Day 88 - Sydney
Trip Start
Sep 02, 2007
1
89
243
Trip End
May 01, 2008
Sydney,
Australia
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Darling Harbour is a weird place, with shops, restaurants, an IMAX cinema, aquarium, that sort of stuff. In other words I doubt many locals ever go there, it seems very geared up to tourists.
We were looking for an aboriginal crafts shop, to compare prices of dijereedoos, however the hell you spell them ! We'd seen a really nice one yesterday in the city so wanted to see if we could find something nicer/better value.
The shop in Darling Harbour was a bit of a waste of time, and the mall was pretty awful, so we decided to sack off the shopping and to go to the Aquarium instead.
I've not been to many aquariums in my life, but this one was fantastic. We worked our way through tanks containing all manner of Australian fish, coral & reptiles, including some duck-billed platypuses (cool), and a salt water crocodile (very cool).
We saw some seals swimming around their huge tank, some of them clearly posing and showing off for the crowd !
After that we found ourselves at the oceanarium, the bit I was really looking forward to: the SHARKS !!
You had to walk down a series of ramps to get to the viewing area below the tank itself, and much as I hate the word it was absolutely AWESOME.
We were there looking out at huge sharks, big turtles and the biggest ray that I've ever seen in my life (apart from Hayden). It was breath-taking.
You could walk all the way around the tank, down clear glass tunnels which took you through the middle of the tank itself, with the sharks etc swimming over your head !
I stood there watching this amazing scene for about 15 minutes, I was completely transfixed, it was one of the best experiences I've ever had, I'll never forget it.
After that tank, everything else was up against it, but the coral reef section was also pretty cool. Apparently they have the largest section of coral reef anywhere in the world (except the reef itself obviously), complete with all the various life that lives in & around it.
We'd spent a lot longer there than I'd expected, and we wanted to make the most of the good weather while it lasted, so we headed to Circular Quay, to get a ferry to Manly.
We just missed one, so grabbed some lunch while we waited for the next ferry to arrive, they leave every 30 minutes.
When we boarded I remembered that the best views are at the back & side of the ferry as it pulls out of the harbour and across the bay, and we managed to secure a couple of good seats in the right place.
If any of you find yourselves in Sydney at any stage in the future, I would absolutely recommend taking the ferry to Manly, it's fantastic. You start off heading between the harbour bridge and the opera house, then pull out into the main channel, with great views either side.
If the sun is shining it really is spectacular, as the water glistens and those famous landmarks standing proudly, practically begging to be admired and photographed.
It takes about 35 minutes to get to Manly, and then it's a 5 minute walk across the shopping area to get to the beach, which is probably the best in Sydney.
It's bigger than both Bondi & Coogee, and the sand is great. You always have surfers and body-boarders hard at work, with lifeguards looking out for them, and people sun-bathing everywhere regardless of the day or time. In a nutshell, it's quintessential Australia.
We sat on the beach for a while, and then walked off to the right of the main beach, to find a smaller less busy beach that I remembered from last time I was here, called Shelly Bay.
Again we sat and soaked up the sun, we could have sat there for hours, but finally it started to cloud up so we headed back to the ferry.
It was a bit more cloudy going back to the city, but it was still a very picturesque journey back to Circular Quay.
We'd promised Eric that we'd leave him alone tonight, so that he could do some studying, so we headed for Surry Hills, a nice area about 10 mins south of the centre by train.
We went for a general wander, and weren't particularly impressed by the area, and found the area recommended by the guide book, which also didn't look great. So we kept walking.
A few streets later we happened across "Crown St", which was a really buzzy little street full of ethnic restaurants, it reminded us a lot of Upper St, where we live in London.
It was hard work trying to choose a place to eat, but we eventually plumped for a Thai place, which was excellent. I chose a nice bottle of Cab Sauv from the Barossa Valley to go with it (BYO stylee), and it was definitely one of the best meals we've had in Oz so far.
We left the restaurant absolutely stuffed but very happy, and managed to walk down MUCH nicer streets back to the train station. The area had really grown on us, it was very young, very cool, loads of food & drink options, and no doubt very expensive to rent/buy in.
We got home about 11pm, chatted with Eric for a bit and then Katie headed to bed. I stayed up to watch the end of one film and most of another, before realising it was nearly 2am and I REALLY should go to bed !
My last thought was to hope for another good day's weather tomorrow, although the forecast wasn't great....
Lots of love,
Al & Katie xx
