Sydney in September

I was lucky to get a free trip to Sydney with my job. I was sent to do a week long course in "ethical hacking" that is, how to penetrate computer systems, web sites and wireless networks. As you might imagine, the course was a lot of fun.
The week in Sydney was amazing. I spent the first four days, Monday to Thursday with my wonderful work friends: Kane and Mitch and some new friends that we picked up along the way (Kit and Stew). We went to some great pubs/restaurants. On the first day we went to the red Oak, a blend of the modern and old fashioned, it had an extensive selection of beers, all of which were brewed right there in the microbrewery. The stout was, dare I say it, better than guinness. They have a lovely little tasting board there, in four varieties (including veggie option) each board consists of four little starters and four little glasses of beer. Each beer is designed to match the starter. Its delicious!
On Tuesday we went all out! Some of the Sydney siders told us about a wonderful Leboneese restaurant. We FEASTED there on all the delicious offerings, I tried bapa ganush dip for the first time, we were good and drunk on BYO wine and finished the night in the roof garden with ice cream and Lebanese coffee and baclawa.
On Wednesday the boys tricked me into going to a steak and crab house. The place was quite fancy, it was on the harbor where, I hear, all the celebs go. The vegetarian stuff wasn't even on the menu!!! Luckily there was a scrumptious veggie salad for starter and tasty pasta for a main course. And, best of all, they had cocktails! So, I turned the whole steakhouse thing on its head and ordered more food than anyone else! The guys all had the crab dish (I was going to say: the guys all had crabs, but that sounded wrong) , apparently, it was good.
We took a moonlit stroll to the see the Oprah house from across the harbor. It was spectacular.
Thursday was quiet, we were exhausted from our week of training and drinking! Also, I was preparing for the weekend.
Paddy had spent the week in Byron bay. He loved it (I'll get him to write about it in the blog), he said it was a laid back, cool place where people were really friendly and he learned to surf!
Anyway, Paddy travelled down to Sydney on Friday and I met him after the course, which finished early. We went out to the Red Oak that night, the next day we took a trip on the Monorail and wandered around Sydney for a while. We went out to Bondi beach and walked from Bondi to Coogie beach, taking in all the sights and soaking up the sun-filled atmosphere. It was backpacker Mecca.
We spent Sunday at the Rocks, finding a lovely little Microbrewery pub called the Lord Nelson.
The rocks is such a nice, peaceful area, we wandered around and had a look at the walls made by the convicts when they were building that part of Sydney.
Next, we headed to the Oprah house and had a closer look, its impressive up close. Our final moments were spent watching some flame swallowers and buskers at the quay. For a moment, I looked up at the glinting sunlight, across to the Oprah house and the life of the place made me feel awed, it was then that I finally realized, I mean, really realized, that we were in Sydney, Australia!