A few days have past since my last post, and it`s kind of fitting with my relaxed mood on this trip. I definitely feel on vacation now, just soaking in the warm weather and hot sun. I`ve only had two days so far of cloudy, showery skies, and I can`t complain about those, have they been good days to update the blog :)
Earlier in the week, I took the time to start exploring parts of downtown Sydney. The Royal Botanical Gardens are right next to where I`m staying, so it made a great way to walk to Circular Quay. The first time I walked through was during the day, and it was a bit surreal to see all of the huge fruit bats sleeping up in the massive tropical trees, and then at dusk, to see them all flying overhead. On top of that, I came face to face with a few of the parrots and loud cockatoos, which I think here I like the equivalent of annoying crows back home. The cockatoos are sure nice to look at, but when they squawk at you at 5am, it`s not quite so nice, and they kinda scare the crap out of you when they fly by lol.
After the Botanical Gardens, I took in the iconic views of downtown Sydney, walking around the Opera House and the foot of the Sydney Bridge, and to get an even better look, took one of the ferries across the harbour. Sometimes you forget that the ocean is just a few kilometers away, but when you`re in the harbour, the bays just seem to go on and on, with all these nooks and cranies, you can kinda get lost trying to find your way out!
On one of my evenings checking out downtown, I also starting exploring some of the neighbourhood pubs. I`ll admit, when you`ve seen and experienced the live music at the pubs in the Maritimes back in Canada, it`s kind of hard to compare, but I decided to keep an open mind ;). There was once place that Patrick heard about, called Scruffy Murphys, an irish pub downtown, which is more the `rowdy`hangout for the teener`s.. and it was no lie! Still we enjoyed trying some of the beers, one being Victoria Bitter.. which is apparently referred to as the `Bogan`beer of choice, which is apparently the Australian equivalent Redneck back in Canada; I actually didn`t find it too bad. So far though, I`m enjoying Bluetongue, a pretty nice light tasting beer. Besides the booze, I`m also enjoying the food! Like any city, there`s every type of cuisine around here, and we stumbled across an area with a few Spanish restaurants. I tried a couple of their tapas, one of lamb, the other of potatoes, both very good. After a couple nights of eating out, we decided to start eating in. I`m starting to realize that I watch way too many food shows, when I noticed at Coles (one of the major grocery stores here), has this feature of Curtis Stone (the host of Take Home Chef, whose a native Aussie) of recipes you can do for under $10. I took a free recipe booklet, and decided to try it out. The recipe of choice was Chinese Noodles. It turned out surprisingly well, and I`m definitely going to make it again in the future.
Yesterday was my first experience of getting out to one of the many beaches that run along the Sydney coast. Bondi is probably the most famous of them all, but we decided to take in one of the more less busy ones further south at Maroubra. It was about a 30min bus ride to get there, which wasn`t bad, since I was sightseeing along the way. Being a Thrusday, and somewhat cool and breezy, it was a good day to go, since the beach was pretty much empty with the exception of a few swimmers and surfers. I brought my towel and laid out on the beach for a couple hours, just enjoying the view and the sun. I don`t have much of a tan yet, but I`m being careful, gooping up the suncreen. Of course... with the sticky suncreen and breezy winds.. I ended up with sand stuck to me everywhere, not the most pleasant feeling, but I guess I was getting right into the beach experience. After tanning, I spent some time walking along the beach and also along some of the crazy looking sandstone outcrops, looking in tidepools and watching divers off shore. They had spearhooks with them, not sure what they were diving for. Patrick and I worked up an appetite after all the walking, and found a cafe nearby. They had some really nice burgers and chips on the menu which fit the bill! It all made for a great beach day, coming home all windswept and sandy, I hope it`s the first of many!
I`ve finally had the time to sit down and also get some photos up. Here`s a direct link to the album, I`ll be updating as I go along: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neptune_v32/sets/72157623835703363/
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