In Proportion to the World

So far, our honeymoon is putting the better in better late than never. After nearly 30 hours of travel to Newark to LAX (to In N Out Burger) to Sydney, we alighted in Australia. The whole city was enveloped in gray, somewhere between the ever-imminent drizzle of Seattle and the chirping mugginess of the tropics. To banish our jetlag, we set out on foot to explore. We began with a walk down to The Rocks, a picturesque and thoroughly tourist-friendly neighborhood right on the water. The Rocks combines colorful history with quaint charm. For example, it originally bordered a ship-filled harbor. To satisfy the vessels' need for sailors, tavern keepers installed trap doors in their establishments to capture unsuspecting drunks. The tavern keepers would then sell these poor souls to ship captains, keeping ships and purses full. Now, however, the main ships in the harbor are towering modern cruise ships and the nearest sailboat is the top half of a boat that serves as the roof of a fancy tourist restaurant. For a dash of quaint: two blocks from the shore, a pop-up food market (corner of Argyle St. and Harrington St.) bustled with employees on lunch breaks. Craft stalls stretched down alleyways from this central food corridor, tempting tourists away from the city's main arteries. Add cobblestones and the picturesque neighborhood vibe would have been complete.

Having introduced ourselves to The Rocks, we ventured further down the shoreline to the Royal Botanical Gardens.

These lush, beautiful, perfectly manicured park grounds extend several miles, providing an urban oasis for tourists and residents alike. Local birds coo from the trees or, like our bold friend Neckbeard, strut through the grass.

While the walk was wonderful, a flock of local birds stole the show. They showed us the answer to an age-old question:
Why did the Australian bird cross the road? To completely troll the local park ranger.
As the ranger honked his horn and accelerated towards the birds, they coolly processed across the road, pausing intermittently in the car's path. Nobody, it seems, plays chicken better than a bird. The ranger sat helplessly and honked until the flock concluded its pavement promenade.

After the gardens, we ventured to another iconic waterfront site: the Sydney Fish Market.

While we were expecting Pikes Place-esque fishmongers, we instead found hundreds of (mostly Asian) tourists devouring seafood medleys at a pace and in quantities reminiscent of an eating competition. Crustacean carcasses were piled high; tables were edged with a barricade of discarded shells. I don't know what was more surprising, the amount of seafood the patrons devoured or the fact that the fishmongers were so timid and polite.

With our jetlag catching up to us, Josh and I turned toward home. Our first day in Sydney was done and we felt like we had barely scraped the surface. Good thing we had four whole days to dig a little deeper.

Spotted #1: Sydney seems to boast an enormous Asian population; Josh and I estimate that more than half the people we have seen so far in Sydney were Asian. Sydney may be just like the rest of the world... over 60% Asian. Whether that holds true outside of the city - or even outside of the neighborhoods we've explored - remains to be seen. Stay tuned!

Spotted #2: Australia is pushing the Uggs really hard. Every store fills its windows with shearling boot displays and dangles promises of clearance sales. Once you're inside, though, the true adventure begins. Most of these stores boast a strange array of souvenirs from multi-thousand-dollar fur coats to $40 stuffed kangaroo scrotum wine bottle openers. The only constant is the presence of animal furs and fibers, from kangaroo to possum merino (yes, that's a thing) to rabbit to alpaca.

Food recommendation: Nutella donut from Georgie Boy's. The most scrumptious four bites of our trip so far.