Australia is a long ways away. We left San Francisco on Tuesday night at 10:30PM. After a 14 hour flight and crossing the international date line, we arrived in Sydney at 6:30AM Thursday morning. However we did get the benefit of the date line in returning. We left Sydney on the next Monday at 2:30PM and arrived in Los Angeles at 10:30AM on Monday. So we arrived in LA before we left Sydney, even after 14 hours of flying.
The city is clean and modern. It has a significant Asian population. We found out later that Asian actually arrived in Australia before the Europeans (England). We saw very few blacks while we were there. We saw two black families and just a few other lone black faces. Even though we were treated quite well by all the people we encountered. We even got unexpected free upgrades on our hotel, given to us while we were checking in at the registration desk.
Before going to Australia, my feeling about the Aborgines is that they were a back country bush people. And, that is there present-day habitat. But before the English got to Australia, the Aborgines lived in the harbours that are present day Sydney and were fisherman, living off the ocean. They suffered a fate very similar to our american indians, pushed out of their territories and dying in large numbers from European diseases.
The Australian currency is called dollars as here in the USA. The exchange rate is about .95 Australian dollars to one USA dollar. Their dollars are made of plastic, not paper. I did not know that until told so by a tour guide. The bills look and feel a lot like paper, but being plastic, they will last practically forever.
The down town area of Sydney, where most of the tourist attractions are located is not very large and is quite walkable. Our hotels was in the down town area and we walked to most all of the attractions we visited. If you have done any walking in midtown Manhattan you would feel very comfortable walking in down town Sydney, there are quite similar in that respect.
The Australians drive on the left side of the road as do the English. We did not have to deal with that as a driver since we did not rent a car, but it still impacts you as a walker. First, they also walk on the left side and that takes a little getting used to, but the most difficult is when crossing streets. The cars closest to you come from your right and not the left as here in the states. That is a little unnerving as your insticts say to look left first, but that will get you in trouble over there. In recognition of that problem, most corner curbs have a sign painted in the road advising you to look right.
Sydney is an "outdooressy" city. Most restaurants have an outdoor eating section, an especially so at Bondi Beach.
The weather was great there, it rained on us a few times but we managed to work around it and still got everything done. Being in the southern hemisphere their seasons are the reverse of ours. It was autumn there.
The harbours cut through the heart of the city and riding ferries are an integral part of the transportation system along with autos, busses, and trains.