Sydney Harbour

I happen to loooove the movie Finding Nemo. So when I got off the train and turned around and saw the Sydney Opera House for the 1st time, I literally heard opera (like the movie). Okay, so it happened to be coming out of my headphones from my ipod (which by coincidence was on shuffle and Bizet (Carmen) was on), but still. Besides the movie, I'd obviously seen the Opera House plenty of times before in pictures, but honestly, these pictures DO NOT do it justice. It is the most amazing architectural masterpiece I've ever seen. 1st, its a LOT bigger than I expected, 2nd, its just soo cool! Every angle brings something different as does the lighting (which changed a million times today from sunny to overcast, back to sunny, drizzly, overcast, etc). So of course as I walked around it, took a ferry around it, walked around it some more, I took approx 02480248325357438532 pictures. Hence, besides more beach hopping (Manly beach) to check out the surfers, I spent the majority of the day hanging around the Opera house and just admiring its beauty... and also people watching. I even took a tour, to learn about the interesting history behind it and obviously see the inside. Its really absolutely amazing. Since it seems I will have plenty of time in Sydney, it would be cool to check out a symphony or a theatre production (opera would be nice, but its mega expensivo) while I'm here, but we'll see.

I then took a ferry over to Darling Harbour where I went to the BEST aquarium I've ever been to (and I really make a point to go to aquarium's wherever I go). Its absolutely amazing, and the oceanarium is out of this world. I probably hung out there over an hour in awe. The viewing area is in this glass underground tunnel that you just walk around and these humungous rays, turtles, and sharks are swimming right over your head or right next to you. Its soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool, I can't even describe. I've never been that close even scuba diving (how often do you see the undersurface of a ray (which looks like a big o smiley face) or pretty much count the teeth on a shark?).

Nor have I seen turtles and rays that big. And it was soo cute to hear kids going crazy in these cute australian accents. And of course, no surprise that they had this big Finding Nemo section that 'featured' the starring fishes. I loooved it!

It was a good 12 hour day on my feet and now I'm back at 'home' having vodka "drink ze vodka! It make you relax!" says my hosts (they are Russian and have guests over). All right... if you insist :-)