Where did the time go?

So my trip has progressed quite a bit since my last post. I have by now arrived in Sydney and gotten the basic essentials arranges - sim card, bank account, etc. But I'm not Hiro from Heroes, and so I didn't bend time and space to suddenly be in Sydney. So to continue where I left off:

The evening after the history of Singapore we hung out with a bunch of Fred's friends in Holland village. Pretty cool name, except it has NOTHING at all to do with Holland. Only slightly disappointing since it was nice anyway. On Friday I had the morning to mysef and stared off on Orchard street. Once I had had enough I decided to go to the botanical gardens. Guess what? Another tropical rainstorm. Great. Ok, they don't usually last too long, so I'll wait it out. OK, storm over, now where's the busstop? Good question. Once I was finally on the bus, Fred called and we went to see a movie with one of his friends and his brother in stead. This worked out quite well in the end since it started raining again and I would have gotten soaked.

That evening I dropped my bags off at Tim's house, where I would stay that night and headed over to Little India. I was a bit apprehensive about leaving my stuff on Tim's doorstep, but the guards looked after it. When I got to Little India I met Sanne and Sharon, two more UC'ers for dinner. Sanne is spending the next semester in Singapore and Sharon is travelling around. I then spent the evening hanging out with Tim and a bunch of his friends.

Saturday, my last day in Singapore was my most touristy day. I had the whole day to myself, and I visited Chinatown, where there were already some Chinese New Year decorations, Clarke Quay, City Hall and the Harbour front. I then went back to Tim's house to collect my stuff and headed off to the airport for my flight to Sydney.

That flight was so much worse than the one to Singapore. I was sitting to some fat German woman, whose leg and arm pressed against mine uncomfortably because she was so fat. The flight also stopped in Adelaide, cutting right into my sleeping time. Then once I got to the airport, it took me a while to find Viola, Sonya and Justine, who were there to pick me up. I won't bore you with the details of my day getting over jetlag, and the next day getting my sim card and bank account set up.

I got to my hostel The Palms last night and went to bed quite early after making my own dinner. Today wasn't supposed to be very nice weather, so I messed around a bit getting ready this morning, until I noticed that there were some breaks in the clouds. I changed out of my long trousers and warmer t-shirt and headed into the city. I walked all through the Royal Botanic Gardens to the Sydney Opera House (I'll get some pictures online for you Jen ;)) and on to Circular Quay and The Rocks. I saw some Aboriginals playing music and went into The Rocks Museum, about the history of the Setllement of Sydney. Once I had had enough of that I took a train to Hyde Park, and I didn't notice that my book on Sydney had slipped out of my pocket until after the doors had closed, and I had to watch it ride away into the distance... :( After relaxing in Hyde Park for a bit I went on to The Chinese Garden of Friendship, Darling Harbour, and finally to Chinatown for dinner before heading home.

Well, it's been a super busy day, so I'm going to hit the sack. Hopefully my next stop will be Brisbane to meet up with Kevin, if I can figure everything out. I really love hearing from you all, so please keep commenting to make me feel a little less homesick!