and got inspired at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

And, best of all, it was all rather painless. Like a big tub of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, it just kind of happened. Sydney is very easy indeed, the only draw back is that it's quite expensive. Especially when you've just come from dirt cheap South East Asia. But hey, perhaps that's life.


Bondi break

Lastly, we are sad to report that the alleged Kangaroo is nothing but a myth. Sorry to burst your bubble like this, but you can forget about the famous Roo. It's nowhere to be seen. For all our earnest searching, zoom lenses at the ready, scouring the grassy fields across several states, we have found no such creature. We even drove through a place called 'Kangaroo Valley' and saw nothing but a couple of sheep and a few fat cows.

We have however seen plenty of Kangaroo T-shirts, Kangaroo sun visors and Kangaroo mouse mats. Guess that'll have to do for us.


Bushfire sunset

In a few hours we leave this great country. So goodbye to all you friendly officials, exemplary cities and imaginary Kangaroos. It's been good. We will gladly come back one day.

Next we fly to Tahiti. Which will require us to travel east across the International Date Line, resulting in the theoretical subtraction of 24 hours.

How very exciting.