Tales of a Sydney Nature, tinged with a splash of Canada

As I was warned, there is A LOT to see in Sydney. For me, I would be overwelmed if I tried to make a schedule of all the things I wanted to do and followed it, so my method is more take each day as it comes. So far, so good. My hostel was very new, called Bounce, so it was very clean and had everything you need. The staff was very friendly, as well as all my bunk mates, from Sweden, Germany, and England. There are a LOT of people from England here in Australia that I've met so far. I've yet to hear many North American accents, we seem to not travel much I guess or maybe Australia is not a popular destination.
Since arriving I wandered around in the CBD (central business district) for a bit, popped into the grocery store to have a look around. One thing that really surprised me, which is probably not that surprising if I had done a bit more research, is the number of fruits and veggies that were locally produced. Lemons, grapes, clemintines, bananas, lettuce, beans, carrots, peppers. It seems that grow just about everything in this climate. I stocked up on some fresh apples and cucumber, which I really enjoyed. The strawberries weren't the greatest.
A shout out to the Canadians, did you know that IGA exists in Australia? I went to the IGA the other day and it looked just the same, the sign and the setup of the groceries. A bit bizzare.
So after my great grocery gamble, I went to see the Hubble with some friends (one of them from Toronto!) at the BIGGEST 3D Imax screen in the world. It was unbelievable. The views I got to see of space made me tear up because they were so incredible and really gave you the experience of having a sense of how big the universe really is. It blows my mind. They also showed a short shot of Hawai'i from space, which made me proud.
Later on I had dinner and too much wine at a newfound friend's apartment.
The next day I was having my breakfast on the top floor with a lovely view of the city laid out before me and started having a chat with a man from Scotland, who was also Canadian, as he was born in Ottawa. Yea for Candians and more Part Candians ;) After brekky, as he called it, I ran into him downstairs and we set off on an impromptu adventure to the Tonga Zoo. It was wonderful. We took a short ferry across the water and walked around the zoo for the better part of the day. I got to see my first 'roo' and an emu and all other critters of an australian nature. A small group of Asian tourists strayed off the path and even went to go pet one of the Kangeroos, it didnt' seem to mind. I don't think they could read the warning sign.
After safaris in the Australian outback we stopped for a lunch next to the elephant enclosure, beautiful creatures, and topped it all off with a visit to Africa. I think giraffes are my new favorite animal. I took some really nice shots of them.
Later I had dinner with the Scotsman and another English lady who has been traveling round as well. I have now been convinced one of my next trips shall be to the UK. It sounds really lovely and it seems to be possible to bike around the country of Scotland if you have your wits about you. The furture icing on the cake of going to the UK is that evening I asked the barman out on a date and he was also from Scotland, so I'll have to pop in and visit him when I go as well. Lovely boy.
Yesterday I picked up my wwoofing book and am very excited to head out on some wwoofing adventures. I've already emailed 2 places that are both community living oriented, which I am very interested in. Also they are both near Byron Bay, which is supposed to be fantastic.
The woman mentioned in my first post, name of Julianne, and have rented a wicked campervan and are going to spend a week slowly making our way up to Byron, which is her town of residence. It's only a 9 hours stright drive, but we're going to stop along the way and see some sights and some friends. We'll see how it goes, more about it later.
Currently I'm off to the Blue Mountains, which is a popular sightseeing venture 2 hours train ride from Sydney. A woman invited me to come stay with her for a couple of days and I couldn't pass up the opportunity, it's supposed to be very beautiful.

That's all for now. More to come soon!