On Sunday we went to see the Opera House, Botanical Gardens, and the Harbour Bridge. We took a passenger ferry from Parramatta to Darling Harbour and then Circular Quay. Of course I was excited because nothing screams “I am in Sydney” more than a picture in front of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House. On the way there I caught a glimpse of Luna Park, I really really want to go there. At any rate, it was uber duber hot and there were so many people EVERYWHERE.
Anywho we stopped and ate at another really expensive place right on the pier (insert sad face here as no I wasn’t allowed to pay) and then moseyed on our way.
We passed some buskers (which in this case means people who do acts on the street for Money, and yes that was a shout out to Lemony Snicket himself): there were men in gold/silver costumes that were statues, one guy was like he was caught in a windstorm, a guy on stilts, street artists, aborigines playing instruments etc. In Australia buskers must have a license and some places like supermarkets actually recruit them to draw crowds in. We walked up the steps to the Opera House, it looked different in person than what I would have thought. Much more complicated. Then we proceeded over to the Botanical Gardens… Lots of interesting plants there like bamboo, fig trees, and some others that I don’t really know what they were but I hadn’t seen anything like them before. Anyway there was also a Government House that reminded me a lot of Downton Abbey inside but we didn’t go. Since the terror acts happened here you need an id to go anywhere. It did look cool.
We went to a café for some drinks and then proceeded to get in line for the ferry. Well, if there is one thing that this place has reinforced is how much I like structure! Mass chaos wouldn’t even begin to describe the ferry situation. See Sundays it is only 2.50 for unlimited travel all day on ferries, trains, and buses therefore everyone and their mother (literally) was there. So we were supposed to get on one ferry but they pushed us out of the way so we missed it along with a lot of other people. See, here there are no lines. And I really mean that. You just “kindly” weasel your way in. Stan and I were just starring at each other during this because that doesn’t happen in the US or someone would die.
Finally, a ferry worker came out and laid the law down in his nice accent that there would be another ferry coming and if anyone pushed he was slamming the gate shut. He didn’t care because he was already on overtime…that made me laugh. Eventually we got on the ferry which took us by Cuckatoo Island where apparently you can camp overnight…not ready for that. Then we had to dock because tide was low and get on a bus for the rest of the journey. And that was pretty much that for that day, nothing else too exciting. I just tried to recover that night for work in the morning. It was a pretty big deal for me because the things I have been looking at only in pictures were real right in front of me.
