Blogs from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 659

We took a day around Sydney today. Took the ferry over to the zoo and also got the tour of the opera house. Both very nice. The symphony orchestra was rehearsing something that I recognized during the tour. We listened for about 10 minutes. Note: there are not many pieces of classical music that I would recognize. Anyway, flash forward a few minutes to when I asked our guide what piece they were rehearsing. She thought that it was Scheherazade. She's a guide at the Sydney Opera House, so I thought that maybe she'd be familiar w/ upcoming performances, etc.... Turns out she was close, but not right on. I've done some research and the piece was url=http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/sections/whats_on/boxoffice/event_details.asp?EventID=1411&sm=1&ss=1Stravinksy's Firebird. Okay, I'll admit, you can ask Sherry, I was just grumpy because we paid for and ate ... read more

Luce and I went to the famous Paddy's Market, which is full of a load of tat, and even though we'd just been moaning about how much money we're spending and how much stuff we've got, we decided to buy wigs at $50 a pop! Essential backpackers clobber! Lucy's is very cool and funky, red hair. Unfortunately in mine i look distinctly like Kim in "Kath and Kim"... so i spent the day walking around Sydney saying "look at moieeeee!!" God we thought we were so cool. I actually felt like someone in the Witness Protection Programme for most of the day, and it didn't help that the wig kept slipping off either! (Of course, Lucy's looked totally natural .. .grr!) Still with the terrible barnets, we went up the Sky Tower for views over the ... read more

So there's been calls for an update. I'm terrible at this consistency thing. But here's a bit of a look into daily life at Sydney Uni. Monday- Aboriginal Religions Lecture 11-1 with Richard Simmons. It's not Richard Simmons, but the idea is the same. The clothes are the same. Still, it's a really interesting lecture. From 1-2, a group of us go to lunch and sit on the grassy fields and look at the clouds..Just kidding, Sydney rarely has clouds. But we do sit out on the grass and it is great. From 2-3 we have Aboriginal Religions Tutorial (whcih means discussion) with Count Dracula. His name is Vaselli, and he is Greek, but he looks like Count Dracula. At 6pm, we have Formal Dinner at the Women's College, where we dress in academic gowns and ... read more

Booked our trip up the east coast today with PeterPan (backpacker travel agency) which was quite scary as it was over $900 - but that includes our Greyhound pass, 3 nights accommodation, Fraser Island tour, sailing in the Whitsundays, Cape Tribulation tour, a day white-water rafting, half a day horse-riding and some other things that i've forgotten ... Went shopping for the rest of the day (just in case i hadn't spent enoughyesterday!) and Lucy bought a digital camera so is waltzing around taking fab shots of everything. I bought a tripod (only a small one don't get excited!) and was being an arse this evening around the Harbour Bridge and the 'Rocks' area taking photos and boring Lucy to death! Lucy decided the posh restaurants in 'the Rocks' are the ideal wedding proposal site, unfortunately ... read more

We didn't get up for breakfast as we were both knackered. Moved our stuff into a 4-bed dorm that we had to ourselves, which was a bonus! Then went for brunch in town and walked around Darling Harbour. We had a browse round some shops and I introduced Lucy to the delights of Oz clothes shopping. My latest purchase being a white leather bag from "Witchery" which is très practical for a backpacker, n'est-ce pas?! We saw a 3D film "Sharks" at the IMAX theatre in Darling Harbour, fully expecting to shit our pants as these 3D great whites lunged out of the screen at us! Unfortunately it was made by a Jacques Costeau-type marine biologist who wanted to "educate" us and show how beautiful these misunderstood creatures are! Stuff that, we wanted Jaws-tastic gore and ... read more