I've now been home for one week and I'm aware that I've got a lot of writing still to do.
I will get around to it soon!
Thursday 24 July 2014
Tuesday 15 July 2014
Kerry in Aus
After my late flight back into Sydney the previous night, I was still fairly tired as I headed back to the airport shortly before 7am on Saturday, the 28th June to meet Kerry. I had taken my passport along in order to identify myself to the British Airways member of staff who was responsible for supervising Kerry's flight from London, though it wasn't so much as glanced at by anyone. We gathered her suitcases and made our way to catch the train into the city. Most of the remainder of the morning was spent unpacking and organising Kerry's stuff around mine in the flat. She also had a shower after her long flights and we headed out to get some breakfast.
After returning to the flat, we made a list of food shopping which we had to get. Having been away for the previous week with Jessica, the cupboards were looking particularly bare at home. We completed our shopping in Woolworths before returning out to Paddy's Market and buying a whole load of fruit and vegetables. I introduced Kerry to the Iglu ping pong table, where I comfortably won and then she had a sleep for an hour or so. The plan for the evening was to meet up with Jessica and head to Darling Harbour for dinner and the fireworks. Unfortunately, with it being the first Saturday of the school holidays in Sydney, the harbour was incredibly busy. We attempted to find a table in several restaurants, each of which either point blank refused or had stupid waiting times. Eventually, we found a place, got a table and finished our meal just in time to see the firework display. It had been a long day and I think everyone was glad to get home to sleep.
The following morning, I thought it might be a good idea to go to Pancakes on the Rocks for breakfast. Although, having completely forgotten that it was Sunday morning and it was school holiday time, I did not anticipate a queue of people, lined down the street waiting for a table. We decided to move on and come back another day.
During the night, Colombia had won another game at the World Cup, which was the reason behind a convoy of Colombian's driving around the city, tooting horns and shouting from their cars. It was pretty cool to see, especially given how far away their home country is from Sydney.
Eventually, we opted for a small French-style cafe in the Rocks for breakfast. Coffee was accompanied by a chocolate eclair - a healthy, balanced breakfast, I think. Afterwards, we strolled around Circular Quay and Kerry captured her first photographs of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, on a beautiful sunny, winter morning. We took the opportunity to walk around the front of the Opera House, into the Botanic Gardens and took some more pictures.
This is the State Library of New South Wales, which I had visited before and really enjoyed. I asked Kerry if she wanted to go inside and told her a little about the amazing Shakespeare room and large, old fashioned interior. She questioned, "Why would I just want to go and randomly take out a book?" Point well and truly missed, we moved on.
Heading back into the city, we spent much of the afternoon shopping, stopping by all of the major stores along George Street on our way back towards the flat. Whilst I was doing my best to fill our days, Kerry was still mildly suffering from jet lag, so it was proving a little difficult to keep her alert and interested in the late afternoon. We got home and chilled for a while - after a game of ping pong - then cooked dinner. As it was Sunday, this day also marked an important event in Kerry's visit to Australia: her first episode of Masterchef. Needless to say, she was hooked straight away, just like everyone else who watches it. When it was almost time to be thinking about bed, Kerry got a second wind of energy, so we walked around to the amazing ice-cream shop behind the Central Mall for a late night treat.
After breakfast the next morning, I took Kerry along to see the campus at uni and show her the graffiti tunnel. I'd never actually walked through the tunnel before, so it was a first for me also and it was really impressive - even after having been in Melbourne only a matter of days before. The concept is exactly the same as the Melbourne lane-ways, in that there is a designated section of the campus where graffiti is allowed and even encouraged.
The next stop was the Law School and the Law Library. I got a quick photo in order to remember the place, though with the amount of time I spent in this room towards the end of the last semester, I doubt I'll forget it in a hurry.
I also took the opportunity to show Kerry around some other parts of the campus, taking in the sports fields, the swimming pool, the tennis courts and eventually stopping by the campus shop. I had finally decided to purchase my Sydney University jumper, a little keepsake of my time studying here. Although I don't have a Glasgow University jumper, I suspect one shall be purchased before I graduate. On our way home, we did some more shopping in the Broadway Shopping Centre, then it was time to head home, sort dinner and watch Masterchef.
The plan for the following day was to meet Jessica at Circular Quay and take the short ferry journey over to Cockatoo Island. The island was originally a prison for convicts (as so much of Australia seems to have been) before it was turned into an industrial port, then finally became the modern tourist attraction that can be found there today. Whilst the island undoubtedly contains some amazing history, much of it is left to your own imagination as you're left to wander around the warehouses, buildings and prison blocks rather aimlessly. It was still interesting to see, though it was far from one of the most engaging things which I've visited.
The island has two large tunnels which run beneath the rock, creating something which looks like it belongs in a James Bond film. Rather cool, though pretty much unexplained.
