More Sydney

This is my last post about Sydney since I’m no longer living there. I’m now in Brisbane finishing up the last three weeks of my study abroad. It’s funny to think about how soon I will be home again. I’ll have Brisbane pictures up as soon as I can, but I have to go to an internet café to get online here so it’s hard to post often. My last week in Sydney was spent checking off all the sites I wanted to see that I hadn’t been to yet. One of these was the Chinese garden of friendship in Darling Harbour. It had lots of Chinese pavilions and plants and was just a cool place to wander around.
I visited the Chinese garden on the way to the Anzac bridge. This is Sydney’s other major bridge. It’s quite impressive in its own right and is close to the fish market where many people like to get a cheap, fresh lunch.
We found this place a few blocks from our hotel. Doug, Mike, Jim, and I decided we had to try some kangaroo while we’re here. It wasn’t too bad, a little chewy, but worth it just to say we had tried it.
My roommate, Jesse, and I spent a day off from class playing golf near Bondi Beach. We had been looking for a place and time to play since Wellington so when we noticed this oceanside course we jumped on it. The course was not too impressive because it was just a 9-hole executive course and the grass was pretty dry, but we didn’t mind since it had great views and fit our budget.
Look at that swing! Not too bad for not having played in several months. The only ball I hit in the ocean was on purpose. I really wanted to just tee one up and see how far out there I could get it; I think it was probably my best drive of the day.
The last site on my long Sydney checklist was the Taronga Zoo. I had too see the Australian animals that evaded me in the outback. Besides, who can pass up a zoo where this is the view behind the giraffes? The zoo is one of the best places to view the city from because it is one of the very few lookouts where you can see the opera house, bridge, and skyline. There is even a gondola you can ride from the top of the zoo to the ferry so you can really enjoy the view.
I was lucky enough to see the koalas during the one or two hours they were awake each day. They are some cute little guys, although the zookeeper told us they’re not as friendly as many people believe from their appearance. They have very large claws for climbing the eucalyptus trees.
Every year in Sydney there is an enormous gay and lesbian Mardi Gras parade. Over half a million people marched in it this year, and the crowd of both gay and straight people seemed to go on forever. It was basically a huge party in downtown Sydney. There were a few to many assless chaps for most of us, but it was an interesting cultural event.
As promised, I returned for more pictures of the opera house on a nicer day.
Many people don’t realize that the major lookout is in the Royal Botanical Gardens. There are a lot of palm trees and other plants just a few hundred yards from the opera house and the metropolis.
Our last day in Sydney was a free one so during the afternoon several of us decided to enjoy the Sydney beaches one last time. This is a view to Manly beach; it and Bondi beach are the two most famous and most visited ones in the Sydney area. We grilled hamburgers, played football, and body surfed the afternoon away before going into the city one last time that evening. So far everyone loves Brisbane, although we’re still trying to gain our bearings and find all the cool places to be. I’ll do my best to post about that before Friday. That’s when I leave for Cairns and the tropical North. It’s time to see the Great Barrier Reef and the rainforest!