Sydney, Day 2

My morning started early. Very early. I set my alarm clock for 5am, but I woke up at 4 and was up for the day. I putzed around my teeny room and packed up my things, finding homes for my purchases and redistributing things I did and did not need in my camera bag/purse/take with me everywhere bag.

At around 0515, I headed out. I walked the half mile or so to the Harbour bridge and took pictures all the way across (same as yesterday) of the Opera house as the sun came up. When will I ever get to do that again???

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped a payphone to call Ethan. I still have over 3500 minutes left. They give you these cards with a billion minutes on them, but still get you in the end because you have to insert a 50cent piece into the phone before it will work--calling card or not. They are telling me it is 90 cents to call from my room, so I think I will be cheap and continue my calls from the payphone in the lobby.

Back in the hotel, I showered, finished packing and head up to the lobby to check out. My shuttle was scheduled to pick me up beween 0745 and 0800, for an arrival at the airport no later than 0830. At least that is what we had agreed upon.

After long minutes of me stressing and pacing and eventually even calling for a taxi, my shuttle finally showed up. At 0830. Knowing it was a 25-30 minute ride to the airport, I was less than thrilled. We got there about 5 after. Mom and her team were nowhere to be found. After some asking, I found a GoWay representative who actually had a sign with my name on it. I didn't see the sign until I had already spoken with her and she had ascertained who I was-I just picked he right person to go up to and ask if they had seen a large group of Americans wandering about together. Anyway, the team was gone already, but she gave me a map of where they would be picked up by the bus after the walking portion of their tour.

I took the train downtown, then found a sidewalk cafe and ordered a Chai and settled in to wait. The group came around about 30 minutes after I arrived. It seems that their tour had been changed, unbeknownst to them, to leave at 0730 instead of 0900. So I would have missed it no matter what. But I WAS still irritated at the shuttle driver....