Friday

Friday:

One really should slow down when reading signs. I see "ePass" and "fastPass" and "eVisa" and they all register as the same thing. In any case after standing in an ever growing line we took our paperwork to a kiosk and lo and behold it kicked out some tickets sending us to step 2. Now to find a a sign that says "step 2". Yup. There it was between three other long lines. At step two you stick in your ticket and you get your photo snapped and take your returned ticket to step three......  nothing to declare and you're done. Really quite easy. Then off to find the shuttle to the hotel. We were told it would be free but when asked we were advised "there is nothing free in Sydney"

Our shared van to town ran through some university areas before letting us off between King's Cross and Potts Point. It was too early to check in so we dropped our bags and took off for the Botanical garden by way of the naval yard. 

By the time we met my new friend the dragon we were getting pretty exhausted and stopped for a drink where Melanie could not understand anything any Aussie said. Then up the stairs into the Botanical Gardens where we were treated to exquisite plantings, trees, birds, spiders and views. Sorry Amy to mention spiders. 

Alice Ploss posted some wisdom on one of our early posts- when you feel like you are on a ship you know you are tired. So much for our plans to hit Chinatown our first night. Limped home guided by a friendly native (who had no compunctions about sharing his thoughts on our current administration. 

We often joke about having reached the age where we take advantage of the early bird special. But 3:30pm Sydney (which apparently to our bodies was 11:30 the previous evening) was way to early for that. Although the nice folks at the restaurant took pity on us and were kind enough to prepare an early version of that night's special of barramundi on smashed peas - which was spectacular. Hmm suppose I should have taken a photo of that. Also had chunks of potatoes fried n a syrup. Incredibly yummy. 

Across from our hotel was a wonderful organic supermarket. Those of you from Ithaca it's like a green star. We had tons of fun roaming around looking at all the goodies.