Hello and shalom

Hi all,

It took a couple of days, but I'm up and running and all ready to share (which means, as usual, that I talk and you listen).

A little bit about the last few days: I flew out to Hong Kong on Sunday evening. I arrived on Monday afternoon, and went out to the city with a couple of Israeli guys I'd met at the airport. They'r etraveling to NZ as well, but had a longer layover in HK. After seeing their backpacker accomodations (or dog kennels, I'm not really sure) I was very happy I got to fly out the very same day.

The flight to Sydney was harrowing, despite an hour or so of Yoga at the airport (legs in the air, upward dog, downward dog - the whole schmere). By the time we landed (on Tuesday) I was exhausted. My brother picked me up at the airport, and I remember very little of the ride in to the city.
After a couple of hours of sleep, we went for a walk around the city - Hyde Park, the Opera House - a good 2-3 hours. The wildlife is beautiful - and I'm referring, of course, to the dozen of gorgeous guys jogging around shirtless (and without a leash).

Wednesday was all about sight-seeing Sydney. Some very nice places around the harbour, and I had a couple of interesting experiences with the local birds. The first was when I was eating a sandwich down by the harbour. I put one half down for a moment. Next thing I know, I'm Tippy Hedren in "The Birds". Seagulls by the dozen landed next to me, with the cheekier ones pecking at the sandwich. When I shooed them away, they started barking like dogs. Wierd.
Later, while stopping for a drink at the cafeteria in the New South Wales Art Gallery, I saw two parakeets land on a table, rip open a bag of sugar (brown, mind you) and guzzle it up. Absolutely no manners.
I finished with a bit of lying down on the beach - my brother lives in Bondi, not 5 minutes away from Bondi Beach. Needless to say, I had already been sunburnt walking around, and this didn't help.

On Thursday, my brother and I went traipsing around the Blue Mountains. A two hour train ride to Katoomba brought us to the area. From there we did a bit of travel on a bus, a bit of cable car rides over the scenic places, and a lot of walking. The views are indeed beautiful, although my brother insisted that Katoomba looks just like Zichron.

Which brings us to Friday (today) which I'm devoting to doing nothing - some email, some planning ahead to NZ (booking rooms etc.). Sorry for the lack of pictures at the moment - I forgot to bring the camera to the internet cafe, and I'm heading down to the beach afterward anyway...

Enjoy, and I will add more as soon as I have anything interesting :)