Jessica and Kerry posing for a photo. We did actually see some weird photo-shoot going on whilst we were visiting the island; it was quite a peculiar setting for it, I thought.
After wandering around most of the island, we stopped off at a little takeaway place for lunch. Jessica and I both had this fantastic creamy Thai chicken soup - it was genuinely brilliant. Without a lot more to see on the island, we relaxed in the sun for a while and then hopped on the ferry back towards Circular Quay. Almost everywhere you go in Sydney affords a great view, but the city skyline is arguably best seen from the water.
We disembarked the boat at Darling Harbour and walked the rest of the way to Circular Quay. Conscious that the time in Australia was running out for all of us, we were trying to make sure we hadn't missed anything out. So, since we hadn't walked this particular part of the harbour before, we thought it would be good to see another little section of the city. Our walk eventually took us to Observatory Hill Park, providing another great perspective on the Harbour Bridge. Our stay was short-lived however because there was a dog wandering around near us. Kerry told Jessica that it was, "one of those dogs that kills people" and that was the decision made. I just shook my head in disbelief.
The final stop of the day was at the Guylian chocolate cafe on Circular Quay. We opted for hot chocolates and a selection of cakes. I think the chocolate eclair was the outstanding favourite.
The following day Kerry and I headed off to Taronga Zoo. Although I had visited the zoo with Alex, Jessica and Jordan, way back in the first few weeks of my time in Sydney, I was really looking forward to going again. First time around we had missed a few enclosures out since we'd been in a bit of a rush and hadn't managed to see any of the shows at all. Whilst I had since seen crocodiles up in Cairns, they were undoubtedly my most anticipated animal at the zoo and they did not disappoint, as this next photo shows.
Funnily enough, whilst snapping photos of the crocodile in the photo above, I overheard a woman confidently stating to her friend that it was just a fake. Interesting that when we walked by the same place later in the day, that same "fake" crocodile had moved! We also went to see the seal show, which was pretty good, if only to get a seat in the sunshine for half an hour. After the seal show, I had one of those strange experiences which you could hardly make up. Whilst queuing for an ice cream, I was approached by Jake - a guy I know from school - who had arrived in Australia a few days earlier, to start his own backpacking adventure.
On our way out of the zoo, we stopped by the same spot where I had captured some great photos almost an entire twelve months ago. Kerry posed for some pictures with the sun setting and the city skyline in the background.
She took over camera duties and I showed her how to pose at a nice location properly! Haha!
Here is one of many photos of the Opera House which have been taken over the past year. I genuinely think I take a picture each and every time I see it, though who can blame me? I hope Alex and Jordan are proud of my photography skills being displayed in this picture.
We returned to the flat and got ready to make dinner. Luckily, our dinner planning process was interrupted by a much better offer to join the girls and head out to the local Singaporean restaurant. Kerry was keen to try dim sum in Australia, having eaten it at home and really enjoyed it. I had never tried it before, but it sounded good and I really couldn't be bothered cooking. So, Kerry and I joined Jess, Lian, Claire, Anoucha and Lin for a lovely meal before heading home to watch Masterchef together. Another busy day over.
On Thursday, I had booked tickets to go whale watching for myself, Kerry and Jessica. We were typically running just on time and arrived at the wharf around ten minutes before the boat was due to depart. Plenty time to spare! We knew the risks of seasickness and Lian had warned us that it had been awful when she'd been on the same cruise, so we'd all had light breakfasts, complemented by travel sickness tablets. The trip started off fantastically, on a glorious sunny, calm day and the sail from Circular Quay out to the heads of the harbour was rather enjoyable. However, upon turning out of the harbour and into the open sea, the swell picked up dramatically. Given Jessica's history with boats in Cairns and my own inability to deal with the Dover-Calais ferry, I was slightly concerned. As it turned out, it was neither of us who were sick, but actually Kerry. I should point out that she was far from alone though, as it seemed to strike the majority of people on board.
That issue aside, the whales were absolutely amazing! They were quite difficult to capture in a photo, but I do have some good videos. Unfortunately, I'm still struggling to attach videos to the blog, so I can't share them. Pictures shall have to suffice for the moment.
The plan for the next day was to visit the aquarium at Darling Harbour. After a fairly lazy morning and breakfast, Kerry and I caught the free bus down George Street and took the short walk to the aquarium. Again, due to school holidays, the place was super busy and full of little kids, running around and shouting. Unfortunately, it wasn't too easy to see the fish and sea creatures very easily, though it was still enjoyable. As expected, the underwater tunnel beneath the shark tank proved to be the highlight of our visit. We squeezed in some more shopping in the Queen Victoria Buildings on our way home, in the afternoon.
