Finishing off in Sydney

what did I last write.. I think it was 2 days ago...

Well, my travels have been relatively good so far...
On Monday, I was going to meet up with Michelle, MJ's friend, but it turned out that Tuesday was better for her. So I chose to explore more of the downtown area of Sydney on Monday instead.

I got up, freezing in the hostel, they have no heat.. why would you have heat in the winter I wonder? lol anyways... they did have a lot of hot water, for which I was extremely grateful. I was able to wash my hair without any difficulties and the hairdryer I bought at the Paddy market the day before worked wonderfully. What I did notice upon getting out of the shower was that during the night, some beast or bug of some sort had quite a feast... at my expense. I found about a dozen or so red welts on my torso. Thankfully, they don't itch. Didn't really entice me to get back into bed that night, that's for sure.

So after getting dressed, and having breakfast, I headed off to William St which crosses downtown quite well. I saw the big Coca Cola sign that Kings Cross is known for (among other less savoury things) and proceeded to the St Mary's Cathedral.. lovely, as far as cathedrals go, it has a wooden ceiling and lovely artwork and stained glass windows. From there I visited the Australia Museum that was across the street. That is a great museum, there are dinosaurs, skeletons of all sorts of animals, including humans, and stuffed everything... koalas, dingos, kangaroos, ... and the great part is that you get to pet everything. Koalas didn't seem to be as soft as you'd think... Kangaroos are apparently softer than you'd think..

it was an interesting museum and I took lots of pictures. Speaking of pictures, I had a bit of an unfortunate incident, in that I wanted to keep the photos that were already on the camera before my trip, there were pictures of mom, grandma, Sydney... so, I'm a bit upset that some kind of glitch erased all of them. I'm now hesitant to try and empty my memory card...

Continuing on my trek, I passed through Hyde Park (much smaller than that of London.. but lovely none the less). I continued to Darling Harbour for Lunch and bought an IMAX ticket to see a 3D “under the sea” show for later that evening (5pm) I still intended to go onto the maritime museum as they had a submarine, a warship and a replica of the Endeavor that were perched in the harbour. Concession tickets are just wonderful. I really am glad I went to Kitchener to get my international student ID card. Very Helpful. On a side note, while I was walking along I strangely felt like I was in Downtown Toronto... (other than all the cars going the wrong way!!) oh, and the fact that I was walking by Maseratti, Ferrari, Porche and Lamborghini dealerships... man, was I ever drooling at the windows.. I didn't dare enter.. just left a bit of saliva on the windows.. :) The dealerships were different than what I remember back home.. they were a showroom on the main floor of a building, not a car lot.. I guess with cars like that.. it's an “on order” only.

Back to the Maritime Museum, the submarine was my first stop. Man alive.. mom and dad.. you would never have made it through.. there was hardly any head or hip room.. standing in the hallway, both my hips were touching the respective sides. the bunks were in the hallways and the “heads” were smaller than our pantry back home, and that included the shower!

from there I visited the Warship, which was great, though there were guns, a captain's chair and more room than on the submarine. From there I made my way to Captain Cook's Endeavor, the ship with which he landed and “discovered” Australia. The below decks were extremely tight.. the space from floor to ceiling in one bit of the ship was less than 4 ft... very squishy. (and that's where the officers got.. you can imagine the poor seamen) it was a lovely ship, full of very helpful volunteers who told the historical stories.. I really liked this museum, very customer oriented, friendly and extremely knowledgeable staff. Speaking of which, when I went to go into the “actual” museum, I was offered my own personal guide to teach me and show me around!! how fantastic... a personally guided tour.. for free! so he was a great man, he has a daughter in law I think that is Canadian, from North of Edmonton I think. He explained the significance of lots of things, (and the cost of some of their artifacts) they have a bowl that is worth millions, and a coin that was etched by a convict worth nearly a million. in any case.. it was fascinating. From the lovely tour, I had to rush to get to the IMAX at the other end of the harbour. The cost for a popcorn and pop was $10 and the IMAX ticket (discounted for my being a student) was $16.50. My museums were about the same price put together!

The movie was good. A nice way to relax after a full day on my feet. After the movie, (oh they used the old fashioned 3D glasses, not the nice sunglasses type that we have back home. so I just took the city train back to the hostel where I figured I'd get in, and finish up writing about my day, since it was only about 6:30 when I got back.

So I thought.

What the front desk failed to mention to me that morning when I spoke with them, is that they change their door code every Monday. So, I left, not knowing that the code I had was no longer valid. I tried it in vain, rather unsuccessfully. I was stuck in a doorway locked out at 6:30 at night in winter when it's already dark out in an unsavoury neighbourhood. needless to say... it was a very lonely moment. I just sat on the door step with a newspaper waiting for someone to either come in or go out of the hostel. Thankfully, one of their maintenance staff, aptly named Arcangelo (arch angel) came to my rescue and let me in.

Alas, this dear sweet man (who had studied to become a Franciscan monk) kind of became rather sweet on me. I had things to do but was too thankful to him to just run off to my room. So he and I talked till 9pm.

The next day, I had to be up at 7am to check out of the hostel (they would be closed when I wanted to leave) and get the right city train to get to Michelle. That was pretty good. I'd initially got on the wrong train, but luckly I was able to catch the right one at the next stop.

Michelle.. was just fabulous. She and Patrick, her 8 year old son were such wonderful tour guides.

We were a bit worried about the weather first off, but things cleared up by mid-day. We first went off to visit the THREE SISTERS... a rock formation with a lovely story behind it about a magical man who turned three sisters into stone all around a romance with three brothers I think... something of a romeo and juliet X3. Any case.. I would suggest looking that bit up if you're interested.

We then did Scenic World (think that's the name.. not handy at the moment) we went down the RED DEVIL.. I'm not making that bit up at all.. it's this BEAST that you sit in and it goes down the mountain at a peak of 52 degrees! it's STEEP! that was exciting, and I video taped our descent. Then we were able to walk around the boardwalk and found out neat information about the mines that were in the mountain. We went back up a Funiculaire of sorts with a lovely view.

From there I think we went on for Fish and Chips. In Australia they have the option of using something called Chicken Salt on their chips, the man let me have a taste, it reminds me of chicken bouillon. Eh, I went for the traditional salt. After lunch we drove about a bit. Michelle was so gracious, I'd see a lovely vista and she'd pull over the side of the road to let me snap a picture! Overall, I'd say anyone who visits Sydney, I strongly suggest to visit the Blue Mountains.

We got back home in time for dinner, the food was delicious.. Apricot Chicken and a type of pasta bake that was equally yummy!
What wasn't so good.. was my FIRST TASTE of VEGIMITE. DISGUSTING! if any aussie ever asks you to have some of that vile stuff.. flat out refuse! it was salt paste on a cracker! They all got a good chuckle at my trying their national spread. It was all in fun, though I don't think I'll get tricked into eating that stuff again!

Got back home in the rain (via the Harbour bridge.. Thank you!) just in time to pack and get ready for the next day flight.

So far so good! :)