Family, friends and skydiving.

Family

Two weekends ago, Jessie and I went up to Sydney to meet some of my family. Before meeting them, we started at Paddy’s Market. Finally! Of course both Jessie and I forgot our cameras but I’m going to have to go back to get more, so it’s not the end of the world. Paddy’s wasn’t really what I was expecting. First, when you walk up, it looks like a mall. And part of it is a mall; there are three floors and the top two are all clothing stores. The ground floor though was all market area. I thought it would be more like the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne; chaotic, busy and people everywhere. It was similar in a sense that it had all the typical touristy things. However, there were also a lot of other stalls; clothes, jewellery, flowers, etc. we spent about two hours there – having to snack on our peanut butter and jellies because walking around was so tiring!

After getting our fill of the market (and running out of cash) and walking around in what felt like circles, we headed to our friends’ in Bondi. For some reason, I have never made it to Bondi on a hut sunny day (it was grey and about to rain this time). I still need to see it the way it’s always portrayed in all the pictures; with people everywhere in every direction you look. I got to watch my friends surf but then it was time to meet the family.

View from the other side of the bridge

I met Ellen and Harold near their house on the other side of the harbour. I’d never seen Sydney from that side of the bridge before. It was beautiful. We went out for a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Spitfire. It was at the Overnight Terminal which is across from the Opera House. Again, it was so beautiful – I found myself staring at the Opera House all night. For dessert I had the most amazing chocolate soufflé I’ve ever tasted! It was so light and airy that it didn’t feel like I was eating anything but the taste was mouth-watering! We went home after a great dinner with a full belly so a good night’s sleep in a real bed!

I felt so refreshed the next morning – it’s amazing how much of a difference it makes sleeping in a real bed. Ellen bought me for a delicious pancake breakfast at Belmoral beach. It was so peaceful and just a nice place. I told Ellen how much I would love to come back before I leave; little did I know I’d be back the very next week!

It’s funny how in the end family is family and even if you’ve never met before they still welcome you and want to know you. It’s nice to know that you can travel across the world and still have family to be there for you.

Friends

View from Taronga

Last weekend, was a real Sydney weekend. On Saturday I went to the Taronga Zoo near Manly. I took the ferry across from Circular Quay right to the zoo. They had a great map that leads you through the whole place. Only problem was that I started at the end. I felt like I was walking in circles but at least I got to see all the animals.

It was a really hot day, and even though it was nice to walk around, I was relieved when I had a chance to sit and watch a show. The first was the seal show which was great; they had three types of seals. They started with a small little seal and went all the way up to a huge great seal. They dove from high stands, splashed the crowd and did flips to touch their noses on a ball. It was really cheesy but still really fun. Then, it was off to look at more animals before the next show. It’s funny to see bears and monkeys in Australia. There were even elephants! There were huge big elephants with small little babies, all holding each other’s tails and walking around. Sneak peak: made me excited about Bali!)

Great background to the birdshow

 The next show was the bird show. They had owls, parrots, falcons and birds that I don’t even know the names of! At the end though we saw someone get proposed to! It was so creative perfect with the Sydney backdrop. After that I met up with my friend Bill who has a season pass to the zoo and showed me around some more before it was time to meet Fred and Claire. I met them at the giraffes which were amazing! They were huge!! We were there right when they had a feeding time so they came all the way close to where the public was. I’ve never seen one so close!

Manly Beach

Fred and Claire brought me back to their house stopping to show me all the views of Sydney along the way. After eating some snacks they brought me to Manly beach. That was what I was expecting Sydney beaches to look like. There were people everywhere and it seemed like such a nice relaxing places; very laid back. We got some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and walked along the coast. The breeze was so refreshing because even though it was already late afternoon it was still so hot. Then it was back for a little rest before dinner.

We were back at Belmoral for dinner! All three of us got the mussels – they were delicious! A huge bowl of mussels were set in front of each of us along with an empty bowl, chips (fries) and a salad. It was so delicious! The mussels were in a creamy garlic broth that was incredible! Fred and Claire told me all about when they were travelling and how even though they had an amazing time, it was always a treat to be brought out for dinner after eating sandwiches and the most inexpensive food available. From generation to generation, some things never change.

After another restful night in a real bed, I had breakfast at Fred and Claire’s before they dropped me off at Hyde Park for an activity filled day. Hyde Park is beautiful! There are so many different types of colourful flowers everywhere! They also had an art exhibition on, so there were huge canvas photos down one of the walkways. From there I made my way to Town Hall to meet up with a free walking tour of the city. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that wants to learn about Sydney – even locals (imfree.com.au). I learnt so much about the history of Sydney, the relevance of buildings and many interesting stories about them. John joined me about halfway through the tour and we learnt that the Matrix was filmed in Sydney! We finished at a point right between the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge (which we learnt was nicknamed ‘The Ugly Hanger’).

Fountain in Hyde Park

A sculpture we saw on the tour

After a long and very hot walk through the city it was time for lunch, at Pancakes on the Rocks.  This place is amazing! You can get a regular short stack, a normal meal or real pancakes…some of which are chocolate pancakes! Not only are they delicious pancakes with toppings like chocolate syrup, grilled bananas, strawberries and other similar toppings but every pancake is topped with a scoop of cream and ice cream. No jokes. You use the ice cream as a sauce for the pancakes. I was all set to take a picture but once they came out I couldn’t take time for pictures – they were amazing!

With full bellies we walked over to the Royal Botanic Gardens. Fun fact, the Queen of England was in Australia at this time. The gardens have colourful flowers all over the place; huge bright roses, poppies, lilies and more! It was so hot though, and humid so we decided to go to the Aquarium. It was great – we saw so many fish and other sea creatures. They have all these little Lego people all around; a mermaid, a keeper, a camel, a scuba diver and other random Lego people all over the place. At one part of the aquarium they had a life sized rubber great white shark. Next to it, they had a screen where they showed the routes of six great whites they had tagged. They all swim up and down the coast from Brisbane down to past Wollongong!

The aquarium is set up so that you just follow a path through the whole building. They have a couple of side exhibits with HUGE tans full of animals. In the first tank there was a dugong – I don’t even know how to describe it; it was huge, grey and looked like it had one giant buck tooth. We saw stingrays and hundreds of fish! The second big tank was full of sharks! No great whites but they were everywhere, and huge turtles – bigger than a person! The last tank was Great Barrier Reef fish (sneak peak – made me excited for Cairns)! They had all sorts of colourful fish in a tank surrounded by windows that went from floor to ceiling in brilliant blue water.

Dugong

We left the aquarium around 6pm in search of a bar; the rugby world cup final started at 6.30pm! The finals were between France and New Zealand. Although Australia and New Zealand hate each other in sports, we had been to New Zealand and felt that we were completely justified in supporting them! And they won!! It was a really close game but a great final! As we were walking back to the train station we saw fireworks – we decided they were for the world cup!

Great Barrier Reef in Sydney

 Like family, friends can make you feel welcome regardless of where in the world you are. It’s comforting to know that you can travel across the world and know that there will be people there that you can call on if you ever need help or food.

Skydiving

On Monday Scott and John went skydiving. They were landing on the beach so I went to go watch them. It was a perfect day – sunny, blue skies with some clouds. It was so fun to watch them. I was staring up at the sky trying to find them, then all of a sudden little black dots appeared against the clouds and there they were!

 They got bigger and bigger until they landed at North Beach with the biggest smiles on their faces (and goggle marks). Looking at their pictures – they had the most amazing view of the beach, the sea and all of Wollongong and surrounding areas. Even though I didn’t go, it was nice to watch them come down, floating through the air until they landed.