At night, we had planned a dinner amongst all of my flatmates. We had tried to book a table at Hurricane's, but apparently they don't take reservations, so Lian and two of her friends who were in Sydney visiting went along and essentially got us a place in the queue. The rest of us joined them later and we were soon shown to a table. Dinner was awesome again; we ordered a few whole racks of ribs and put them in the middle of the table for everyone to share and it was just as good as I remembered. Instead of dessert, we walked home via Chinatown where we got some cream puffs from the little takeaway place. They're basically just hot balls of pastry filled with a cream or custard filling - I'm not really sure to be honest. Regardless, they're fantastic and so cheap! We had a real issue too, since the more you buy, the cheaper the price per cream puff becomes. We ended up buying something stupid, like fifteen or so. It was ridiculous.
Saturday the 5th of July marked one week since Kerry had arrived in Australia. I was really looking forward to it too, since we had finally booked a tour of the Opera House. We were shown around several of the theatres (including one where Coldplay recorded one of their albums - booooo!) and also got a glimpse of the workings of the backstage crews.
The front part of the Opera House is designed to give the impression that you are standing on a ship, overlooking the harbour. It certainly achieved that result.
Here's a rather artistic photo of two of the sails from inside the Opera House. Ignore the bloke's head at the bottom.
During the night on Saturday, I got up and watched the Netherlands quarter final tie in the World Cup against Costa Rica. Rather brilliantly, after a stroke of managerial genius by Louis van Gaal in bringing on a different goalkeeper for the penalty shootout, they qualified for the semi finals. Having been up half the night, a long lie was well in order before there was any consideration of activities for the day.
Kerry and I decided to organise a packed lunch and walk across the Harbour Bridge. It was another great day - Kerry was far luckier with the weather than my mum and Auntie Jean when they visited - and we got some more great photos on our walk.
Lunch was enjoyed on the north side of the harbour and we followed that with a walk around Luna Park and the Olympic swimming pool. Having shown Kerry around some more of the tourist spots, we retraced our steps back across the bridge and headed for the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay. Much like MONA in Hobart, the random pieces of "art" proved to be a mystery to me. I just didn't appreciate the majority of them in the slightest. Take these slippers in the next picture, for example; they were supposed to have some profound meaning and message behind them. Talk me through that.
There was one really cool room which was painted in big blocks of colour. Kerry posed for a picture and got in trouble for leaning on the wall - clearly, her modern art etiquette left a lot to be desired.
Fri
Sat
Sun
I got up early on Monday morning and watched some of the World Cup highlights from the previous night whilst I ate breakfast. Kerry got up not long afterwards and had a shower, but soon decided that she was feeling pretty awful and would be staying in bed for the day. A hot water bottle and pain killers were retrieved from the local pharmacy and I began some household chores as she went back to bed. Most of my day was spent relaxing in the flat and watching TV though I did make myself and Kerry some lunch in the afternoon, which was well received.
Tue - watson's bay and doyle's
Wed - surfing
Thu - pancakes, shopping, trampolines
Fri - skywalk, fish market
Sat -
Sun - botanic gardens, cathedral, World Cup Final night
Mon - flight home
After returning to the flat, we made a list of food shopping which we had to get. Having been away for the previous week with Jessica, the cupboards were looking particularly bare at home. We completed our shopping in Woolworths before returning out to Paddy's Market and buying a whole load of fruit and vegetables. I introduced Kerry to the Iglu ping pong table, where I comfortably won and then she had a sleep for an hour or so. The plan for the evening was to meet up with Jessica and head to Darling Harbour for dinner and the fireworks. Unfortunately, with it being the first Saturday of the school holidays in Sydney, the harbour was incredibly busy. We attempted to find a table in several restaurants, each of which either point blank refused or had stupid waiting times. Eventually, we found a place, got a table and finished our meal just in time to see the firework display. It had been a long day and I think everyone was glad to get home to sleep.
The following morning, I thought it might be a good idea to go to Pancakes on the Rocks for breakfast. Although, having completely forgotten that it was Sunday morning and it was school holiday time, I did not anticipate a queue of people, lined down the street waiting for a table. We decided to move on and come back another day.
During the night, Colombia had won another game at the World Cup, which was the reason behind a convoy of Colombian's driving around the city, tooting horns and shouting from their cars. It was pretty cool to see, especially given how far away their home country is from Sydney.
Eventually, we opted for a small French-style cafe in the Rocks for breakfast. Coffee was accompanied by a chocolate eclair - a healthy, balanced breakfast, I think. Afterwards, we strolled around Circular Quay and Kerry captured her first photographs of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, on a beautiful sunny, winter morning. We took the opportunity to walk around the front of the Opera House, into the Botanic Gardens and took some more pictures.
