March 1-5: winding up my trip in Sydney, Australia

Sydney is a beautiful city, with clean, wide avenues and rich architecture. It is very walkable. I've covered a big chunk of the city on foot, from my base near the Central Station.

The folks in Sydney were kind enough to schedule their annual Mardi Gras festival to coincide with my visit. Wow, it was a good party! Estimates range from 300,000-500,000 attendees, including a float from San Francisco.

Sequins glittered and shirts went missing. The parade began in 1978 as a small protest march targeting laws against homosexual sex. Over the last 30 years, it has grown into one of the world's largest and most flamboyant gay pride events.

This year's procession of 150 floats was led by the "78ers" — a group of 186 of the original Seventies marchers and their partners, who drew cheers.



One night, I wandered from the center of town all the way down to "The Rocks," which is the part of Australia where the first European outpost was established in 1788. That settlement was a penal colony, made up of about 700 prisoners, guarded by about 250 Royal Marines (along with about 50 military wives and children, and of course the crew of the ships.)



The present-day Sydney Harbour Bridge is a stone's throw away from The Rocks. I went there to find the loft where my old friend Peter Cramer is now living and working. He and I first met in another loft, in Manhattan, almost 20 years ago. He later helped me write the Sydney section of The Worldwide Guide to Cheap Airfares. And now he runs The Milkbar, a design shop that specializes in "video promos." Yep, he's one of the guys who makes the little teaser advertisements for upcoming TV shows. As far as I can tell, he basically makes the TV equivalent of movie trailers. Cool guy, cool business, and damn fun to catch up with him after all these years.

On my last night in town, I got a tour from my friend from college, Steve. He's been living down there for under two years, but already seems to have the city dialed in. After the tour, we had dinner and drinks in Newtown. What a remarkably cool cafe/restaurant/shopping district. It offers hundreds (!!!) of hip indie businesses, with nary a corporate outpost to be seen.