Sydney, day.... Five?

This will be a quick entry, I swear! I have to get on with my day, such as it is :-)

OK. Saturday. Went out for breakfast in Annandale, found a lovely place called the Gallery Cafe, which makes it's own Chai! Tried to read the Sydney Morning Herald on a tiny table without much success.

Doubled back to my Cousin's place - oh, did I mention my Aunt had turned up Saturday morning? She's here from Canada for Christmas. Popped back in to put on my shorts - it were hot and muggy!

Hopped onto tram to Paddy's Market. I can report that Paddy's Market == Victoria Market for all intents and purposes. So I didn't stay long, trying to avoid things I could do at home :-)

You know the kind of place - bad t-shirts, el-cheapo souvenirs, shitty shoes etc.

Popped into a shitty internet cafe next to it and avoided the midday sun. Then I walked through China Town, finally found some bubble tea. It was passable, but not the best. Also located some custard buns to round out my healthy lunch :-)

Then I did something I usually avoid - shopping. Popped into Dymocks to get a book, popped into a camera shop, only to discover the camera I was after was $549! Eep. Not today thanks... Then I saw a guy carrying a Red Eye Records bag. Red Eye is probably the best record store in this town. Looked it up on Google which provided me a map showing that it was literally 100 metres from where I was standing... So I had to go... So a John Zorn and a Melvins CD and four badges later... It was time to head to the Quay :-)

Tried to catch the ferry to Manly, but just missed the 3.30 one. Went and had a chai and wrote some postcards, then tried to catch the 4PM ferry. Only to discover my weekly ticket didn't cover Manly! D'oh! Queued for a ticket after swearing at the automatic ticket machines, and was very early for the 4.30PM Manly ferry! Got a seat dead front of the upper deck which was ace.

Got chatting to a Manly local on the way across. He was talking about kayaking on the harbour, which would be interesting indeed.

Stayed in Manly for all of half an hour, then hopped on a ferry back again. Twice on the way back the ferry honked its horn at a couple of pleasure craft - I think, I don't really follow the rules of the ocean so I'm not sure who was in the wrong. Still, the thousand seat ferry would you assume have right of way over a little speed boat!

Headed back to Annandale and went out for dinner with Tess the Cousin and Diane the Aunt, in the Italian quarter of some suburb called... Leighcart, I think... No, I'm spellin' that wrong.

Stayed up too late reading a book, then crashed.

Holiday == fun.

Sydney day... Six maybe??

Ah, it's all blending together.

And I gotta get out of this smell internet cafe! Ah well.

Today I went to the Sydney Museum, which was pretty ace. After having some seriously passable breakfast in Annandale. Nice to see someone combining eggs and pesto.

Spent too many hours here in Smell Cafe beforehand and indeed now... Hmm... Time to get home...

After the Museum (small, but the the contemporary photojournalism exhibition was really interesting, as was the remains of the first governors mansion visible through the floor in the foyer) I hopped on the Ferry out to Parramatta. Which is a loooooong way up the river. The first two thirds where kinda interesting - it's been raining all day, so the bay looked grey and mysterious. Then we really got into the top of the Parramatta river, where the ferry had to go reaaaaaally sloooooowly. It'd also go so humid the windows had fogged up and we could barely see out...

The upper reaches appeared to have mangroves or something much like them growing on the bank.

I chatted to a couple of old ladies who were sitting next to me. They were from Launceston, and had come here as a birthday pressy for one of them. Seniors get a daily travel card for only $2.50! They said they'd hopped on the boat to get out of the rain and off their feet for a while - which was the same reason I was there!!! :-)

I spent most of the return journey on the rear deck where at least it wasn't as humid (I'd had to ask the lovely old ladies to stand up for a sec., but I needed to get out of that seat!) The whole ride took probably an hour and fifty minutes - I didn't even bother getting off the ferry at Parramatta, I've been in that part of the world and it's nothing special.

I was at Circular Quay so I thought bugger it, time to get on another boat. I hopped onto the Watson's Bay/Rose bay ferry. At Watson's Bay, they stopped for about twenty minutes, next to the (apparently quite famous) Doyle's Seafood Restaurant. A local had let me in on a little secret: the take away place on the pier sold exactly the same food as the restaurant at about a third of the price! Dinner!!!! Hopped back on the ferry with a pile of fried food and scoffed most of it before the ferry even left the dock. One of the deck hands said he wished he'd thought of that idea.

The ride back was great, the city is experiencing a gray, rainy day like, well, Melbourne. I took some great shots of the Coat hanger from the window of the boat.

And that's about it for today. Going to try and find a gym tomorrow morning. Not to say that I haven't been exercising, I've been walking so much it's been... Very frigging healthy. Now if only I can stay away from the Bubble Tea and the fried food :-)

Oh, almost forgot! Made some really ugly sticker photos the back of a video game arcade. They didn't turn out well, partly because the machine was built on the assumption that the subjects were about two feet shorter than me! It kept on trying to take pictures of my chest!

Things What I Forgot To Mention During My Travels

I've realised I've left out minor but important details about my first few days in Sydney Town.

First off - the lost bus! I hopped on a bus outside the Aaaaaaart Gallery of NSW, which headed back into the city. After we'd turned a few corners, one of the little old ladies went and spoke to the driver, saying that usually this bus took a different route into the city. The driver revealed he'd never driven this route before! Eventually we ended up in the right place, after most of the other passengers had bailed at unofficial stops!

Did I mention that I've been on ferries ever single day? Only a short trip today, will have to go to Manly to make up for it.

Second, the Dog Poop incident. Let's just say walking across a park at night is hazardous.

Third: Postcard City. I've sent about ten postcards, starting the day I arrived. If you haven't got a postcard from me, it's cause I don't have your address :-)

Fourth: Did I mention the nice lady at the MCA who gave me her "I heart MCA" badge when I was disappointed that I couldn't buy one in the gallery shop? Most cool and I was most pleased.

Fifth: the little old ladies from Launceston I met on the Parramatta ferry were off to Manly to "hunt down some Chinese" and asked me along! I had other things planned, and I felt like I would be encrouching on someone's grandmother :-)

That's all I can recall for now, thank you LJ for working as a kind of externalised memory for me.

BTW I'm maxcelcat on Twitter if you're really, really keen to know what I'm doing minute by minute...