We finished our first day in Sydney. It’s been pretty soggy. It’s either misting, sprinkling or pouring, but we’re making the best of it. I didn’t travel three days in the lap of luxury to just luxuriate in my gorgeously appointed suite of rooms overlooking the park for crying out loud (actually, that sounds quite nice).

We went to the Royal Botanical Gardens where we saw a giant GIANT spider. Actually, we saw about four of these spiders throughout the day, but this one was the biggest.

Then we saw these crazy grey-headed flying foxes. Oh, you don’t know about grey-headed flying foxes? Well, they’re these “mega bats,” according to Wikipedia. And of course, they’re giant. And they’re hanging from the trees. They’re these giant fuzzy fruit bats hanging from the trees in the middle of the damn city. Supposedly, they aren’t dangerous to humans, but I’m not really into it.

We also saw poisonous plants. These plants weren’t separated by glass or anything. You could just reach out and touch them if you were so inclined. There they were. Poisonous plants. Just out in the open. Australia is crazy y’all.

Totally inspired, we then went to the Rocks, Australia’s oldest neighborhood. We walked around, shopped a bit, and then ate at the Australian Heritage Hotel. This place had some of the most delicious pizzas. We ordered a kangaroo pizza and a salt water crocodile pizza (which had some yummy Thai flavors). But the kangaroo won out. It was phenomenal – salty, slightly gamey, spicy and so, so good.