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Published: December 21st 2007
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Our favorite coffee shop
across from our hotel Vibe We bid a very fond farewell to Green Island and headed down for a few days in Sydney. We arrived in town late that night, and Steve took advantage of his early-to-rise habit by walking our neighborhood and finding us the perfect coffee shop in which to have breakfast. A loyal bunch, we Trautmans, and we ended up having breakfast there nearly every day in Sydney.
Highlights of Sydney:
*Walking around town during the day of The Melbourne Cup. This is the "race that stops the nation," perhaps similar to our Kentucky derby (if you're a horse person) or the Super Bowl (if you're any other American - just think horses instead of football). Even though it takes place in, yes, that would be
Melbourne, the city of Sydney takes advantage of the event to party and dress up like crazy, including wearing fantastic hats for women. Remember the scene of the horse race in "My Fair Lady" (in which all those women wear crazy fantastic hats)? Just like that! I didn't have the guts to walk up to anyone and take their picture, so click
here to see someone else's (public) pictures of the event.
There is
The Tree inside QVB
Will the Trautmans be printing this out for their Christmas tree in Guatemala? Stay tuned! another type of hat called the Fascinator. Just shrink the hat about 10 sizes smaller, to about the size of a grapefruit (a reliable standard of measurment), bobby-pin them to a bunch of roudy Australians and hey presto, you've got the image of The Melbourne Cup millinery! Then, place these people in nice bars around the town (where you get your cable TV), add alcohol, and you've got yourself a spectacle! All traffic ground to a halt (luckily we were on foot) and as we walked by bars and restaurants we heard the cheers of Australians having a great time.
*-The Queen Victoria Building. This block-square building was built in 1898 and has really nice shops. In the very middle was a huge Christmas tree, and since we didn't know if we would get a Christmas tree in Guatemala , we decided to take a picture of the tree, print it out, and place it on the window at home in Guatemala in liue of a real tree.
Also in the QVB is this totally cool clock which hangs from the ceiling, is about the size of (hmm,
what fruit can I use here? A few bushels of apples?) well, really big, and does this little show at 2:30. The clock does a sort of cuckoo clock thing where doors open and little scenes of the history of Australia rotate around the top. Don't you know but we arrived there around 2:15 so I was able to take a few shots.
*The Maritime Museum. In particular, boarding a reproduction of James Cook's
Endeavor, which sailed the ocean blue into history. I love old English exploration history and Mr. Cook figures largely in it. The ship is manned by volunteer docents and our guide clearly loved this ship and James Cook. Great exhibit.
*The Powerhouse Museum. Built out of an old power station, turned into Sydney's largest public museum. At the time of our visit they had an exhibit on the clothes and other artifacts of Princess Diana. Really interesting.
*The Opera House. Of course. But really, despite the tourist draw, it is a marvel of technology and architecture. We took a walking tour led by a crusty old guy who had been working there his whole adult life and regailed us with various stories, myths
and gossip. I LOVED this place. We tried so hard to get tickets for one of the main house events, but all sold out or not available during our stay. For anyone intending to visit Sydney, I'd suggest ordering tickets for an opera house event well ahead of your arrival.
*-Lucas' new haircut. I don't have a picture of the actual operation, unfortunately. Most of you know what a challenge it is to cut this kid's hair, and so we went on the prowl for a barber in Syndey. (For some reason he was game. Possibly the liberating effects of being in a new city?) Anyway, when I went into a internet cafe to make reservations for New Zealand, Steve took Lucas to a barber nearby. This was an Arab shop, with Middle Eastern music blaring, with a couple of businessmen waiting in the wings. A perfect place for a skinny young American! The barber didn't talk a lot, but Lucas noticed that during the cut he kept looking back at a poster on the wall of a man, presumably with the haircut he was delivering upon Lucas. (Although Lucas swears there is no resemblance to the poster whatsoever).
The tiles of the Opera House
There are some bazillion of them. They are curved and came from Sweden. Whatever it was, let me tell you it was a HIT. Except for the minor ducktail at the base of the neck, Lucas walked out of there looking better than he has in the past, oh, 10 years, and looked more a man than ever before.
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