This is the State Library of New South Wales, which I had visited before and really enjoyed. I asked Kerry if she wanted to go inside and told her a little about the amazing Shakespeare room and large, old fashioned interior. She questioned, "Why would I just want to go and randomly take out a book?" Point well and truly missed, we moved on.
Heading back into the city, we spent much of the afternoon shopping, stopping by all of the major stores along George Street on our way back towards the flat. Whilst I was doing my best to fill our days, Kerry was still mildly suffering from jet lag, so it was proving a little difficult to keep her alert and interested in the late afternoon. We got home and chilled for a while - after a game of ping pong - then cooked dinner. As it was Sunday, this day also marked an important event in Kerry's visit to Australia: her first episode of Masterchef. Needless to say, she was hooked straight away, just like everyone else who watches it. When it was almost time to be thinking about bed, Kerry got a second wind of energy, so we walked around to the amazing ice-cream shop behind the Central Mall for a late night treat.
After breakfast the next morning, I took Kerry along to see the campus at uni and show her the graffiti tunnel. I'd never actually walked through the tunnel before, so it was a first for me also and it was really impressive - even after having been in Melbourne only a matter of days before. The concept is exactly the same as the Melbourne lane-ways, in that there is a designated section of the campus where graffiti is allowed and even encouraged.
The next stop was the Law School and the Law Library. I got a quick photo in order to remember the place, though with the amount of time I spent in this room towards the end of the last semester, I doubt I'll forget it in a hurry.
I also took the opportunity to show Kerry around some other parts of the campus, taking in the sports fields, the swimming pool, the tennis courts and eventually stopping by the campus shop. I had finally decided to purchase my Sydney University jumper, a little keepsake of my time studying here. Although I don't have a Glasgow University jumper, I suspect one shall be purchased before I graduate. On our way home, we did some more shopping in the Broadway Shopping Centre, then it was time to head home, sort dinner and watch Masterchef.
The plan for the following day was to meet Jessica at Circular Quay and take the short ferry journey over to Cockatoo Island. The island was originally a prison for convicts (as so much of Australia seems to have been) before it was turned into an industrial port, then finally became the modern tourist attraction that can be found there today. Whilst the island undoubtedly contains some amazing history, much of it is left to your own imagination as you're left to wander around the warehouses, buildings and prison blocks rather aimlessly. It was still interesting to see, though it was far from one of the most engaging things which I've visited.
The island has two large tunnels which run beneath the rock, creating something which looks like it belongs in a James Bond film. Rather cool, though pretty much unexplained.
Jessica and Kerry posing for a photo. We did actually see some weird photo-shoot going on whilst we were visiting the island; it was quite a peculiar setting for it, I thought.
After wandering around most of the island, we stopped off at a little takeaway place for lunch. Jessica and I both had this fantastic creamy Thai chicken soup - it was genuinely brilliant. Without a lot more to see on the island, we relaxed in the sun for a while and then hopped on the ferry back towards Circular Quay. Almost everywhere you go in Sydney affords a great view, but the city skyline is arguably best seen from the water.
We disembarked the boat at Darling Harbour and walked the rest of the way to Circular Quay. Conscious that the time in Australia was running out for all of us, we were trying to make sure we hadn't missed anything out. So, since we hadn't walked this particular part of the harbour before, we thought it would be good to see another little section of the city. Our walk eventually took us to Observatory Hill Park, providing another great perspective on the Harbour Bridge. Our stay was short-lived however because there was a dog wandering around near us. Kerry told Jessica that it was, "one of those dogs that kills people" and that was the decision made. I just shook my head in disbelief.
The final stop of the day was at the Guylian chocolate cafe on Circular Quay. We opted for hot chocolates and a selection of cakes. I think the chocolate eclair was the outstanding favourite.
The following day Kerry and I headed off to Taronga Zoo. Although I had visited the zoo with Alex, Jessica and Jordan, way back in the first few weeks of my time in Sydney, I was really looking forward to going again. First time around we had missed a few enclosures out since we'd been in a bit of a rush and hadn't managed to see any of the shows at all. Whilst I had since seen crocodiles up in Cairns, they were undoubtedly my most anticipated animal at the zoo and they did not disappoint, as this next photo shows.
Funnily enough, whilst snapping photos of the crocodile in the photo above, I overheard a woman confidently stating to her friend that it was just a fake. Interesting that when we walked by the same place later in the day, that same "fake" crocodile had moved! We also went to see the seal show, which was pretty good, if only to get a seat in the sunshine for half an hour. After the seal show, I had one of those strange experiences which you could hardly make up. Whilst queuing for an ice cream, I was approached by Jake - a guy I know from school - who had arrived in Australia a few days earlier, to start his own backpacking adventure.
On our way out of the zoo, we stopped by the same spot where I had captured some great photos almost an entire twelve months ago. Kerry posed for some pictures with the sun setting and the city skyline in the background.
