Sydney!

i'm SO moving here...

this was, by far, the best biz trip i've been on yet. after spending less than 24 hours at home post-atlanta, i hopped on a plane to sydney. arrived at 7am, and thot i was going to die. all i wanted to do was crash, but was told if i wanted to adjust to the time difference, i had to stay awake. damn...

sydney is one of those places where you can spend hours wandering around and not get tired of it. and just like the scenery, people vary greatly too.

i spent 3 hours my first day at a starbucks trying to fend off garth, a consultant for a firm that services oil rigs in the middle east. somewhere between his super thick irish accent, service in the british army, and stories of jungle tactics training in the congo, i learned that he was on holiday via bangladesh and really didn't care if i already had dinner plans. he was really sweet, but relentless. and i had work to do!

how do i find these people regardless of where i am in the world? is it me??? if this happens again while in tanzania, then i know it is...

fortunately, i eventually got to meet up w/my friend and old coworker trey. he's been on an expat assignment for the last 4 years (lucky shit!), and was the BEST tour guide ever!

that being said, he did keep me out friday night til 5am... (i have no idea how i stayed awake!)

spent most of saturday sightseeing. trey, and his mates julian & nigel, started out by taking me to chinatown for some yum cha...

afterwards, we made a little stop at paddy's market to look at all the junk. and they have A LOT of it...

also watched the bottleman for a bit, who is apparently a regular fixture.
then we took a little stroll thru hyde park and down macquaire st...
to be continued cuz i'm still jet lagged...

(top to bottom, L to R: cockle bay wharf/darling harbour; walking thru the rocks; me excited to eat dim sum in chinatown; paddy's market; Catfish the Bottleman; fig trees in hyde park; archibald fountain; ANZAC war memorial; hyde park barracks museum; bronze copy of il porcellino at sydney hospital)