Sydney Opera House

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » Darling Harbour
July 18th 2006

Published: July 29th 2006

I started my day the way I start everyday here in Australia....

Beep Beep Beep Beep

*Snooze Button*

Beep Beep Beep Beep

I roll out of bed, rub my eyes, drag my feet to the nightstand, grab my toiletry bag, go into the bathroom, start the shower and finish up before I leave for "breaky". Today's menu? Oh surprize surprize, soupy eggs, cold hash browns, undercooked bacon, and baked beans? I just don't get it!! Maybe that's how they do things here.

I walked myself over to the hotel, one building down and met up with the rest of the class. Dispite the daily shitty breakfast, I was still in a good mood because we were going to the Sydney Opera House today. Woot Woot.

As you know, I had seen it the night before, but this time I get to see the insides and sneak some pictures and video where it's not allowed. I'm sly like that, you know. Our professors gaev us our daily lesson and then passed out a few "ferry 10's" A Ferry 10 is a pass to get on/off the ferry ten times. Makes sense eh? So each day someone was designated the "head ferry" and would hold the pass and bring 9 others with them. Sadly I was never the head ferry. lol But I did sneak a 3 passer for me 😊 So I was a sub-ferry I guess.

We walked down to the Darling Harbour Wharf where our ferry was due to arrive. And took some nice pictures of the 2 pirate ships that ancored nearby.

The ferry soon came and we all got on and took seats outside on the upper deck. This was kind of cool...my first time on a ferry in Sydney 😊 I wanted a good view, and I got one. The entire time over there I snapped photos of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (which I will write about in another blog), La Luna Park, the oldest theme park here and of course, the opera house.

The gang ooh-ed and ahh-ed as we pulled into the docking area. The Opera House was about a 2 minute walk from there along an awesome boardwalk. The boardwalk was lined with shops and food stands. Sometimes you could spot some local entertainment on the road trying to get some extra pocket change.

We had a good 15 minutes before our tour, so I ran to the convienence store to get some batteries for my camera (again). I picked up the pack of the lithium batteries, never seen those before.....25 Bucks!!! Yea right!! So the clerk grabbed me the cheaper pack ....regular batteries....15 bucks. I could hardly believe it. Pissed off, I walked to our meeting place and awaited our tour guide.

A ltitle spunky woman who was a suttle bitch arrived soon after and we finally began our tour. As the peeps had their bags checked I walked ahead and saw an old woman sitting on a bench next to a radio. She sat arms folded with her yellow knitted sweater and smiled. I smiled back and thought aw, another nice aussie. Immediately after she spit towards the group, made a loud noise and then continued to do this crazy evil laugh for a minute or two. I raised my eyebrow and turned around. She would greet people and then do her laugh and talk to herself and spit somemore.

Crazy old aussie women!! wtf.

Anyways, we started our tour with a behind the scenes look, we saw all the side props and backgrounds lined up against the walls with the play names written on them in marker so they weren't mixed up. How clever... =/

The first theatre we entered was the Drama theatre. At the time, the stage was being prepared for the showing that night of Black Milk. A black humor film about life, love, HIV and Death. I was interested in seeing it, but this poor college kid can't afford it. Some kids from the group did end up seeing it and the only response I could get from anyone was "it was....different". hmm. *shrug*.

We made our way up to one of the lobbies upstairs. Because the opera house was built so long ago, it still had hidious orange and purple carpeting and seats. It's 2006 people, time for some renovations. The tour guide then turned around and was about to begin her speech about this section and she stopped, turned to this girl, Katie, and said "You're a big one, you should stand in the back so everyone can see".

woah!

True, Katie is a heavier girl, but who in their right mind says that to someone!? katie was in shock, she didnt know what to do, except walk to the back. lol We had a few more pictures in there and we learned about the tiles on teh outside of the building. There some tens of thousands of white painted tiles that cover the outside. Because of what is it painted with, nothing can grow on it or rust. She then turned us around to look out the other window towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge and told us that this past new years they spent 38 million dollars alone on fireworks that were set off from the bridge. It is supposed to be spectacular. I plan to spend my next news years here. No really, I do.

We then walked into the main theatre, where the orchastra plays. She boldly explained to us that NO pictures were to be taken. Of course, I took pictures, but i'm smart, I take my flash off and just point it, i don't hold it up to my face....we were listening to them practice and then all of a sudden *snap*!!! Someone's flash went off. The first thought and words to come out of my mouth were "ohhh you stupid mother fucker." I couldn't believe it! It ended up being one of the girls who never confessed. But the woman was pissed!!! The tour guide took us out of the room and then abruptly cut our tour short. There was more to see, but we all think so was so mad that she cut it short.

