Iconic Sydney

[From Sarah...] The McFrothys are back to blogging after a bit of a hiatus.  Last we left you, we were leaving our favourite city Buenos Aires headed for Vancouver.  After a quick 48 hours of visiting family and friends, eating as much tasty North American food as possible, and drinking as much craft beer as possible, we boarded a plane again for the long trip to Sydney via Auckland.

We were lucky in Sydney to be welcomed into the homes of two different hosts, to meet up with some friends we made on our boat cruise in Turkey earlier this year, and to see a ton of this awesome city.  I was skeptical going in, but Sydney charmed me as it seems to charm everyone else!

Some shots from our first few days in Australia, including a few pictures of the Sydney icons we all recognize.

A koala!  He was curled up and seemed to be hiding his face from the hoards of tourists.

The Harbour Bridge is a pretty impressive structure, looming over the harbour.  For $200 you can pay to climb it, but we chose the budget, on the ground version.

The Opera House!  Not quite as white and shiny as it looks in the pictures (including this one), especially on a grey day.  Our first few days brought wind and clouds, but it cleared up after that and has been lovely and sunny ever since.  Our hosts kept apologizing for the weather, to which we replied "we're from Vancouver..."  Enough said!

Drinks at the Opera Bar.

A wander through the Royal Botanic Gardens with our host for the first couple nights, Gemma (one of Chad's roommates when he was on student exchange in Copenhagen).

On our second day, we took a walk over the Harbour Bridge.

The view from the top.

Looks pretty much the same from the other side, though this shot was taken in lovely Lavender Bay.

Back in downtown Sydney...

An old church with a new office tower sneaking up behind it.

When the clouds finally lifted we took a walk around the Opera House for some closer up views.

And finally, the Harbour Bridge at night after we had dinner downtown.  Note the fireworks in the background - the city puts on regular shows for free.  Never mind New Years, we got our fireworks out of the way a few weeks early!