She took over camera duties and I showed her how to pose at a nice location properly! Haha!
Here is one of many photos of the Opera House which have been taken over the past year. I genuinely think I take a picture each and every time I see it, though who can blame me? I hope Alex and Jordan are proud of my photography skills being displayed in this picture.
We returned to the flat and got ready to make dinner. Luckily, our dinner planning process was interrupted by a much better offer to join the girls and head out to the local Singaporean restaurant. Kerry was keen to try dim sum in Australia, having eaten it at home and really enjoyed it. I had never tried it before, but it sounded good and I really couldn't be bothered cooking. So, Kerry and I joined Jess, Lian, Claire, Anoucha and Lin for a lovely meal before heading home to watch Masterchef together. Another busy day over.
On Thursday, I had booked tickets to go whale watching for myself, Kerry and Jessica. We were typically running just on time and arrived at the wharf around ten minutes before the boat was due to depart. Plenty time to spare! We knew the risks of seasickness and Lian had warned us that it had been awful when she'd been on the same cruise, so we'd all had light breakfasts, complemented by travel sickness tablets. The trip started off fantastically, on a glorious sunny, calm day and the sail from Circular Quay out to the heads of the harbour was rather enjoyable. However, upon turning out of the harbour and into the open sea, the swell picked up dramatically. Given Jessica's history with boats in Cairns and my own inability to deal with the Dover-Calais ferry, I was slightly concerned. As it turned out, it was neither of us who were sick, but actually Kerry. I should point out that she was far from alone though, as it seemed to strike the majority of people on board.
That issue aside, the whales were absolutely amazing! They were quite difficult to capture in a photo, but I do have some good videos. Unfortunately, I'm still struggling to attach videos to the blog, so I can't share them. Pictures shall have to suffice for the moment.
The sail back to Sydney took around an hour and by the time we got back, Kerry was feeling a bit better. We decided to walk around to the Botanic Gardens to have lunch and chill in the sunshine for a while. Gladly, Kerry was back to normal and had some food and we were soon joking about how much she had enjoyed her Christmas present!
Jessica and I catching some rays in the Botanic Gardens.
The plan for the next day was to visit the aquarium at Darling Harbour. After a fairly lazy morning and breakfast, Kerry and I caught the free bus down George Street and took the short walk to the aquarium. Again, due to school holidays, the place was super busy and full of little kids, running around and shouting. Unfortunately, it wasn't too easy to see the fish and sea creatures very easily, though it was still enjoyable. As expected, the underwater tunnel beneath the shark tank proved to be the highlight of our visit. We squeezed in some more shopping in the Queen Victoria Buildings on our way home, in the afternoon.
At night, we had planned a dinner amongst all of my flatmates. We had tried to book a table at Hurricane's, but apparently they don't take reservations, so Lian and two of her friends who were in Sydney visiting went along and essentially got us a place in the queue. The rest of us joined them later and we were soon shown to a table. Dinner was awesome again; we ordered a few whole racks of ribs and put them in the middle of the table for everyone to share and it was just as good as I remembered. Instead of dessert, we walked home via Chinatown where we got some cream puffs from the little takeaway place. They're basically just hot balls of pastry filled with a cream or custard filling - I'm not really sure to be honest. Regardless, they're fantastic and so cheap! We had a real issue too, since the more you buy, the cheaper the price per cream puff becomes. We ended up buying something stupid, like fifteen or so. It was ridiculous.
Saturday the 5th of July marked one week since Kerry had arrived in Australia. I was really looking forward to it too, since we had finally booked a tour of the Opera House. We were shown around several of the theatres (including one where Coldplay recorded one of their albums - booooo!) and also got a glimpse of the workings of the backstage crews.
The front part of the Opera House is designed to give the impression that you are standing on a ship, overlooking the harbour. It certainly achieved that result.
Here's a rather artistic photo of two of the sails from inside the Opera House. Ignore the bloke's head at the bottom.
After our tour, we tried to get a table for lunch at Opera Bar, though quickly wrote that idea off after seeing how busy the place was. Instead, we walked around Circular Quay and found a table at the Glenmore pub in the Rocks. Jessica and I had been there before, though unfortunately this time, all of the tables in the rooftop beer garden were occupied. The food was really good though and it was a chilled way to spend the afternoon. Later in the evening, Jessica, Kerry and I met up with Alex for a bit of a farewell drink at the Morrison. The Morrison was the scene of so many nights consisting of wine and oysters when we first arrived in Sydney that it felt appropriate to go back one last time. Alex was heading off up the Gold Coast the next morning with his girlfriend and Jessica only had a few days left before her flight back to Scotland, so it really marked the beginning of a long period of goodbyes.
