Cityscape and Chocolate store

Irma and Lorenzo (Host mom and dad) took me around town to see some of the sights. Apparently the suburb I live in is called North Ryde and it's about a 1/2 hour to 45 min drive to get to the heart of the city, (pretty reasonable for a big city). They drove me to see the Opera House and the famous Bondi bridge. They pointed out bus locations along the way.
Cityscape
Cityscape

My impressions of the city is that is is very green and architecture is more diverse and some of it much older. A good simile for the city would be to compare it to San Francisco but with much brighter and greener plant life. It's no surprise the flora is so lush considering its rained every day since I got here, including this day. The rain is actually pleasant. It's very warm compared to what I'm used to.

We stopped by the famous Bondi Beach. Although there were many surfers there, the water, I hear, is pretty cold :(. Lunch was a mixture of Fish and Chips and McDonalds. I had a double cheeseburger to compare to back home. The fish was really good because of how fresh it was and the batter was equally tasty. The chips (or french fries) were average. The double cheeseburger threw me off because: first, the beef was not as fatty and greasy; second: the cheese was real cheese and not bland American cheese. It was really tasty, albeit more expensive.
Bondi Beach

We briefly stopped by this small island thing that they shot part of Mission Impossible. It was cool, there were alot of fishermen. The water eroded the limestone away into some interesting formations.
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing
Island thing

Finally we walked a bit around the marina. Stopped by the restroom, which would've been boring and pointless to mention if it weren't for the crazy pee trough! We stopped by the Lindt chocolate store for biscuits (cookies) and cappucino. There was a really long line to place orders. I took some pictures of some ice-cream sandwich cookies in the window. I thought Annie might like to see them so I took a bunch of pictures.
Stork thingies
Crazy Pee Trough
Ice-cream sandwiches
Ice-cream sandwiches
Ice-cream sandwiches
Ice-cream sandwiches
Ice-cream sandwiches
Ice-cream sandwiches

We walked around a little bit more before having to return. When we got back to the car we found out we parked in a bad parking spot. We got a ticket for $120. They were a bit bummed but were happy they at least got to show me alot about the city.
Spiral fountain
Giant historic anchors