Hot, High and Tipsy: May 10, 2014 I Left My Heart In Sydney

May 10, 2014
Sydney was magical to us. We arrived early in the morning, 6 AM. Our baggage arrived promptly after we passed through customs, there was a person to meet our flight weary selves and the day was bright and sunny. When we arrived at the hotel the night desk manager greated us saying, "Hello James and Tina, we have been waiting for you, let me see if there is an upgraded room available for you." ahhhh...Marriott freinds. And sure enough, early checking at 7 am and an upgraded suite with harbour and opera house view. Corner room. Those of us who live in hotels, know that the corner rooms are prime. Sydney was magical.

After a brief unpacking and quick showers we were off to explore the Rocks district of Sydney. The concierge told us about the Saturday market and to definately take advantage of it, which we did! We were also looking for Aboriginal art to send back to the states, which we found that and more... Now aboriginal art is pretty special, but tends to fit a more contemporary style, so we found the art amazingly magic. Oh, and guess what? They have overnight shipping to the US AND if you ship, no sales tax. NO waiting in line at the Tourist Refund Scheme at the airport. I"m not kidding, that is what they call it...

We had so much fun talking with the Australian people, they are all so very happy and have such an adorable accent. I can only think that the reason they are such happy blokes is that the English took their convicts and other undesirables and shipped them off to the most beautiful place, with lovely ocean, seafood and Kangaroo sliders. I've been to London too and gosh, who has the last laugh here? Magically happy people...

Oh, our only little problem we had worked out beautifully. We were just in time for a ferry leaving to go back to our hotel. Since the ferry master knew we were going to miss that ferry if we had to wait for him to charge our credit card, he said, "Just jump on board mate and pay at the other end, no worries." So, when we got to the other end, the ticket machine kept asking us for our PIN number no matter what we did. We were referred to another very young man and he tried to help us and then said, just pay at the other end. We told him that we were just trying to pay for the ferry ride we just had and he said, "Oh no worries then, just go on now, the ferry ride is on us." Can you imagine that happening in the good olde US of A? We felt like we were in the most magical place. Sydney is Magical.
Uh Oh... We talked Clyde an Krim into doing the Bridge Climb when we return to Sydney on the 21st. Krim will need all your encouragement as she's a bit intimidated by high places.