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Published: July 20th 2009
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9:20PM, the hotel
So I forgot to mention that Wednesday night we went out to a restaurant, and I had kangaroo. It wasn’t bad! And it has a lot of benefits- it’s environmentally friendly, spares the population of kangaroos, and it’s healthy. I also bought my first legal drink, called Neptune. It was blue with crushed ice, and an orange peel on top.
Thursday we had our walking tour. It was rainy most of the morning, so we did a few detours to stay dry. We did see a lot though. Hyde Park, the shopping ‘arcades’ , countless coffee shops, other random sights in the city.
Included in the walking tour was the Botanic Gardens. Definitely taking mom here. There are these birds that, if you bring bread with you, they will perch on your arm and nibble on the bread. I think they are cockatoos. There were also flying foxes in the gardens, which look like bats until you get closer and see they are actually kind of cute.
Sydney is really cool in even the little things. It was decided a long time ago that they would mimic the Harbor Bridge in the skyline, so
Arcade
This building used to be a meat market, and then it was unused for about 30 years, and now it's one of the most popular arcades in Australia. companies have to use blue or white lights on their skyscrapers, and there is a height requirement, so the city looks like an arch, or the Bridge. Also, as an incentive for owners to keep their buildings shorter so Sydney doesn’t have all skyscrapers, owners of a 4-story building can rent out floors 5-60 or so, and the higher buildings around would have to pay that owner rent. And another thing. No building built after a certain time can cast a shadow over a public place, like the gardens. How cool is that?
We ended the morning in the Rocks, the oldest part of Sydney where the British landed. We passed by Circular Quay, which is the wharf that is busy all day long with water traffic. You’ll see a picture of it later, but we randomly turned in between these two buildings, which at the opening some of us almost had to squeeze through. Random! Then we arrived at the Australian Hotel for a pizza lunch, consisting of emu, crocodile, and kangaroo. And yes, I tried all three.
Half of the group went to register at their school, and the rest of us were free to go.
Sydney Rum Hospital
Called the Rum Hospital because this rum seller had the only right to rum in Sydney for 7 years once he built this hospital. Good deal for him! Tired, Jackie and I returned to the hotel. I ended up sleeping for two hours, like I said in the last entry.
Today we woke up bright and early and drove to the Featherdale Wildlife reserve. This park was amazing. Encompasses Australia completely. It was sprinkling all morning, but we walked in and saw some wallabies. They were free roaming, which was pretty cool. Walking through another gate, we saw kangaroos hopping all over the place. There were enclosures with other animals, including a pelican with a huge bill. Walking a little further, started the koala area. There were multiple little separate enclosures with 4 or 5 koalas in each, and then 3 koalas sitting on three separate trees where people could take a picture while touching the koala. Pictures will ensue. The lizard is a scale-backed lizard, or something like that. It took me three attempts before I actually held that thing.
There was another gate leading to the mother load of kangaroos. People could get an ice cream cone filled with their food, and hold it while they eat out of it. It was raining pretty hard now so I didn’t do this. We found a
Skyline
Note the building that just has bars at the top. If they finished the top, it would have cast a shadow on the park I was standing in. kangaroo with a joey, and so of course we all chased it around trying to get a picture. From here I wandered alone- there was a labyrinth of different enclosures, and I wanted to see what I wanted to see and not wait for someone else. It was nice walking alone, listening to all of the different animal calls.
Oh, I forgot to mention that we got our key back. Apparently one of the other girls had it, and a long story goes behind it, but her friend returned it last night.
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