Obviously, we ate in Sydney. And the food was goood! These were some spinach/feta/melty/grilled dough being sold at a street market. I can't seem to remember the name (I'm 31 now, you know, can't remember things) -- But delicious!! This little market was in "The Rocks," the oldest settlement in Sydney, where all of the convicts started out. Quite a transition from convicts and prison walls to yuppies buying their weekend coffee at a streetmarket!
We went up into the pilons at the Harbor Bridge -- the largest arch bridge in the world. Built in two pieces from either end then when they were both complete over 8 days the slowly lowered them together and click -- it was a bridge. Engineering blows my mind.
We did a teeny bit of shopping, although I just couldn't find anything in my price range in the Gucci store at the Queen Victoria shopping center (maybe she'd find something to buy...) -- a gorgeous building.
As per my brother Shannon's recommendation -- Bondi Beach was amazing. Too cold for us North Americans to swim (note jacket and long pants). But we got to watch the kiddies training in the Surf Lifesaving Program.
Some friends Patrick met on the Kepler Track now live in Sydney, and they took us hiking in the Blue Mountains. We had a gorgeous day with great weather, delicious breakfast and some nice hiking, then coffee in the afternoon. Always a plus to have your own local tour guides. They're new friends that feel like old friends. The whole drive they kept joking, "And here is where we buried the last Americans we took hiking..."
Since it was a once-in-a-lifetime-(even though you hope not) trip to Syndey we wanted to see something in the Opera House. This version of Macbeth, written for kids-and-the-kid-at-heart was hilarious. It was in a little theater in the lower level of the Opera House so much cheaper than the big shows. We took the Opera House Tour (highly recommended by a friend -- thanks, Cash!) and when we were in THE big opera theater, the Sydney Symphony was pracicing Beethoven's 5th, which we got to watch for a while. (You know, the one that goes "Dun-dun-dun-DUUUUNNNN!") A few nights later people paid over $200 to see it -- we saw it for the price of the tour. Can't say that I'm much of an acoustics person...but the acoustics were amazing!
We seem to take a lot of pictures of our food when we travel...I guess you can tell we travel for our stomachs! We had a lot of gorgeous runs along the waterfront in Sydney so we could enjoy lunches like this one, at the Sydney Fish Market. It's the biggest in the Souther Hemisphere -- a huge compound where they buy/sell fish all day. We didn't get up early enough for the 5:30 am auction, but inside there are a bunch of little restaurants where you can order samplers like these. Octopus, fish, calamari, clams, I can't even remember what all. Oh, and of course, hot chips!
More food...we did "dinner" one night at Harry's Cafe de Wheels, a famous Sydney late-night (and all day) pie stand. The standard is the "Tiger," a meat pie with "mince" (ground beef), topped with mashed potatoes, topped with mashed peas, topped with gravy. Sounds funny...but it really was good! This boy is going to miss his meat pies when back in the states. Good thing we have fruit pies.
A shot of us taken on the bridge with the Opera House in the background. Next stop, Alice Springs.
I'm going to suffer from post-party letdown. Has it really been a year already? Will you still blog back in the "real world"?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I shouldn't read blogs in the morning before school. I feel whiny.