That night after dinner, one of the Harry Potter films was on TV. I was shocked and reduced to tears of laughter upon spotting Dave Coaches from Gavin and Stacey in the Ministry of Magic! Hahaha! He's not even dressed differently!
During the night on Saturday, I got up and watched the Netherlands quarter final tie in the World Cup against Costa Rica. Rather brilliantly, after a stroke of managerial genius by Louis van Gaal in bringing on a different goalkeeper for the penalty shootout, they qualified for the semi finals. Having been up half the night, a long lie was well in order before there was any consideration of activities for the day.
Kerry and I decided to organise a packed lunch and walk across the Harbour Bridge. It was another great day - Kerry was far luckier with the weather than my mum and Auntie Jean when they visited - and we got some more great photos on our walk.
Lunch was enjoyed on the north side of the harbour and we followed that with a walk around Luna Park and the Olympic swimming pool. Having shown Kerry around some more of the tourist spots, we retraced our steps back across the bridge and headed for the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay. Much like MONA in Hobart, the random pieces of "art" proved to be a mystery to me. I just didn't appreciate the majority of them in the slightest. Take these slippers in the next picture, for example; they were supposed to have some profound meaning and message behind them. Talk me through that.
There was one really cool room which was painted in big blocks of colour. Kerry posed for a picture and got in trouble for leaning on the wall - clearly, her modern art etiquette left a lot to be desired.
Fri
Sat
Sun
I got up early on Monday morning and watched some of the World Cup highlights from the previous night whilst I ate breakfast. Kerry got up not long afterwards and had a shower, but soon decided that she was feeling pretty awful and would be staying in bed for the day. A hot water bottle and pain killers were retrieved from the local pharmacy and I began some household chores as she went back to bed. Most of my day was spent relaxing in the flat and watching TV though I did make myself and Kerry some lunch in the afternoon, which was well received.
Tue - watson's bay and doyle's
Wed - surfing
Thu - pancakes, shopping, trampolines
Fri - skywalk, fish market
Sat -
Sun - botanic gardens, cathedral, World Cup Final night
Mon - flight home
Sunday 29 June 2014
Melbourne and Tasmania
Ever since Jessica and I had booked a trip to visit Melbourne and Tasmania some weeks ago, excitement has been gradually building. Now that exams and essays were finished though, it was time to get properly in the mindset for some travelling and sightseeing!
I bought a return ticket for the Sky Bus, which would take me from the airport into the city centre. Jessica had travelled down earlier in the day and had gone for dinner with her cousin, but she had told me how she had made her way to the hostel where we were staying. Dead easy. When I arrived at Southern Cross station, I was supposed to make my way to the orange building, where I could pick up a free transfer to the hostel. However, typically, the place was already closed since it was quite late and I didn't have a street address for the hostel. I hailed a taxi and told the guy the name of the hostel and roughly where I understood the place to be - of course, he hadn't heard of it. Perfect. Eventually, I managed to catch up with Jessica near Flinders Street station and we walked to the hostel. It was already late and with a busy few days ahead, it was straight to sleep.
The next morning, we got up fairly early and headed out into the city. We had our priorities in order and found a place to have breakfast first. After that, we wandered around the shops for a while and made some prudent purchases: jumper, hat, scarf and gloves. It's quite a bit colder down in Melbourne than it is in Sydney. We also stopped by Woolworths to get some food supplies, so that we wouldn't have to eat out for breakfast and lunch each day. The shopping was dropped back at the hostel and we headed back out for the day. We started with a walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens, past Government House of Victoria and taking in views of the Rod Laver Arena and Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Rod Laver Arena, where the Australian Open tennis tournament is held each year.
This is the Government House building for the state of Victoria. It was nice, though I prefer the New South Wales version.
We walked through a large part of the gardens, though there is just too much to see it all in one day, so we moved on to see some more of the city. Next, we visited the War Memorial, which is an enormous size and offers a great view of the city skyline. We also inadvertently stumbled into some sort of memorial service thing, though it was all a bit of shambles and we quickly made our exit.
Here's me outside the War Memorial.
The next stop was at the lake in Albert Park, which is where the Formula One Grand Prix is held in Melbourne each year. It was really cool to see the place, even without a race being on and I'd absolutely love to come back one day and watch the Formula One there.
Looking across the lake at Albert Park.
I took some photos and then we began heading towards the city centre once more. Some lunch was in order, though we had to be at the Melbourne Cricket Ground by 4:30pm for the AFL game which we'd bought tickets for beforehand. In the interests of not being late - we seem to spend far too much time running to places or events, arriving just in the nick of time - we decided that hot chips at the stadium would do fine for food.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground - or MCG as it's known - is absolutely huge. It holds a little over 100,000 people and is therefore the biggest stadium that I have ever stepped foot inside. It just beats Wembley in London and is a whole 25,000 seats bigger than Old Trafford. Unfortunately, for the Aussie Rules game we went to, the stadium wasn't even close to capacity and there were still around 25,000 people at the match. We watched Melbourne Demons lost against North Melbourne, who scored 107 points to only 66 in reply.
