Sydney whirlwind

sooooooo...got some more time to burn and thoguth i might as well throw up some pictures (ps i just posted another post before this...just tellin ya). these are my crazy short tiem in Sydney, it just so happened that two of hte wonderful girls i met on my ATA tour were also flying in to Sydney at the same time as i was so we got together at wake up! ...it was really great becasue Paula had spent muchos time in Sydney and knew exactally how to get to the Sydney harbour from our hostel. man without that help i would have never found it. (thanks again if your out there). I also found my Coober Pedy opal (crazy story, ask me sometime) while i was in sydney. Sooo...these are the pics of the walk.^See the Harbour bridge poking out?^
^I just had to take a picture of the daytripper^ Panoramic of the proximity of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House

^my interpretation of the bridge^
looking back towards the city^me being Nemo in front of the opera house

^ wooooooohoooooooooooooo Opera House!!!!!!!!!^

Rightyo......so thats my Sydney adventure. It could have been nice to spend a couple days there but the big cities are DEFINATELY not what i went to Oz for...I mean they're nice and all but give me a choice between shopping downtown or sweating it out with lizards in the center....well, there is no choice. right. i'm done.

Return from Downunder...

Well, here I am, currently sitting in the Irving Hall computerlab, writing this post. As you may have guessed, I have returned safely from my travels downunder (booooo). The trip back was good - it was REALLY nice to be going from LOOOONNNNNNGGG flight to increasingly shorter rather than the reverse. My flight from Sydney to San Francisco was actually fairly pleasent and seem alllllllllllllllllllooooooooottttttt shorter. I scored a window seat AND a mother/daughter duo which one of them was always out of their seat, so I had room. Plus we watched Blades of Glory...wodnerful. (ps: finaly got a pic of me in SFO with flowers in my hair)
My only set back was that I landed in Toronto around 11pm and didn't depart until 8am...sooooo this meant that they couldn't check my luggage through yet. This meant five plus hours of uncomfortable "sleeping" on top of all my luggage on a chair on the side of security without a plug so no laptop movies. Meh, it was worth it. BUT, when 5:30am came and the check-ins opened and I could finally make my way through security, I was verrrryyyyy thankfully...verrrryyy...met by TIMHORTONS!!!!!!!! I cannot express how elated I was to buy an everythign bagel WITH cream cheese AND a XL coffee for only $3.43!!!!!! The crappiest little "coffee" in Oz alone has been costing me at LEAST $3.50.
Anyhow, the otehr issue I must address is the eternal battle that any traveller will no doubt become well aquanted with: Luggage restrictions. Normally I pack light but I some how ended up with a copius ammont of heavy stuff I couldn't part with. I have no idea how it happened. To be fair, I also had a proper backpack that I hadn't had on the way there. Still...
Right, so I bought those vaccuum bags and somehow shoved it all in my two suitcases(including my backpack) but there was NO way they were under the restrictions for my international flights, let alone my cheap VirginBlue domestics...so i resigned myself to the fact that I would be paying out the butt all the way through.
So i went to checkin at Townsville VISA at the ready...now you must understand that I know people who have got stuck paying with virginblue who alows 20kg free..then like TEN$ per kg over...I had a 21kg and a 29kg bag...here's the miracle: he let me get away wiht only paying 30$!!!!!!! This travel fairy seemed to be with the rest of my trip and I got away with only paying that 35$ in Toronto...and got off for freein Sydney by buying the checkin girl a chocolate bar!!!! I haven't work out the hundreds it should have cost me but i think that was pretty good.

soooooo, the moral is: just look reallllllllly tried (like you just reeeaaalllly want to just get home) and smile lots....works like a charm!