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Published: February 9th 2008
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Monkey Pub
Downtown Sydney entry way to a pub, I thought this was pretty sweet. Entry (Clover S.W.)
Sydney, what to say, what to say...
First thing I will say about it is that it has wonderful huge parks to wander around in along the bay. In amongst the park is scattered water fountains and an array of different types of botanical gardens. One of my favourites had to be the orchid green houses. At first we didn't even know what we had stumbled onto. All we saw in front of us was a low lying hedge spelling out the words "SEX & DEATH" in front of a large pyramid shaped glass house. That alone was odd enough that we had to figure out why a park would have those words cut into their shubbery. Come to find out it was a play on words for the way orchids pollinate. There was a small entrance fee to enter the different green houses. Each of them had their own climate controls for the different varieties of species contained within. It was like entering a tropical garden with all the flowers and curious plants lumped right up in your face. With little pathways laced throughout. The orchids were the main attraction but my favourites were the
Sydney Opera House
Bay, ship, bridge and house carnivorous plants. There must have been at least twenty varieties. All of which I promptly forgot the names of. But I have lots of pictures of them if anyone wants to be bored by them. Seeing is always better than a picture. So I will spare you from my 101 photos.
When we first arrived in Sydney, Australia the first thing that struck me was it's gardens/parks. From the main park you can access virtually any of the greater downtown area of Sydney. And all through the park area are small rainbow parrots, cockatoos and weird looking long beaked Ibis birds. Oh, and I can't forget the Grey Headed Flying Foxes (rather large fruit bats). You can smell the bats before you see them. But is might take you a little while to notice what and where the stink is coming from. Eventually you, as we did, will look up into the trees and finally notice thousands of bats hanging from the trees with their wings tightly wrapped around their bodies. The smell is their guano everywhere, eww. I was constantly fearful I would end up being the unlucky person walking around town with the bat poo on my
Dangerous Gazebo
Check out the dagger weilding arm coming out of the top of the gazebo. Not very inviting. shoulder. They are fascinating the watch however. When the sun comes up high they fan themselves with their wings from their dangling perches. Chittering amongst themselves. Probably laughing about who they plan to poop on next.
Apparently Australia has barely any of it's own native cacti. Which considering it has most things that want to bite and poison you in the world I should be glad at least it doesn't have the worst of the prickly things in the world. We found this out when we came across a cacti garden. Most of the stickery things came from Africa or North and Central America.
So seeing as Sydney is a large city the parks are only one taste of what it offers. We decided to find a hostel in a neighbourhood called Kings Crossing. We had heard it was a cool seedy area to hang out and people watch. The area wasn't quite what I was expecting but people watching there was interesting to say the least.
Come to find out prostitution in Australia is legal and Kings Crossing makes its money in this field. That and really trendy spendy cafes. Go figure. When you walk around
far away in the present
deep in his book far away in a far away land the neighbourhood the predictable row of shops will go kind of like this. Strip club, cafe, dubious dark hallway with sign saying "sexy friends this way," cafe, crappy convenience store, strip joint, cafe, strip club, McDonalds. Oddly I think there were more cafes than bars. Well unless you count the strip clubs.
So yah, Kings Cross was seedy. Each day we left our hostel we would see something odd and out of place and laugh. When wandering places like this you find the charm in the weird things. Like the guy passed out at McDonalds with his face in his french fries and his Whopper spilling from his slack fingers. Or the man/woman with huge red lips posing for a picture in front of a garage door in a Tropicana outfit.
Our hostel was an unlikely adventure in itself. To put it bluntly the place was a dive. But after a 12 hour bus drive not many people complain about a place to get rid of a huge back pack and a clean bed. It wasn't until the next day when we weren't the walking dead anymore did we realize how nasty the place was. But it was
Sydney's needle
I would like to know why most major cities have a needle. Sydney was no different. Is there some actually history behind why so many cities have one? cheap so we weren't apt to complain too much. However, the cockroaches crawling on the floors and was sort of turned me off a little. As did the mold in the shower stall, but as I said the price was good. The kicker to our hostel was when everyone was basically evicted for the day because the hostel was getting fumigated. Alrighty then....!
After having stayed in over 30 hostels at this point I don't get too picky. When I get a nice hostel I am really stoked but I don't expect anything to be amazing. So the ceiling occasionally cast little pebbles on me while I read my book and the cockroaches were checking out my gear. I drew the line at the kitchen though. We stayed there for four nights and only once did we venture to poke our heads in to the kitchen. And that was all it took. It was tiny and grub was everywhere. It was like walking into your slob friends kitchen and being glad you didn't have to live with them.
And last but not least, we got to experience Australia Day with the locals. Basically the same thing as the
Bird Lady
Seems to me there is always a residant Bird Lady as well. Riddle me this... 4th of July in the States. In Darling Habor mass people arrived early to get the "good" seats around the harbor. It was packed to the gills with revelers in Aussi flags, caps and shirts. I even saw one guy wearing a huge sombrero with the flag painted on it. We managed to find a seat perched on a bridge over looking the harbor. As soon as the evening fell dark sail boats with bright multi color lights shining on their sails sailed around the harbor in prossession. There must have been over a hundred different sail boats and any given time. There was even a huge steam boat that passed by with a wedding party aboard. After the boat prossession the fireworks began. Suddenly the bridge we were on got very crowded and we were really glad we got our seats next to the rail early. There must have been a few thousand people just on the bridge. When the fireworks finally were over I felt like I was in the middle of a human cattle drive there were so many paople leaving a the same time.
All in all, Sydney is a pretty cool place to wander
Sydney parkway
Lovely huge pathway of towering gum trees arching over head about for a space of time. Just try to avoid the flying foxes perched in the trees aiming for a unwary target.
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Lucky Charms
Dave B
Pub Picture
Luv the pub pic. I saw that too when there, but was too stupid to take the picture. Go to Sydney for New Years sometime. The fireworks are amazing. Keep up the good work. I am here freezing in China. Not sure why I went North? Oh back to the stupid theme that explains it. L8tr, Dave