Monday, August 9, 2010

Opera House, Dugongs, Harry's Cafe du Wheels, and other Sydney Wonders

Not typically a big city sorta guy but Sydney was freaking awesome! We left early Friday morning out of Brisbane and after a short hour long flight we were there. As a quick aside, security for domestic flights in Australia is a bloody joke/nice reprieve from the crap we deal with in the states. No liquid restrictions and they didn't even ask us for ID for our tickets! Crazy...
Since we were only there for the weekend we quick dropped off our stuff at our hotel and then took a bus to a nice park overlooking the harbour for some lunch. I haven't been to cali but it reminded me a lot of pics that I've seen of San Fran or Italy with winding streets and beautiful houses on the hills overlooking the bay. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous with huge trees like this guy below all over the place. To put it in perspective that tree would take about 5 or 6 of me possibly more to wrap my arms around it!
Next we took the bus back into downtown where I was amazed by the number and size of they parks that they have right in the city. This is thanks to the last governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, who had the commendable foresight to not only plan out many of the city streets but also to set aside large chunks of land to serve as parks and gardens in order to keep the natural beauty alive and well inside of the city. Made the country boy in me quite happy! In the Botanical Gardens we had a blast getting to feed the cockatoos which happily hopped up on our shoulders and/or heads and walked around with us for ten plus minutes even after we'd run out of food for them. Though one did try a bite of my sunglasses but figured out pretty quickly they were a bit less tasty than the banana bread that I'd been feeding it!
A short walk along the harbour then took us to the famous Sydney Opera House. Pictures did not do justice the phenomenal place that it is. Our tour took us through the impressive and ingenious design and construction of the opera house. They started with a design contest and the design they picked was actually rejected initially because it was extremely abstract and had absolutely no actual construction details but they went for it anyway. Construction was originally estimated to take only a few years a 7 million dollars but ended up taking an extra 10 years and a total of 102 million! Being the musical person that I am I was in constant awe of everything that I saw and was able to get into a brief discussion with our tour guide who was excited to talk with someone who had actually helped move a piano before. Here's me inside the main concert hall! (I admit I had to keep from drooling when I heard about the organ which has over 10,000 pipes going back over 8 meters into the wall)

My only regret is that we didn't have time to catch a performance there...
That night we went out to dinner at a cool little pub where you could grill your own steak (delicious) and then proceeded on a pub crawl through some of the more historic pubs e.g. Sydney's first hotel, first pub, etc. Enjoyed a really great local porter (I'm realising how big a fan of dark beers I am) at one of the place's called Nelson's Blood, as you can imagine it was a grand evening :)
The next morning we got up early to walk along the coast listening to our tour guide, Russ, explain a bit of the history of the harbour to us. Apparently when the British first came to Australia they completely missed Sydney Harbour and it was only during a return trip that somebody thought hey! I feel like there's something more in here! If you wanna check out the pics they'll be on FB soon and eventually I'll get around to getting my pics posted up somewhere more easily accessible for peeps who haven't caught up to the 21st century :P The water was the most amazing blue I've seen due to the water being pumped into the harbour and Pacific being filtered of any human caused pollution before being allowed back out. Once again I have to commend the Aussies on their efforts to try to keep green. They're also quite proud of their environmental work and almost everywhere you go you'll see some kind of sign explaining just what is going on.
We walked by a few different beaches until we made it to the infamous Bondi Beach where you can find the Iceberg Club which has its own pool situated right alongside the water! It was founded in 1929 and in order to become a full member you have to take part in a winter swim with the "IceCubes" where they actually fill the pool with ice. I suppose this the Aussie version of the Polarbear Plunge though we've definitely got it a bit easier since our beloved Lake Superior conveniently freezes over every winter for us!
We then spent the afternoon exploring a local Aussie market (read great authentic souvenir opportunity) where we also stopped at a famous chocolate shop, Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man. Pure decadence this place was. Taylor and I indulged in the "Exploding Chocolate Shot" which consisted of a shot of pure milk chocolate mixed with pop rocks and some white chocolate chunks. I can easily say I've never had such good chocolate before and fingers crossed they'll get around to opening up the store they're working on in Brisbane before we leave! Next we had a bit of downtime before getting dinner at a nice Malaysian restaurant. A few of us headed over to the aquarium only to find out it had closed ten minutes before we arrived but our spirits were quickly raised by a street performer by the name of "Toy". He wasn't particularly talented but was absolutely hysterical with terrible "Engrish" and a lovely cache of lewd jokes. A bottle of wine back at the hotel also helped to raise spirits for the evening and a bunch of us ended up wandering around the city having another grand evening in the Harbour City.
Sunday morning we quick checked out of our hotel (which I forgot to mention was easily the nicest hotel suite I have EVER stayed in, read thank you Dson) and scurried over to the aquarium. I can't remember the last time I was at an aquarium but I had a great time there. Sharks, dugongs, octupi, huge sea turtles, and endless Finding Nemo jokes made for a happy Phil. The shark feeding was less than exciting though, they just kinda swam up to the fish grabbed it and then continued swimming around. LAAAAAME
Russ had told us about this famous meat pie stand called Harry's Cafe du Wheels (conveniently located by Russell Crowe's less than humble abode) that with my growing taste for Australian foods I had to try out. This meat pie was a heck of a meal piled with mashed potatoes, mashed peas, and covered in gravy and was delicious beyond words! Time was ticking down though and we made a quick foray into the Paddy Markets which boasted loads of cheap merchandise sold my lovely Asian folk. 'nough said there. Thus ended our time in Sydney and before we knew it we were back at college eating the much less appetizing food wishing we were rich and could have just stayed there forever (kidding i promise) It was an absolutely unforgettable weekend, though it was all too short and with any luck someday I'll find my way back there.
For now its been back to class and then off to New Zealand on Thursday! Didn't you know I don't ever stop?

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