I just realized that I never posted my Sydney entry after I finished it. It's a long one, so maybe grab a cup of tea or some popcorn or something. Travel back in time with me to approximately two weeks ago...
May 5th-8th, 2011- Days 10-13
Where: Sydney
Taking a break from the road trip lifestyle
We made the mistake of leaving Wollongong early in the morning and we hit the morning commute headed into Sydney. After a rather disgusting breakfast at McDonalds (Pat was nice and went because I wanted to, but I think my craving for McDonald breakfast is gone and perhaps never to return after that meal) we finally made it to our campground northwest of the city. It's a great campground with all the amenities and we were even able to do our laundry while we were there. It was only a 10 minute walk to the train station and then a 25 min ride into downtown Sydney. So great not to have to deal with driving in the city.
Our first day was spent down by the Harbor, you know, that one with the big oddly shaped building on it? We got off the train across the harbor from the Opera House and we walked over The Harbor Bridge into The Rocks district of the city. It's an older area that has the remains from some of the first houses built by prisoners. Now it has a lot of bars and shops and is generally a pretty fun area to hang out in. It's right near the harbor so we went over and explored the Opera House area. It's so fun to finally see it it for real after seeing so many pictures of it. It's huge and it really is gorgeous. It's covered in white tiles so the light hits it many different ways, making it look a bit different all the time. My mom have Pat and I some money to do something extra special while we're in Sydney and while we were at the Opera House we decided we would buy tickets to see a show. We chose the ballet “British Liaisons.” It was choreographed by a British woman to be performed by the Australian Ballet. We're going to see it tomorrow night! With our tickets we also got tickets to go on a tour of the House. We came back later in the afternoon for the tour where we got to go into the bigger Symphony Hall building, and the slightly smaller Opera House (where the ballet will be). They are incredibly impressive, especially the Symphony Hall which has the largest set of pipe organs in the world inside. It took something like 8 years for the guy to make them all and then 2 more years for him to install and tune them. Crazy, but so awesome! We stopped into an Aboriginal Art Gallery and got our first taste of this style of artwork. We really enjoyed it and have decided to look around and more galleries before possibly buying a couple of pieces.
It's different to be out walking around for 10 hours a day after spending the last week in the car. Over our 4 days in the city we covered a pretty good chunk of it. We ventured into China Town where we we had glutinous black rice with coconut milk (um, YUM!) and super tasty freshly made custard filled crème puffs. Pat was so happy to be back in an area with street food. He's fun because he will seriously try anything, so I end up finding foods I like through him ordering them. Black rice is an example. We both really love Asian food and on our last day we looked up ramen houses and found one in China Town. I first had ramen in Tokyo and it's such a delicious cheap, filling food. The place we found was packed full and it was just as good as my favorite ramen in Tokyo. Our final meal in Sydney was on a recommendation from my friend who lives there and it was all you can eat Korean BBQ buffet. This is truly Pat's dream meal. You pick out all your raw meats and veggies and then you take them back to your table where you have a hot cast iron grill in the middle. You grill all your own food so it's fresh and delicious. I was impressed that Pat could even walk out of the place after all the food we (he) ate. It's taken me a little while to get into Korean food, but it really was a good meal and cooking food at your table is fun.
Our evening at the ballet was a very special treat. We pulled out our “nicest” clothes that we have with us. Luckily the shows at the Opera House aren't really that fancy so a simple dress can be fine. We ended up in The Rocks area before the show so we had a quick pizza dinner at an Italian place. We considered going to a fancy dinner, but after cooking out of a van the past couple of weeks any meal out seems fancy. We walked down along the harbor where street performers were playing didgeridoos and violins and Spanish guitars. Lots going on down there! After passing all the outdoor diners and ice cream eaters we came around the bend to where you can see the Opera House in all its glory. It felt quite fancy to walk up the stairs with our tickets, feeling like we were so much more sophisticated than all the people just standing on the stairs for pictures (hehe, even though we were those people at least 3 other times during the visit.) Before the show I had a glass of bubbly, because that's what you do before the ballet! (I think?) The ballet was actually three short ballets with a 20 min break between each one. It was a beautiful show with lots of pretty outfits, crazy on point moves and great music by the orchestra. One of the ballets was even about a chess game and they were dressed like chess pieces. Neither Pat nor I have been to a ballet before so we certainly weren't a critical audience. We kept reading about “pas de deux,” so when discussing what we thought of the different pieces with each other we were sure to mention how lovely we thought the pas de deuxs were. The show was beautiful and we really did enjoy every minute that we got to spend in the famous building! Thanks for the treat mommy :)
We ended up visiting at least 6 different Aboriginal Art Galleries while in Sydney. We became familiar with quite a few different artists work, and we also learned a lot about dot paintings. I really enjoyed looking at all the work and it was so hard to decide what to buy. I finally found one that was done in shades of pinks that I loved. I first found it at a street market, but then found it again later at a gallery where I ended up purchasing it. It was a little expensive, but it's something I think I'll enjoy having for the rest of my life. My first real art purchase! Pat also bought one for his mom and we shipped them both home for safe keeping.
One afternoon we took a ferry from Sydney Harbor up to Manly, a town a little ways north of the city. It was a very beachy community, with huge houses and lots of surf shops. We stopped for dinner in cafe that had a earthy/hippie feel to it almost. It had a delicious anti pasta plate along with a pork roast and a warm sweet potato and spinach salad. There were two guys sitting next to us who we overheard talking and figured out that they lived in Sydney but were from LA. Kindof funny to hear them talking about areas where we used to live.
On the 4th day we had planned to leave the city, but we ended up going in for a half day, at which point we decided to stay the whole day and then just park near the campground to sleep. We had a great day walking around a huge park down near the Harbor, and then we had the ramen and BBQ. When we finally got back out to the car, we decided to stay just across the street from the campground which just happened to be a giant cemetery. So we spent the night a mere 20 feet or so from the closest head stone. There was a metal fence between us if that makes it any better? It didn't creep me out at all though and it's actually one of the best nights sleeps I've had. I did have to sneak into the campground to use their toilets a couple of time, however.
On the side of our van there all this advertising comments about how the van comes with “a beach view,” “a mountain view,” and “a city view,” so we decided we should add “a graveyard view” to ours. Just to round out the advertisement.
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