On the way out, I saw the crazy lady once again on her bench talking and spitting. I walked the other way towards the ticket booths and waited as kids bought tickets for the upcomming shows. Some of the gang went to the Black Milk show and others went to the symphony.

Our teachers then told us that we were going to tour through the Royal Botanic Gardens next and then off to Dinner. However, he wouldn't tell us where it was. It was supposed to be a surprize.

So half the group went into the Botanic Gardens across the way as the other half left to get ready for the night showing they were going to. The gardens is HUGE. I walked for about 20 minutes and then got too sleepy to continue. I'm surprized because all we did on this entire trip was walk walk walk. We snapped pictures here and there, although there wasn't much to see, seeing as it is winter.

As I dragged my feet I had my energy rush when I saw (what I thought to be) parrots flying around a small area by one of the fountains. Turns out they were white McCaws or something like that- I don't know birds. A girl was holding one on her arm as she fed the others some crumbled up crackers. She ended up getting some bird dookie on her coat. At that point, I took that as my cue and exited stage right. As beautiful as the area is and as much as I enjoyed seeing some of those "naked" trees, I was ready for dinner!

We made our way back to the Opera House where we met our professors and finally headed up to the rocks. A historic part of town that was build by criminals. (I can never remember if I tell you guys these things, so... sorry if I repeat myself). The other half of the group met us up on the rocks except for a select few whose cab dropped them off at the complete wrong place. Who then had to walk like a mile in heels. I can't really share any sympathy because I have never experienced that. I'm sure it sucks though? We walked up to this restaurant called Phillip's Foot. Here, you cook your own food. A pretty cool idea i'd say. There are multiple grills around the restaurant that you can use so it allows easy and quick access once you get your meat. We sat down outside beneathe the space-age heaters that this country uses, and soon after we filed up stairs to where the goods were! I turned the corner and my mouth just dropped. You got to choose whatever cut of meat you wanted, there was bacon wrapped filet mignon, t-bone steaks, shish-kabobs, chicken breast, and other marinated cuts. I picked the spicey marinated cut of beef. This country drives me to eat meat. All I want is beef. Beef, Beef, Beef. And of course, the occasional drink! 😊 Occasional* is the key word. I took my cut, and ran down to the grill, where everyone designated me the grillman. I don't want to take responsibility for anyone elses food, incase I burn it or whatever. So I just took care of mine and I let the other former Culinary student assist everyone else. After that I went to the salad bar and got the hot food section and from there on out- I stuffed my face. It was fantastic! I found out it's only 25 bucks a head. That's not bad considering what you get. Towards the end of mdinner, I held my hands on my overfilled stomach and just moaned. It was a good moan though 😊 I Love Food.

I would have to say that this place was my best meal yet. I have yet to top it.

That night, we head back to the hotel and a few of us went out to Cheers. You know, where everyone knows your name. Originally, we were going to go to 3 Wise Monkies, but they wouldn't let Katie in with her flip flops. They are strict here on that. What was funny is that they were going to let Gavin in who didn't have his ID and could have lied about his age (even though he is of age), but wouldn't let the girl w/ the ID and flip flops in. *scratched head*. Anyways---back to cheers. This was the best place yet! The music was good, you could request any song you wanted off the wall, and the video would play everywhere. The upstairs were all pool tables, the 1st floor was just a few tables and stools for chilling, and the basement was a club. Not just any club, but an asian hip-hop club. We walked into the basement with our beers and honestly, out of the 200 people that were in that place, us 5 were the only casucasions there. It was so strange....Why all the asians in the basement and the whites up top? Oh well, after a few booty shakes, we made our way to the pool table area. By this time, I was on my 5 beer of the night. They were 4.60, and someone even bought me one. Oh...and 5 beers is alot for me. 😉

So I's like to say that I was sufficiently buzzed that night. Some native aussie came up to me and katie and was talking about the USA and how he had been to my hometown. And honestly, because of the alcohol I just didn't care. My tolerance for people wear thin. I knew Katie was annoyed with him as well, so I calmly said that I was going to get another drink with my friend and i'd see him later. I treated him nicely just I wasn't interested. Maybe if I was sober? I have met so many locals here, they honestly probably think that all Americans are freakin' crazy!! Some are super nice though.

So as I was stumbling around near the pool tables, watching some of my friends and one of the cool locals play; I was twirling the pool stick, trying not to drop it. I was semi-successful. Gavin, my roomy was so excited to see me drunk. Because I typically don't go out because of my lack of dinero. He was laughing so hard and was so proud. Luckily there was no vomiting.

We made our way home that night and I found my bed to be much more than comforable. ZZZZZZ

I love Australia.

(Pictures Coming!)

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