Although we were wrapped up, it was bitterly cold by the end of the game and I was glad when the final whistle eventually went. Jessica snapped a quick picture of me as we were leaving the stadium.
We walked back to the city along the 'Walk of Champions' which has photographs of each of the Australian Open tennis champions. I also took the opportunity to have my photograph taken outside the famous neon sign. Another sporting event which I'd love to attend some day.
Once back in the city, it was time for dinner. We headed to an Italian restaurant near the river and the food was really good. It has to be said, we're pretty excellent at choosing restaurants. The final plan for the day was to ride the elevator up the Eureka Sky Tower and take in some stunning views over the city. At the top of the tower, you can see for miles all across the city and suburbs of Melbourne. It was a really clear, cloudless night which was totally perfect for being able to see all of the famous landmarks.
There is an outdoor section up the tower, where you are exposed the whistling winds and painful cold. I ran out quickly, took some pictures and dived back inside the heated building.
This photo is looking towards the coast. The dark area to the left hand side is the lake at Albert Park. anyone who knows the layout of the Formula One circuit here will be able to recognise a few of the turns, laid out by the streetlights.
It had been a long day, so we headed back to the hostel and I think I may have been asleep before my head hit the pillow. I was totally shattered.
The next morning, we were up, showered, dressed and out of the hostel early once again. A few days before heading to Melbourne, Jessica had booked a hire car for the day, so that we could drive down the Great Ocean Road and see the Twelve Apostles. We arrived at the car hire place, finding that we had been allocated a black Nissan Micra for our trip. After a little bit of navigational improvisation from myself, as Jessica was driving, we were soon out of the city and on the motorway heading south. We made our first stop outside of Geelong in order to get some bottled water and an auxiliary cable for some musical entertainment.
This is the car, taken at the first stop for photos on our road trip.
This photo was taken at the same viewpoint. Even in winter, on a grey, cloudy day, the colour of the water was a mesmerising blue.
We captured a snap of this sign, signalling the official start of the Great Ocean Road.
Jessica captured this great photo of a rainbow over the water, whilst I was driving.
Although the day had started off with clear skies and sunshine, by the time we were on our way along the Great Ocean Road, the heavens had opened and the rain was torrential.
We stopped off for lunch at a little beach. Jessica braved the rain to snap some pictures.
It took around 3 hours of driving, albeit down a fantastic road with stunning scenery, before we reached the Twelve Apostles. The Twelve Apostles are essentially standing stacks of rock which have been left as the cliffs have eroded around them over hundreds of years. Whilst they are called the Twelve Apostles - and one did collapse a few years back - there have in fact never been twelve. Interesting fact of the day. When we arrived at the visitor centre car park, it was clear that the weather was not going to break anytime soon. The decision was made to wrap up and make a quick run to take some pictures and then sprint back to the car.
It was a fairly miserable day to have gone to see the Twelve Apostles, as this picture full of umbrellas and waterproof jackets shows.
We did find time for a wonderful, damp selfie! Hahaha!
The Apostles themselves were still amazing however and in some ways, it was maybe even better to have seen them with the waves crashing against the rocks and the rain pounding down.
There was just enough feeling left in our hands to get some, "I was there" photographs. I look suitably soaking and freezing here!
Photos completed, we literally ran back to the car, only stopping off at a toilet to make use of the hand dryers, which were turned off. Convenient. We drove back towards Geelong on our way to Melbourne, conscious that we had to return the car by 6pm that evening. When we stopped for fuel, I phoned the hire company to let them know that we were running late. The woman told me that we had up until 9:30am the following morning to return the vehicle, which was annoying since we'd been rushing around all day, though it did mean we could now relax and avoid trying to navigate the city at rush hour. Eventually, we found a car park to leave the car overnight and began the search for a restaurant for dinner. We settled on an Indian restaurant not far from the hostel and it was definitely one of the best Indian meals I've had for a while. After another long day, it was straight to sleep after dinner.
We had another early start the following morning so that we could return the car to the hire place. The weather was as bad as we had experienced in Melbourne so far, as the gusting wind blew the rain up and under umbrellas and jacket hoods. It was also bitterly cold, but we braved the conditions to take a walk around the Queen Victoria Market after returning the car. Struggling with the temperatures - it wasn't even that cold, maybe only 8 degrees celsius, but it's as cold as I've experienced for a while - we decided to take refuge in a cafe and have breakfast.
Some posh porridge, banana bread and coffee at the Federal Coffee Palace in Melbourne.
