Day 10: Road Weary

Well it happened one day earlier than we wanted it to. We were hoping that tomorrow would be the resting day. We would arrive in Brisbane in the early afternoon and have the rest of the day to vegetate and rest up but we didn’t make it.

The morning started productively enough with some laundry being done for the second half of the trip and then we headed off to Luna Park to ride the rides we didn’t get to do last night. This time we took the train over the Harbor Bridge rather than walking it and it was much faster.

Luna Park was fun. The views of the bridge, the opera house, and the skyline are great and the atmosphere is really wonderful. It’s a great caricature of the Coney Island of old which it was always emulating. We rode the Wild Mouse first, my 211th and Kirsten’s 95th. It was fun and one of only a few left in the world that are made of wood. The cars were placed high up on their suspensions and would tilt outward a little on each hairpin curve but aside from that it was a pretty standard wild mouse. From there we went into their funhouse appropriately named Coney Island. In it they had the usual funhouse gags like a mirror maze, shifting floors, a rotating barrel, and some very steep slides that you rode down on in a sack. They also had a social mixer, or a joy wheel which basically acts as a centrifuge and riders sit on the wheel and the wheel rotates at greater and greater speeds and throws riders off and into the padded walls that ring the wheel until there is only one left. I’m not sure what usual operations are like but kids had taken over on this one today and we didn’t dare try to bully our fat American selves onto it. I’ve seen videos of them running with adults on them though and they look like a rough and tumble (and completely fun) time.

We also rode the ferris wheel with a twerpy little kid who ran ahead of us as we were getting onto the gondola and jumped in. The ride operators were as befuddled as we were but sent the three of us along even though we made it clear that he was not our child. Kirsten was annoyed and I just ignored him. He just ignored us too and instead shouted down to his PaPAA! PaPAA! The entire ride. I don’t know if they necessarily knew he was up there either.

After Luna we took the ferry back to Circular Quay and that’s when we unraveled. We poked around in the Rocks some more with every intention of heading back to the Quay and catching one of the ferries that left for Manly Beach and walking around in the Botanical Gardens looking for the flying foxes. We even canceled our dinner reservations for a steak place that night after getting hamburgers and deciding we needed a break from eating out. So instead of doing all of that and getting a feel for Sydney outside of the downtown area we found a supermarket and bought a kangaroo steak and a bottle of wine and took it back to the hotel to cook in our kitchenette. The kangaroo is a little gamey and tastes very similar to venison. Good, but not the best steak I’ve had. Very tough though, you’re gonna need some jaw muscles to chew it up. Kirsten would like to note this may also be her fault since it was her first time cooking kangaroo and may not have done the best job but I think it turned out just fine.

Tomorrow we leave for Brisbane and what was supposed to be our resting day. We’ll see if we stick to that or if we find something to do while we’re there. We definitely have to surrender to Greater Sydney though; we’ll have to save any outer activities for a different visit far in the future.

Day 9: Introduction to Sydney 101

Ah Sydney, you’re a somewhat familiar face, with your Opera House and your Harbor Bridge. We sort of slept in and got a late start this morning but eventually we got out the door of our hotel, Napoleon on Kent. It’s called that because it’s on Kent Street and it’s short, squat, and lurks under the freeway, just like Napoleon.

We had our usual breakfast of champions in the hotel but wanted to get an early lunch before our afternoon activity. So we walked up to an area called the Rocks which is under the downtown approaches to the Harbor Bridge. This is the original Sydney settlement and it’s called the Rocks because the buildings and streets are built on terraces hewn out of the rock. Like I said, Sydney is hilly. We ended up at the Baker’s Oven where we both opted for a second breakfast. It was filling but not exactly tasty. Kirsten’s bacon was the best part of the meal. Oh and the two tropical birds that were hanging around looking for handouts. We walked around in the Rocks for a bit after eating and wandered through a little market that was going on before we walked around the inner harbor to the Sydney Opera House where we had tickets to today’s matinee performance. What did we see?

We saw the Sydney Symphony Orchestra perform the music of Star Trek (and 2001 and Transformers). It was incredibly nerdy and incredibly fun! And what better way to see the Opera House than to see a show there. Although technically we were in the concert hall and not the opera theater but what are ya gonna do?

The Opera House is beautiful and very small. It looks enormous on the outside but that’s all vertical space. The actual auditoriums are tiny. I was surprised that for the interior, the architecture has held up well and is not showing its age and overall, the place has been very well maintained. Interestingly, the shells on the outside lose their delicate appearance when viewed up close. They’re made of thick tiles overlaid on a very serious concrete structure.

After the show we walked around the downtown area a bit stopping in the two Victorian arcades they have here, the Strand, and the Queen Victoria Building which was the better of the two. We actually managed to do a little shopping while we were there too.

