Sydney, New South Wales (Part I)

Sydney is a pretty busy city.  There is a constant stream of people on the move at all times.  When I first arrived I went for a walk to familiarize myself with the city.  Most of the sights are centered on or near the harbor.  I saw the bridge and the Opera House, both of which are impressive structures.  The bridge for its size and the Opera House for its shape and design.  The one place I keep finding myself going back to is the Royal Botanical Gardens.  It is a large area with many different gardens, from an herb garden to a southeast Asian garden to a rainforest garden.  There are statues and fountains scattered throughout the gardens as well.  Each time I walk through the gardens I find something new. It is in the gardens that the flying foxes roost during the day.  These bats are huge, about the size of a crow.  It's quite a sight seeing them leave their roosts at dusk and take to the sky. 
After seeing the Opera House and the bridge, my next stop was the Tarunga Zoo.  Just getting to the zoo was a unique experience.  I took a ferry across the harbor and then a sky rail up to the entrance of the zoo.  Tarunga is a really neat zoo; it has the Aussie animals as well as the standard zoo animals.  Their elephant exhibit featured a baby elephant born at the begining of November.  The Koala exhibit was pretty cool, the koalas were in the center of the exhibit and you spiraled up and around them. 
One of the coolest things I saw was a light show on the face of St. Mary's Cathedral.  It was a 10 - 15 minute display using the front face of the Cathedral as a backdrop, all set to music.
One of the nice things about where I'm staying is that it's about a 20 minute walk to the harbor.  The walk takes me through the gardens where I always get distracted by something new so it takes me a little bit longer.  Should I choose, I could use the train or bus services, which run all over the city.  And to get to places on the other side of the harbor there are ferry services that run regularly too.  No matter where you go in the city, you are never far from a public transportation service.