I blog when I go abroad, and occasionally when I do stuff in the UK too. There's a nicer interface over here.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Sydney, day 2

The girls having gone to work, Wednesday morning started with a far shorter walk to our transport: we got the bus from just up the road, opposite the dog (and cat) launderette in Randwick. We'd left later than the previous morning, in part because we'd been watching some of the Steve Irwin memorial on TV. LIVE on TV, ad-free, and possibly on more than one network too. Bit mad, he really is/was a stupendously popular guy in Australia. All kinds of celebs were wheeled out in video-tribute form to say good things about him too. Remember: HE CHANGED OUR WORLD. The service was on in the shop where I bought the first Diet Coke of the day too, just by the bus stop.

339 to Circular Quay, off we got and a couple of weekly passes were bought. This was AUD41 for unlimited travel on buses, some trains, and loads of ferries in the whole Sydney area. Not sure if it's valid out as far as the airport but I may find that out on Monday afternoon (or wimp out and just buy a single). Anyway, this is pretty fucking good value really, especially for an out-of-towner like me for whom getting a ferry is a proper novelty.

On the ferry we got, over to the stop by -- and possibly even called -- Taronga Zoo. Being something of a seasoned cable car rider I'd been looking forward to boarding the Sky Safari up to the zoo's entrance, but it was shut. Broken or summat. So we had to wait for a bus, and only fitted on the 3rd one that came along. Meant we got a seat though as by that time we were at the front of the queue. Off at the top, in we we went, and, well, I'm not sure there's a lot to write about the zoo. Everything can be said with all the photos I took, of which there are legion. I already posted my favourite yesterday, and the rest are up on flickr already in the Sydney set.

Actually I guess there's a few things to say. Quite a lot of it was fairly disappointing: no penguins, very few seals/sea lions, no hippos or rhinos or elephants, and quite a few of the animals we did see were either hiding or being unentertainingly lazy. But I can't be annoyed at the zoo because of that lioness photo, the tortoises, the giraffes, and, well, because it was a really nice day and zoos are cool. The fact that some animals were absent due to quarantine, or mating, or redevelopment of their compound just means I have an excuse to go back to it sometime.

After leaving the zoo we got a different bus to the one we'd got there. Instead of heading straight back to the ferry we instead went to [whatever the bit of town we went to was called, I forget] and a second Sydney institution when it comes to eating: Maisy's. This is a 24hr place that tried to go un-24hr, but relented after a storm of protest. No-one sat inside when we turned up, but no spaces to sit outside either 'cos all those tables were full. I had a footlong hot dog -- the bun was not a foot long, though -- and it was fantastic, as was the strawberry milkshake I washed it down with.

Walked that off by taking a long trot to Cremorne Point ferry stop via a brief stop outside the flats where my bro' used to live. He wanted to show me some crazy birds that live(d) in the trees opposite, but most of the trees had been chopped and we got rather creepily Neighbourhood Watched while pointing at various things. Ended up having a conversation with a yellow-trousered man wearing braces who was telling us about the possum he feeds. Hrm.

The walk to the ferry was mostly through a coastal park thing, Kevin can remind me of the name (except he doesn't need to, 'cos I found it myself). Basically a non-stop glorious view of Sydney harbour from the north shore. The ferry turned up at the same time as us, giving us a little bit of time to spare back city-side to grab a beer in Sydney's oldest pub while watching India fare pretty badly in an ODI.

That said, we didn't really have that time to spare 'cos Mara wasn't coming back early that evening, Sally had no keys to get into the flat and we'd misunderestimated the time it would take us to get back. When we did get back Sally was sat by the door. :-(

Had a bottle of beer, then went out to get takeaway Thai food. Back at the flat a rum and coke was forced upon me, part of some tradition apparently. Not rum+coke with Thai food, but the particular brand of rum in use. Another institution, Bundaberg IIRC. Unfortunately Sal mixed the drinks way too strong, she couldn't even finish her own. The Thai food wasn't great, and I went to bed at about 10pm. Was I accustomed to the timezone properly already?

1 comment:

Techno said...

Your blog is awesome sir!