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Published: December 7th 2009
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It must truly be vacation as I am starting this blog and not quite sure what the date is…
7 December 2009
We are enjoying our mini-family reunion time here in Sydney. Plenty of catching up and storying in the midst of classic backdrops and interesting things to do. We’ve hit all the highlights of Sydney thanks to Mike’s brother, who is a frequenter of Sydney (as my dad would say, “Sydney is
his town”) and helped plan out our days here.
We met up with the Brull’s at the international airport. After about an hour of when we thought their flight was supposed to land, we were relieved to spot a typical “Mike hat” coming towards us in the crowd. Big grins and hugs were worn and shared by all. Then, we were off to the hotel in downtown Sydney with the whole day ahead of us.
Our hotel is in a part of town called “The Rocks” because of the rocky shores around this part of the harbor. We’ve got all the Sydney “must dos” at our fingertips. And a special pool on top of the hotel with an unobstructed lookout to the
opera house, city skyline, and bridge. Nice to have just a semi-public place to get my tan started. A good place to start out and get our bearings, especially as we are often distracted by all the catching up we have to do.
Our first day in Sydney we did just that: got plenty distracted and wandered around downtown. That evening, we had a bit of structure to our wandering as Mike had a map with all the favorite bars in the area. It sort of felt like we were on a pub crawl, Aussie style. It was pretty cool to see the old bars and I know the guys enjoyed trying different brands of Australian beer.
The next day I surprised myself by sleeping in until 7:30! Must have been the late night combined with the especially dark hotel room. That morning we headed to the Circular Quay to catch a ferry. The ferry took us across the harbor to Manly beach. Denise and I snuck in a bit of shopping on the way from the ferry dock to the beach; picking up some new duds for our big evening. At the beach, Denise and Brandon were
Recycled Christmas Tree
Look closely, this one is made up entirely of recycled plastic bottles! pretty enchanted with the water. Justin and I had to remind ourselves that we were like that too when we first got to the ocean. For the next few hours, we hung out with the waves, tourists, sea gulls, and the flying Coca Cola advertisement pulled by a small plane across the horizon.
For lunch we headed to a ribs place where I had my first taste of kangaroo. I ordered a kangaroo steak and don’t know that I would need to order it again. It was a bit gamier tasting than a beef steak and the meat didn’t have much flavor, but, given my love for meat these days, there was no problem getting it down. We stuffed ourselves with meat and headed back to the ferry.
That evening we were in for a special treat. A show in the concert hall at the Sydney Opera House. I truly am impressed by that building, even though there is always a lot of hype about it. The building is actually three separate rooms; a restaurant, opera hall, and concert hall, I believe. That striking white roof is actually made up of Swedish tiles that look kind of scaly
close up. We enjoyed a show by the Whitmans, an Australian band that is a hybrid of rock and symphony. I enjoyed the music and wished I had a copy of the lyrics to follow along. I could catch a few phrases and know I would have appreciated following them better, but kept missing things due to the Australian dialect or maybe just general distractions of the other instruments. It was a great opportunity to check out the opera house with a live show inside.
The next day was a Sunday and we headed a few blocks down for Sunday mass. Close by was a bus stop for the city “hop on, hop off” tour bus. We all “hopped on” (maybe it was the kangaroo steak?) and listened to the pre-recorded commentary on notable monuments and areas in the city. The bus was a double-decker, with the top level in the open air where you get a clear view of it all. We got to see quite a bit more of the city that way, more than just our typical comfort zone within a few blocks of the hotel.
At Chinatown we got out to walk around and
smell out some good food for lunch. We were distracted by the ground floor of City Market, set up similar to open air markets but indoors. Lots of cheap goods, everything from boots to purses, fruit to radio controlled helicopters.
Eventually we tore ourselves away from the market for lunch. There were oodles of Chinese restaurants to choose from, with their waitresses standing in the walkway showcasing the menu. I was even more distracted by this clown man on stilts with massive garlands of flowers around his neck. Randomly amusing. Somehow we decided on a restaurant and had a good family style meal, complete with a lazy susan in the middle so we could all sample each others’ entrees. My personal favorite way to eat.
Another stop on the hopping tour bus was the city botanical gardens. Upon entering, we were greeted with a sign that said “Please walk on the grass.” This was truly a good stop, such an open and usable area that blends its’ work exhibiting exceptional flora with that of a park. There were open spaces where I can envision picnics, Frisbee, and the like taking place. Here we spent a few hours checking
out the plants and, for Mike especially, the flying foxes. There were droves of them, I’m talking like thousands, stirring in the trees above us. As it was dusk, these giant bats were starting to get restless and take flight. Denise was a little less fond of the creatures, but Mike spent a good thirty minutes taking pictures of them. We also enjoyed the herb garden, talking of custom medicines in Vanuatu and how they compared to home remedies that Mike remembered from home. There were even sunflowers.
The day wasn’t over yet. Justin brought back some powdered kava for his family to taste. He prepared it right in the hotel room, using an ice bucket and a wash cloth. I have to admit, I was doubly impressed with the newbies to the kava scene, everyone had at least two “shells” (or Holiday Inn glasses) of kava. Then, we rounded out the night of special drinks with some homemade hooch from Hays. Seeing that we were all quite content to stay in the hotel room for the night, Brandon and I zoomed down the street to pick up some pop, cheese, crackers, and chocolate to finish out the meal.
The kava was finished, but it wasn’t enough to make us “slack” in the morning. First thing, we were off the climb the Harbor Bridge. Yes, that scenic spectacle you always see on New Year’s Eve. We were zipped into jumpsuits and clipped onto metal cables for the most metallic climb I have ever been on. Our guide was full of facts about the bridge, including that the weight of steel in the bridge is equivalent to 50,000 cars. Completed in the 1930’s, the bridge’s opening attracted 1 million people; a considerable fact considering the total population of Australia at the time was about 1.1 million. After a catwalk style jaunt for a few hundred meters, then four stories of steel ladders, we popped up on the arch and walked right to the very top. The steel was glistening and hot. But once we were on top, we easily forgot our sweat drenched backs and got lost in the view.
After lunch near our hotel, it was back on the tour bus for Justin, Brandon, and I. We had stopped in at some shops in different parts of the city. The three-story, sleek and simple design of the
Chinatown
Justin pondering his next purchase apple store had attracted our attention from the top of the bus the day before. I felt so behind the times as I drooled over the all the apps you can put on the new iPhone. Lonely planet, 20 minute meal recipes, GPS…
We're on our way out of Sydney tomorrow and road tripping to Melbourne for the next few days. More on that soon...
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bruce
non-member comment
YeeHA
Looks like everyone is enjoying the time together...great stuff!! And back here in ole Hays America...we be freezing in the snow... bb