Day One - Arriving in Sydney
Twenty-four hours of flying, including stops in Toronto and Vancouver, landed me in Sydney two days after I left. Sydney is 16 hours ahead of Detroit and it was now Wednesday morning. As dreadful as it all sounds, the flight wasn't too bad. There was plenty of onboard entertainment aboard the Air Canada 777 and I had a decent amount of seat room. My main concern was the folks in Toronto assured me my luggage wouldn't make it, as it it didn't show up there for the plane switch. I was pleasantly surprised to see my yellow bag flop down the carousel after all. Getting through security and immigration was a breeze and I was on my way.
The most difficult thing about driving on the left side of the road, for me, was my position in the car. Sitting with the wheel on the right side of the car was fairly uncomfortable. I always felt I was too close to approaching traffic and had to constantly remind myself not to drive too far over to the left. Turns are a little odd at first, but I soon got the hang of it and was making my way through Sydney traffic searching for my first hotel.
Rydges World Square was an excellent choice for a stay with a very convenient location. I showered and changed and walked around the city for a few hours. One thing that stands out immediately about Sydney is how clean it is for a major city. While there are some homeless, they are far fewer in number than most metropolises and like all of Australia, it's very safe in comparison.
I found a pub called Scruffy Murphy's and went in for a beer. I met up with some people from Galway, Ireland and a girl from Denmark and we shared some jugs (pitchers) of Tooheys New, which were on special. Several hours and multiple jugs later and I was feeling the time difference and exhaustion from the long flight, so I made my way back for a long sleep.
