Culture Shock

We went to sleep on a nine-hour overnight British Airways flight from Bangkok and woke up in Sydney, Australia. Culture shock. We stumbled into the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel at 7 a.m. Saturday local time. Oldest hotel in Sydney.

The young woman, Courtney, running the place was lovely~she took pity on us and set us up in our room right away, even though check-in is not officially until the afternoon. To enter the hotel, you enter the pub first. It was eerily quiet in the morning.

We fell into a deep sleep~ jet-lagged, getting-over-Bangkok~type sleep. When we woke up and stumbled downstairs in the early afternoon we were in shock. By the time we hit the landing on our third floor room it sounded like a raging party. It was just the pub gearing up for Saturday night~packed to the rafters with people drinking homemade brew with names like Nelson's Blood and Three Sheets. Nary a floor board could be seen. The crowd spilled out onto the sidewalk outside the hotel. Everyone was unfailingly polite though. Someone stopped Michael to ask him if he had ever been told he looks like Anthony Quinn. (Yes, he has.)

We could barely wind our way through the bodies to escape out the pub door, which explained why Courtney had showed us a side door exit early that morning, "just in case."

We've had a great couple of days exploring our neighborhood, The Rocks, and learning Aussie terms such as Flat White (coffee with milk prepared by pouring microfoam~steamed milk from the bottom of a pitcher~over espresso.) First morning I just stared at the waitress with my blurry-eyes when she asked, "Youwantaflatwhite?" Uh? Not only that they apparently put ice cream in and on just about everything: iced coffee has a big dollop of vanilla added along with the whipped cream, and pancakes come with a scoop on top. What, is everyone twelve? It sure does taste good though.

But seriously, I don't think I've ever been to a country where the people are so obviously friendly, open, and helpful.

Maybe it has something to do with the consumption of all the Nelson's Blood? We were determined to find out. So this evening where could you find us? That's right. "Our pub." Mike had an Admiral and I tasted Victory. To heck with the side door...