My parents were supposed to fly in on Sunday, March 9th for a 10-day visit, but as luck would have it the last leg of their journey was cancelled. This gave them a whole day of sight-seeing in LA, but one less day in Sydney. It was too late for us to cancel the hotel reservation for that night, so I got to live it up in a room for three at the Lord Nelson Brewery. Quite the change after staying in hostels for the past two months! They finally arrived early Monday morning, and we wasted no time getting the touring started.
We started off with a harbour tour on a jet cruiser. The driver made sure to do lots of turns and sudden stops, so we were all soaked by the end. Then Monday night, we saw A Masked Ball at the one and only Sydney Opera House. I was tired by the end of the show, so I'm sure my parents had to have been exhausted. We stayed in an area called The Rocks, which is where Governor Phillips and his fleet of ships carrying convicts and soldiers first landed in Sydney back in the late 1700s. This was where European civilization first began in Australia, so the place has a rich historical background. The Lord Nelson claims to be the oldest operating pub/hotel in Sydney, as do two other establishments, The Fortune of War and The Australian Hotel. The debate still continues over which one can actually claim the title, but they all advertise it.
Tuesday we did something I'd been meaning to do since arriving in Australia, but haven't had the chance to do yet: take a ferry to Manly Beach. The northern beaches are supposed to be the most beautiful in Sydney and taking a ferry is a must for tourists. Manly was nice, but truthfully, the beaches are all starting to look the same to me. I still enjoy them; they just look familiar. I did find an odd object that we believe is a bone from a cuttlefish. I haven't heard anything about it, so I'm assuming my mom was able to sneak it past customs without any issues.
Wednesday we took a tour to the Blue Mountains, which are about two hours west of Sydney. They aren't as large as mountains in the US, but the view was still spectacular. They're named for the blue haze caused by light refracting off the oils from the eucalyptus trees. During the tour, we visited an Aboriginal site and saw an authentic rock carving of a kangaroo. We also stopped at two waterfalls, Katoomba and Wentworth, took the Scenic Railway down into the mining areas, and rode a suspended cable car back to the summit. On the drive back to Sydney, our guide stopped at a camping site, where we saw some fairly tame kangaroos. We were easily able to get within 10 feet of them! The tour finished up with a drive through Olympic Park, then a river cruise back to Sydney.
Thursday was our official tour-The-Rocks day. We started with a historical walking tour that covered the period after the First Fleet of Europeans arrived. Back in those days, there were heaps of people living in the small area by the shore, so there are old houses and pubs in every nook and cranny. I'm glad we took the tour, because I'd walked through there a handful of times and never noticed all of this. That evening we took the pub tour, which covered three pubs we had already been to. Despite this, we still learned interesting tidbits about each of the pubs. For example, there's a pub called the Mercantile, which was a big hit during St. Patty's Day weekend. The pub walls are covered in green tile, both on the inside and out. We found out that there's a function to these tiles beyond decoration. Years ago, the men of Sydney used to work until around 5 PM then head to the pubs for "happy hour." Their wives complained and got the law changed so that the pubs had to close at 6 PM. This meant that the men would rush to the bars after work and drink the same amounts, but in a much shorter span of time. You can use your imagination to figure out why the tiles were needed. I guess after awhile the wives realized dealing with their drunken husbands was worse than having them at the bars all night. So, the law was changed again.
Friday and Saturday we circled around on the Sydney and Bondi Explorers, which are tourist buses that run all day with unlimited stops. My parents got to see many of the places I've been visiting and writing about in my blog, including Darling Harbor, The Australian Museum, Watson's Bay, and the coastal walk between Bondi and Coogee.
We spent Sunday morning perusing the Rocks Discovery Museum, which filled in the pieces from all our tours we'd taken. None of the tours touched on the Aborinal history much, which I wanted to know more about. After going through the museum though, I realized that much of the Aborigines' history has been lost. There were quite a few artifacts on display, but the majority of the information about their daily life comes from journals and pictures created by the Europeans. After enriching our minds at the museum, we spent the rest of the day at the Harbour View Hotel playing cards, drinking, and listening to Irish music in celebration of St. Patty's Day. In Sydney, it should really be called St. Patty's Weekend, because the festivities started up on Thursday and kept on going until early Tuesday morning. Irish people come crawling out of the woodwork, and finding an open table for three is like mining for diamonds. My parents and I claimed our prime real estate around 2 PM and didn't give it up until we were ready to leave that night. What a Sunday!
Monday we took a day tour to the nation's capitol, Canberra. When Australia became an independent nation in 1901, it was a toss-up between Melbourne and Sydney to become the capitol city. They solved this issue by holding an international competition to design a whole new city. A man from Chicago, Walter Burley Griffin, won the contest and Canberra was built. It's in an area called the Australian Capitol Territory (ACT), which is similar to Washington D.C. in that it's not in a state. They even have their own delegates in the Australian Senate and House of Representatives. The tour was kind of rushed, but we got to visit the National Australian Museum, Parliament, and the War Memorial. We were able to sit in on the tail-end of a Senate session, which was also just like the session I saw in Washington D.C.....formal and boring. Afterwards, we drove to the summit of Mount Ainslie, which gives you a bird's-eye view of the city and a great opportunity to take pictures.
Tuesday we toured the Hunter Valley, which is wine country located about 2-3 hours north of Sydney. Our tour guide was nutty...you would've thought he'd been wine-tasting prior to the tour! We hit two wineries in the morning, then had a huge gourmet lunch with a complimentary glass of wine. After lunch, we went to a third winery. By this time, we had sampled nearly 25 wines. My parents bought a few bottles, but we had to limit our purchases since we were all traveling. This is unfortunate because I don't believe any of the wineries were international. The first one, Iron Gate, doesn't sell anything outside of their own cellar doors.
I was sad to see my parents go on Wednesday. It was a great visit, though. We saw pretty much everything I'd been wanting to see in New South Wales. Moreover, I feel like I know more about Sydney's history than any other place I've lived. Basically just one more reminder of how easy it is to take for granted the things outside your front door. I hope I remember all these reminders when I get back home.
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