another day in Sydney!

Last night Mike and I went to the Manly Italian Restaurant for dinner. It is hidden on the Corso, and it was delicious! The restaurant is BYO, so we bought a bottle of wine before getting there. I ordered the fettuccine alfredo which was actually orange in color and included mushrooms and ham. It seemed like authentic Italian food for sure! Mike had the spaghetti mariana which really was quite the seafood dish to my surprise! On top of his spaghetti noodles was shrimp, calamari, and even octopus! Mike bet me 10 dollars that I wouldn't eat it - so I did! Definitely not my favorite seafood - too chewy. Good meal away for the college overall! Afterwards we had a mini photo shoot in front of ICMS.





Today Mary, Olivia, Mike and I got up bright and early and rode the 8.15 ferry into Sydney. First stop was Starbucks for a delicious banana loaf and coffee. After filling up on food, we walked over to the Opera House for even more beautiful photos (this time the weather was bright, sunny, and 80 degrees!) Then we began the long walk into the Botanical Gardens. Hanging in the trees above our heads were hundreds of bats! They sleep in the trees during the day, and apparently are destroying the trees so the Botanical Gardens are trying to get rid of them. These bats are called "flying foxes," and it definitely didn't sound like they were sleeping - tons of noise was coming from them and some of there were even flying around.

We passed by many flowers and interesting trees, but the highlight of the gardens was the white birds! A group was feeding in the grass as we passed by, so we tried to see how close we could get to them. In fact we got really close to them! Mary picked up a stick to see if the bird would take it from her, and he jumped right onto the stick! Amazing! I was pretty afraid they would try to bite at us - one was really close to biting at my toes (maybe green nail polish isn't a good idea around them). Right after that Mike nearly got bird poop on his head. All of the sudden we saw something from from above and land between his feet - could have turned out a lot differently had he been standing a bit forward!! We sat on Mrs. Macquerie's chair and walked over to the Tropical Centre which is a greenhouse pyramid.

After hours in the gardens, we walked to Hyde Park. On the way we walked along Macquerie Street featuring many famous Sydney landmarks. One of them is right in front of Sydney Hospital - Il Porcellino - a bronze boar that is a copy of a 17th century fountain in Florence. It represents the strong relationship that Australia has with Italy. Apparently anyone who rubs the nose of the boar has good luck, so of course we all rubbed the snout and threw coins into the fountain. The Sydney Hospital was built by convicts and was originally called "Rum Hospital" because the convicts were paid for their work by receiving the rights to the rum import monopoly.

In Hyde Park we saw St. Mary's Cathedral, Archibald fountain, and watched the big game of chess. Mary and Olivia had a lunch date at the Sydney Tower, so Mike and I went to look for a small bistro for lunch. We stopped at the Sydney Mint which is now just offices of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW. We saw old coins, models of the original buildings, original sandstone columns, and a coin press machine. It was opened in the right wing of the "Rum Hospital" in the mid 1800s. Then we walked around Macquerie Street and found a small cafe where I ate a ham melt and Mike had beef stew. It was a good midday pick-me-up. Next up was the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. We did not go into the actual museum since that actually had a price, and we are just poor study abroad students. Walking around the grounds was good enough though! We saw an old fashioned courtroom and a watchguard station. The barracks were used for housing up to 600 convicts who came to Sydney. In the museum store we saw a rat cage - rats were crediting with "preservation" of the barracks and its history because they would steal items and store them in their nests which were later found in archeological digs.

We went back into Hyde Park and walked beyond Archibald Fountain to see Sandringham Garden and the Anzac Memorial. Sandringham Garden has many flowers and a pretty fountain in the middle and was dedicated to the English kings George V and George VI by Queen Elizabeth II. Beyond the garden, we found the Pool of Reflection in front of Anzec Memorial. The pool really did reflect the memorial and the skylike behind it which was pretty cool. We climbed the stairs to Anzec Memorial to see what it was all about. Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. The Memorial was opened in 1934 commemorating those who lost their lives in WWI. Now it is a memorial for all of those who were ever killed fighting for their country. When you walk in to the Memorial, you can look down and see the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier." Looking up at the ceiling, I saw 120,000 tiny gold stars. These represented each person who enlisted during WWI. The Memorial was constructed during the Great Depression, and they ran out of funds to complete it. To help with the costs, the gold stars were sold for 2 dollars each to the public. It is a very impressive ceiling to say the least. Underneath the memorial was a tiny museum that we stopped in to have a look around that had some nice soldier artifacts such as uniforms and equipment.

It was time for a quick nap on the lawn while we waited for Olivia and Mary to finish their lunch at the Tower. Once we met up, we walked to Chinatown to venture into Paddy's markets. I wasn't sure what to expect, but there was a lot of items to take a look at! I tried to resist spending too much, but I did find a pretty handpainted boomerang for myself. The markets closed at 5, and we made our way back to Circular Quay for a quick frappaccino and the ferry ride home.

The trip into Sydney was full of fun times and lots of learning, as it always seems to be. It was also great exercise since we walked everywhere! The ferry ride had the most amazing view, a sunset behind clouds near the Opera House and Bridge - I couldn't ask for better pictures!!

Cheers!!!