Sean and I reluctantly awoke from our luxurious hotel bed and proceed to pack our bags and make our way from Sydney to Canberra, his home and the nation's capital. 
Before we left, we quickly stopped by the Pylon Lookout attached to the Harbour Bridge to use the free passes given to us after our Bridge Climb. It was the perfect vantage point for pics of the Opera House, the skyline, waterway, etc except for two things. 1) it was really overcast so the pics are a bit dull and 2) there was an enormous cruise ship docked at the Overseas Passenger Terminal and blocked the view of the entire harbour! Dammit! My chance for the perfect, quintessential shot of Sydney was ruined by the Sapphire Princess, Just kidding, it was still great :)
Afterwards we ran back to Anthony's place to pick up Sean's car and started for Canberra. I was sad to leave Sydney, but since my bank account was hemorrhaging cash, it was time to go. Seriously, if my bank account was an artery, it would have definitely been bleeding out. We crossed the Harbour Bridge and I waved bye to Sydney and said hello to rural Oz. As soon as you leave any city in Oz, it quickly turns into country and Sydney was no exception. In the US, you have miles and miles of sprawl and subdivisions, but not here. We drove for about 2.5 hours thru New South Wales and I watched the landscape change to rolling hills with farms and little towns. Quaint!
We arrive in Canberra at Sean's Mom's house and make ourselves at home. This will be my home for the next week and again, it will be awesome to have a homebase and it's even better because I am sharing it with my honey! I just hope I won't kill him before the week was up. Sean went ahead and scored tickets to the Brumbies/Cheetahs rugby match for that night, so we bundled up and headed out. It's the beginning of autumn now in Oz so parts in the south are getting a bit nippy, especially at night. It was perfect hoodie/puffy vest weather and it suited me fine since I was getting tired of sweating my ass of in Asia and North Oz! On the way to the
stadium, I was so excited for my first Super 14 match! It's one of their professional sports leagues and very popular - kinda like the NFL, but with some differences. First of all, everything is cheaper from the player salaries to the beers at the concession stand. It almost feel like you are at a high school football game! Not the one where I went to school, maybe a bigger and ritzier school perhaps. Our tickets were right on the 50m line and it was only $35! Second, the match didn't have the slick marketing/entertainment angle we employ in the US with our sports. The players interacted with the fans a lot more (even when they were tired and busted, they stopped to sign and slap hands with people before heading to the locker room), the reserve players ran water to their teammates and the stadium wasn't trying to suck every last dime from ya. A beer and a meat pie was less than $10 - can you get a hot dog and a beer for under $10 in Philly? I guarantee the pie was better than a soggy dog at the Linc. A funny thing - I asked Sean when they stopped serving beer and he looked at me funny and just said, "when the match is over." Brilliant! You can order a beer with 1 second on the clock if you wanted to! Can you imagine that happening in Philly? You'd have to call in the National Guard at each game.
Before we left, we quickly stopped by the Pylon Lookout attached to the Harbour Bridge to use the free passes given to us after our Bridge Climb. It was the perfect vantage point for pics of the Opera House, the skyline, waterway, etc except for two things. 1) it was really overcast so the pics are a bit dull and 2) there was an enormous cruise ship docked at the Overseas Passenger Terminal and blocked the view of the entire harbour! Dammit! My chance for the perfect, quintessential shot of Sydney was ruined by the Sapphire Princess, Just kidding, it was still great :)Afterwards we ran back to Anthony's place to pick up Sean's car and started for Canberra. I was sad to leave Sydney, but since my bank account was hemorrhaging cash, it was time to go. Seriously, if my bank account was an artery, it would have definitely been bleeding out. We crossed the Harbour Bridge and I waved bye to Sydney and said hello to rural Oz. As soon as you leave any city in Oz, it quickly turns into country and Sydney was no exception. In the US, you have miles and miles of sprawl and subdivisions, but not here. We drove for about 2.5 hours thru New South Wales and I watched the landscape change to rolling hills with farms and little towns. Quaint!
We arrive in Canberra at Sean's Mom's house and make ourselves at home. This will be my home for the next week and again, it will be awesome to have a homebase and it's even better because I am sharing it with my honey! I just hope I won't kill him before the week was up. Sean went ahead and scored tickets to the Brumbies/Cheetahs rugby match for that night, so we bundled up and headed out. It's the beginning of autumn now in Oz so parts in the south are getting a bit nippy, especially at night. It was perfect hoodie/puffy vest weather and it suited me fine since I was getting tired of sweating my ass of in Asia and North Oz! On the way to the
stadium, I was so excited for my first Super 14 match! It's one of their professional sports leagues and very popular - kinda like the NFL, but with some differences. First of all, everything is cheaper from the player salaries to the beers at the concession stand. It almost feel like you are at a high school football game! Not the one where I went to school, maybe a bigger and ritzier school perhaps. Our tickets were right on the 50m line and it was only $35! Second, the match didn't have the slick marketing/entertainment angle we employ in the US with our sports. The players interacted with the fans a lot more (even when they were tired and busted, they stopped to sign and slap hands with people before heading to the locker room), the reserve players ran water to their teammates and the stadium wasn't trying to suck every last dime from ya. A beer and a meat pie was less than $10 - can you get a hot dog and a beer for under $10 in Philly? I guarantee the pie was better than a soggy dog at the Linc. A funny thing - I asked Sean when they stopped serving beer and he looked at me funny and just said, "when the match is over." Brilliant! You can order a beer with 1 second on the clock if you wanted to! Can you imagine that happening in Philly? You'd have to call in the National Guard at each game.Anyhoo, the Brumbies triumphed over the Cheetahs and I left with a pleasant buzz, thanks to the $5 Tooehy's New. Welcome to Canberra!
Note: Below are the pics from the Brumbies match. The pics from the Pylon Lookout are at the end of my 'Sydney - Around Town' slideshow on the previous post.
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