Australia Day, January 26, 2008

We had never heard of Australia Day until we arrived in Sydney just a few weeks before. Many people, including many Aussie I have discovered, think Australia Day marks when Captain James Cook discovered Australia. But in fact, it marks the day when Captain Arthur Phillip discovered Sydney Harbor and anchored where Circular Quay (pronounced Key) now stand and started a city, on January 26, 1788.
How do I know this? I read it in a fabulous book by Bill Bryson, "In a Sunburned County", given to me by my friend Phil at Baker (THANKS PHIL!), which I highly recommend (http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/bb_title/display.pperl?isbn=9780767903868).

Anyway, we were able to experience this day at Darling Harbor with about 1.4 million other people (no kidding, that's a real statistic!) and I gotta tell you...it was the most spectacular display of fireworks and entertainment we have ever witnessed. The crowd sang the Aussie national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", and it was soo cool. We made are way across the crowd, which was a huge endeavor, to a nightclub that overlooks the harbor called Cohibar (http://www.cohibar.com.au/index2.html). While staying at the Quest, Jay managed to make some friends at this establishment, including the head of security, James. So we were able to get in for free on Australia Day. We also met up with our friends Mark and Anna, whom we had met a few weeks earlier at the Cohibar.

We had a great time. The crowd was fun, everyone was in good spirits, as well as highly influence by the spirits, and it was quite memorable singing "Land Down Under" by Men at Work at the top of our lungs with about 300 Aussies. The song is practically the unofficial anthem over here, and it now has real meaning to us. What can I say...it was awesome.