sydney

We took the train from Melbourne to Sydney last night, after catching an Aussie Rules game in Melbourne. Sleeping in economy class seats on a train is not the optimal situation, so thankfully our hostel let us check in when we arrived at 7 a.m. and get in a nap (it's like two sleeps for the price of one!)
The rest of the day was spent wandering around seeing the obvious sights - the Opera House (it's not as white as the pictures would have you believe; there's actually a gold tinge to the coating), the harbor, parks, and the general city. Not enough time to form a real impression of the place, but the city is definitely pretty, especially on a sunny spring day with the harbor filled with sailboats.

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On Aussie Rules Football:

It's the simplest incomprehensible game I know. The rules are simple: kick the ball between two posts in the ground to score. Other than that, the only real rule is if you catch a kicked ball in the air, no one can touch you while you kick. However, the game itself is chaos and often absolutely impossible to follow for a first-timer.

The other experience of note was the stadium itself. Australians are some of the world's biggest gamblers. In the stadium concourse, along with the windows to buy undercooked hotdogs, meatpies and beer, was a sports book. You could walk about 200 feet from your seat and put a bet down on the game you were watching, or any other game you could think of.
What truly amazed me, however, was the sheer number of people sitting there watching and betting on horse races around Australia. There are sports betting facilities in nearly every pub in the country. You certainly don't need to buy a ticket to a football game to bet on horse racing. And yet, that's what people were doing.