We found Nemo!

Friday November 18
At around 10am I got out of the creakster bed and moseyed downstairs to eat my left over half of a Subway sandwich. Julia and I did not really have plans for the upcoming day so we decided that it would be an “explore center city” type day. It actually turned out to be an incredible day where we saw the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House and hung out around The Rocks.

We originally planned on taking a bus into town but after being told by a convenience store man that the Opera House was only a 25 minute walk from our hostel we decided to walk. Okay, the walk was more like an hour, but on the way there everything was exciting and we had just gotten up so walking really wasn’t tiring. Ten hours later though I was a little grumpy on the walk back because the backpack on me had grown infinitely heavier (I was carrying my computer and stuff around because I didn’t know where to leave it in the hostel) and I really wanted to shower and go to bed.

To begin our adventures for the day Julia and I made our way to George Street, a hustling and bustling street with little and big shops and tall buildings. Australia in general has reminded me a lot of the U.S. We decided that we would visit The Rocks, and the Sydney Opera House, both of which are on the harbor. The first thing saw was the Sydney Harbor Bridge from a distance. We were at The Rock, which is another hub of the city where there was an outdoor market and a bunch of little shops and pubs by the water. There were cobblestone-ish roads and cute little alley ways throughout this section. We went to the information center to book a tour to see the Blue Mountains and after that we decided to go explore the bridge more. We ended up underneath the bridge but soon we found stairs that led us up to the pedestrian walkway. We did not go across as the Opera House was on the other side but we got some pretty amazing views.

Upon seeing the Opera House I declared, “WE FOUND NEMO!” and then proceeded to admire the infamous building even though we were still quite far from it. Some of my first reactions to the opera house was that it was very shiny and rather off-white. I always imagined it as a very very white color with a silver-ish sheen. Also, it was much taller and pudgier than I had thought. I thought it would have been longer and not as tall. Anyways, I continued admiring it for a long time as we walked towards it. I did not get to go inside since it would cost money but the outside was spectacular enough.

I bought a few postcards, which upon purchasing was placed in a bag that informed me that all the tiles on the opera house roof is made of self cleaning granite imported from Sweden. I’m not sure what self cleaning granite tiles mean exactly, but if they do actually clean themselves, that would be amazing. I would want my future bathroom and kitchen to be made with self cleaning tiles. Maybe I’ll inquire about them the next time I’m at IKEA. Okay, since now I’m on the topic of IKEA, I have not seen one in all of New Zealand or Australia thus far. I love IKEA and lingonberry sauce and my lack table. Mmm… now I’m imagining my future apartment with self cleaning tiles and multi color lack tables… for lingonberry sauce and everything else because lack tables are good for everything.

Aaanyways, we went to the Royal Botanic Gardens next and spent the next couple of hours looking at the beautiful garden. My two favorite things about the gardens is the succulents section and how there are Flying Fox bats dangling from all of the trees. Basically anywhere you look up you could see sleeping bats dangling from above. They are not those scrawny scary looking bats, but very furry and quite leathery. We saw a bunch of them flying around, which confused us because they were supposed to be asleep. We figured that the flying ones were discontent with their previous branch and was just flying to the next tree.

After the botanical gardens we went to the New South Wales Art Gallery. The gallery had an exhibit on Picasso and was surprisingly bigger than I had thought. We did not get to spend much time there as we got there pretty close to 5pm but we did see a bunch of cool things. I am kind of equating the botanical gardens and the art gallery to Central Park and the MOMA.

We headed back to The Rock as there were festivities going on tonight. Julia and I both ate Turkish food from one of the market stands and it was delicious. It was basically pita bread like stuff with spinach, cheese, and beef (well, mine had beef) and toasted with lemon on top. It was delicious. We then moseyed around and listened to rag-time music from 100 years ago, tried on ridiculous rubber masks, and looked around the shops. We also went to this crazy three minute burlesque show. I have never been to a proper burlesque show but this one was crazy and not very normal I think but amazing nevertheless. I have no idea how to describe it other than a cross between Phantom of the Opera and Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter. Basically, Professor Trelawney in a neck brace appears in a Phantom like stage, and begins to dance to the James Bond theme song. She takes out a chain from inside her leggings and proceeds to twirl the chain but then throws it off stage. Then she takes off her Trelawney outfit, about half way because she gets stuck, and there is a black and red lingerie type dress underneath it. She dances some more before removing the black and red dress and walking off stage topless. We then began the epically long walk home.