Sydney, Australia...Pics, Pints and Pool

The Sydney sail-in is rumored to be one of the best in the world, right up there with the Hong Kong sail-in, and may the rumors be confirmed by mua. Only something like this will wake crew and guests at 5:30am after a full day’s work and party the night before. Some awoke (a few including myself stayed up all night) to view the first sparklings of Sydney city lights in the distance. As you glide closer, the first thing that comes into focus is the famous Sydney Opera House, which juts out into the bay apart from the rest of the downtown skyline like a big Aussie high-five. The opera house is lit beautifully, but due to my limited photographic understanding, my many attempts at snapping a good picture in the low dusk light produced 1 or 2 good ones…












I wasted so much time playing around with my toy, not realizing we were destined to view the building for the next 48 hours. My Crystal steed parked itself about 300 yards away from the structure, which I had no idea is actually 3 separate structures…





Funny story about the opera house…during construction funding ran out right about time to start on the room’s acoustics. Apparently, the sound in the Sydney opera house is horrid. Brittney Spears analogy? Speaking of, the aunt and uncle of the manager for the Blackeyed Peas are onboard. I’ve somehow made a good enough impression to be offered the VIP hookup at any of their European concerts. I’ll have to start spinning my BP records more often. I suppose I’ll have to buy some, first. Hong Kong.

With an overnight in Sydney and no plans to speak of…the four of us in the band and one brave lady assistant to the hotel director camped out in a pub on the bay all day drinking pints, playing pool and losing my credit card. There’s nothing not fun about drinking pints and playing pool in a foreign country. There’d be a before and after, but as there was no method to our days events…here’s just the during and after…





I was on the way back to the ship to cleanup for the evening when a pack of the entertainers from the ship all dressed to the 9s turned me around before I could make it. So, backpack in…back, we navigated the now rainy streets of Sydney until reaching this trendy spinning restaurant at the top of a skyscraper for drinks, where a better dressed cast member had to convince the management to let me sit down despite my appearance…then on to a delicious Indian restaurant for dinner.