A few Sydney observations...

Heading back to India tomorrow... wow, 2 weeks has flown right by!! It will be nice to be back in our own beds again. We never did adjust to the 6 hour time change, so that will be a breeze on the way back. I will post a few more Australia blogs when we return and can download the video we have. New Years Eve was just awesome here... more to come on that!

Before we go,...just a few observations... things that really stand out here in Sydney. I am not trying to make generalizations about Australia as a whole, just what we have noticed here in Sydney, having been here for these two weeks.

• Loads of smokers! It is like being in NY 20 years ago, truly. People, young and old smoking everywhere!
• Waaaaaayyyyyyy nice cars!! BMW, Mercedes, even Rolls Royce... $eriou$ car$ ... and absolutely NO MINIVANS!!!
• Remember the 80's, when guys in America were all pumped up?? Oh, yeah... but times 1000%. They all walk around in tank tops and can sometimes barely fit through doorways!! I don't think that the Barry Bonds/Roger Clemens coverage is very big here. From a tourist's point of view... not bad to look at!
• It's a 9 to 5 world. Virtually all stores and shops close up at 5pm everyday and are not open at all on Sundays. Even down at Darling Harbour, don't try to find an open store on Friday evening at 5:30... even the visitor's center is locked up tight!
• Family rates are available EVERYWHERE... the ferry, the monorail, Luna Park, museums... everywhere.... you pay for just 1 child.... the Chudys and the Dennetts would clean up here!!!
• The people are ridiculously nice... I don't think we came across a cranky person in all of Sydney.
• The flippin' accent is, by far, the coolest around!! I swear, I could listen to it all day. They use "bloody" and "no worries" like it's going out of style. Everybody is a "mate" or a "bloke" and "goodonya" is all one word, I think!! The accent goes well with the personalities here... very easy going.
• The currency, too... super cool factor. The $1 and $2 are small gold coins... fine. But the paper currency has the most amazing clear patch sewn right into the fabric of the small bills. And it is all so new and clean (maybe it's not fair to compare to the nasty old rupee bill in India!!)

So, these are just a few little tidbits. Again, more to come when we get back "home" this weekend.