After we dropped off our loot at the hotel and changed clothes for the chilly evening temperatures, we headed out to Cockle Bay (or Darling Harbor – it seems to have two names) for a dinner at a Malaysian place with good reviews called Chinta Ria. It was pretty good, but we’re getting a bit tired of Asian food. We’re going to try to track down an Australian place tomorrow night although they’re surprisingly difficult to find.

After dinner we walked over the Harbor Bridge to Luna Park, which is the local amusement park. Along the way we saw that Sydneysiders seem to prefer the 80s miniskirt as the eveningwear of choice and are already pretty blasted at 8:30. Perhaps it’s the young drinking age, but holy underwear, I haven’t seen this many young drunks since tailgating in college. Anyway, Luna Park is located in North Sydney and we mistimed the walk and got there too late to actually ride anything but the lights were very pretty and we ended the evening watching some fireworks that were going off across the harbor at the Opera House. We’ll go back again tomorrow to ride the rides and this time we’ll take the train rather than do the long walk again.

Day 3: I now know what lions and elephants really sound like.

I don’t remember the last time I slept 12 hours but we both did last night – minus a few excursions to the bathroom for each of us. We think the livers and kidneys were also recovering from the flight and seemed to be working overtime. Not a big deal for a regular hotel but when you have to put your clothes on and walk down the hall and in my case, go downstairs because the men’s rooms on this floor are under renovation, it is a hassle! But anyway, we rested up and now we only feel about three hours ahead of things rather than 14 hours behind. I don’t really know how that works but that’s where our internal clocks are right now.

Today we decided to go check out the Melbourne zoo and Luna Park. The zoo was great! Supposedly it is quite old but it looked more kept up than a lot of US zoos we’ve been to. The animal enclosures were well thought out as far as keeping the animals happy but providing plenty of opportunities to see them. The elephant exhibit for instance was set up in multiple fields that were connected to each other by these Jurassic Park style gates that crossed the pedestrian paths. We went mainly to see the Australian animals and were happy to see kangaroos (sleepy), emus (very social and walked right up to us), wombats (also sleepy), pelicans (they were enormous), and koalas (anti social). They had a great aviary and butterfly house that both afforded lots of up close encounters with the animals and a platypusary with a lone platypus swimming gaily around his darkened tank. Strange animals those platypi. Not only do they have the duckbill, but they’re also nocturnal, venomous, electric, and they lay eggs. (see photos here on our Flickr page)

The primate exhibits were really fantastic too with lots of space and lots of stuff to climb on. One thing we thought was peculiar though was the baboon habitat, they were living in what looked like an urban playground. They seemed pretty well adjusted though as did the aerial monkeys that lived up in the trees. The walkway through that was elevated to the canopy level so you could see the monkeys cavorting around. They had a similar elevated pathway over the Lion’s den that provided a good view of the lions.

Speaking of lions, the animals at the Melbourne Zoo were quite vocal. Normally when I go to zoos I just hear children screaming everywhere but here both the elephants and the lions got my attention from significant distances so much that I actually jumped. Sitting in your living room watching a nature show is no equivalent, lemme tell ya. The monkeys also had quite a bit too say as well as did the birds.

Using vocal birds as a segue, let me say that the seagulls here are exactly like the ones in Finding Nemo, except for the ability to say “mine.” The seagulls back home are sweethearts with angelic voices compared to these flying devils. We ate lunch at the zoo café which only had outdoor seating. Even though we weren’t giving them any food we had quite a crowd around us squawking at us and some would hover uncomfortably near our faces as we ate. If they were just a bit bolder they probably would have tried to snatch the food out of our hands as we brought it to our mouths.

The next stop was Luna Park in the suburb of St. Kilda which was right on the coast. We didn’t spend any time down on the beach since it was quite cold here today but the area around was very cool. The park itself was small and a little grungy but the 1912 Scenic Railway (coaster number 209 for me and 94 for Kirsten) was worth the trip out. It was definitely built for smaller people though as we had zero leg room and maybe half of our behinds were actually on the seats. The train is also unique in that a brakeman has to ride along in the middle of the train and pull back on a big lever so that the train and passengers safely navigate the turns and the crests of the hills. It’s one of only a handful left in the world. Their other roller coaster, Metropolis, was fun and number 210 for me and that’s about it.

For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant (strange, I know) in St. Kilda called Blue Corn but Kirsten has a finely tuned restaurant sixth sense and can pick out absurdly delicious places in the least expected of places so I went along. And it was delicious (crazy, I know)! We stopped in a bar along the way back to the train and got a beer. Just one though because the fine for public drunkenness in these parts is $13,000 and is heavily advertised via PSAs. I would rather buy a car, thank you.

Back at the hotel by eight though, we have a very early morning and long day ahead of us tomorrow.