After breakfast, the next stop was a visit to the Melbourne Museum. On the way, we walked by the Royal Exhibition Building, which provided a pretty good photo opportunity.
The museum was great; certainly one of the better ones I've visited in Australia. The collection of animals and sea creatures was possibly my favourite part and it reminded me of Kelvingrove. We also took a quick walk around the State Library and then moved on to see some of the famous graffiti lane-ways in the city. Melbourne has a whole load of designated alleyways where graffiti art is permitted and therefore not removed or painted over. They make a great spectacle and make industrial brick walls far more appealing to the eye.
For a while, there was a particularly famous painting of Heath Ledger's Joker character from the Batman film, though it has since been painted over by something else. It would have been amazing to see it in real life. Conscious of the time, knowing that we had plans for the evening, we quickly took in some of the National Gallery of Victoria.
Large parts of the gallery are closed on Tuesdays, which actually worked in our favour. We still managed to see some cool stuff - these polar bears were probably the best.
The exasperated looking red-coloured bear was my personal favourite. I felt it perfectly reflected Man Utd's season last year. It should be called Moyes.
With another attraction visited on our whirlwind week, it was time to return to the hostel and get ready for the theatre. Some weeks ago, whilst in Brisbane, I had spotted an advert for a production of Les Miserables in Melbourne. As soon as we knew we were going to be in Melbourne at the time, we decided to get tickets. I'd been looking forward to it for weeks! We headed out to Chinatown and had dinner. The chopsticks were as challenging as ever, but the food was brilliant once again. It seems that in the space of a few days, I'd enjoyed some of the best Indian and Chinese food that I've ever had.
After dinner, we walked to Her Majesty's Theatre and found our seats.
The show was absolutely outstanding, just as expected. I've also now seen Les Mis on two continents, which is something I guess most people can't say they've done! After the show and with a very early flight to Hobart ahead of us the next day, we got straight home, organised our bags and got to sleep.
Attempting to wake up, strip a bed and gather all of our bags at 6am, in a room with ten other sleeping people was a challenge, to say the least. However, I think we managed to sneak out without disturbing anyone too much. We caught the train to Southern Cross Station and then jumped on the Sky Bus to take us back to the airport. Since Jessica had an outrageously large bag for hand luggage, which was almost certainly over the weight limit, we used the self check-in machines to print our boarding passes. I caught up on the news from overnight as we enjoyed breakfast. I almost choked on my croissant when I read that Luis Suarez had bitten someone AGAIN! He's incredible. The flight to Hobart was quite short once again - around one hour - and it was quite sunny when we landed in Tasmania.
A view over Seven Mile Beach from the plane, shortly before arriving at Hobart airport.
Hobart is another tiny airport and it didn't take us long to make our way outside and find the minibus which would be taking us to our hostel in the city. We arrived at the hostel and checked in, then headed into the town - or city, I'm not really sure - to get some food. I enjoyed a dark chocolate and chilli hot chocolate with lunch, which was immense and went some way to combatting the cold outside! We also stopped by the supermarket to get some more groceries for breakfasts and lunches.
This was our room in the hostel.
Later, we went to see the harbour and some more of the town. The large orange ship in this next picture is the Aurora Australis which is in an icebreaker ship that has made several voyages to Antarctica.
We even found time for a quick model photo shoot. I'd like to clarify that this is not a serious photo, but it is very funny!
We had a chilled afternoon, then got ready to head back out to dinner. We enjoyed another lovely meal with a bottle of wine, followed by a few drinks in one of the quirky little pubs in the town. We intended to have one drink, which turned into two and then three. By the time we were heading back to the hostel, Jessica had aired the idea that we find a nightclub to continue our night. In hindsight, it was a good decision to go home though, with another long, busy day ahead.
Here's Jessica posing with some pretty lights.
The next day, we got up and walked to the harbour to catch the ferry to Mona, nursing a bit of a headache and running a little late. Mona is an acronym, which stands for Museum of Old and New Art and it had been recommended as one of must-see places in Hobart.
There was a nice view of the city as we left the harbour on the ferry. You can see Mount Wellington in the background to the left.
The ferry also sailed beneath the famous Tasman Bridge, which closed after being struck by a ship in 1975, causing part of the bridge to collapse.
It was really cold again and by the time we got Mona the rain had started again. It took us an age to find the entrance to the museum itself, which seemed to be disguised as the opening to a shopping centre. All part of the hipster, modern-art experience, I guess. In truth, the whole gallery was a little underwhelming and I didn't enjoy it very much. Whilst the name suggests that the place displays both old and new art, everything seemed quite contemporary and strange. Most of it was beyond me; maybe I just wasn't appreciating the intricacies or the messages behind the artwork. Anyway, I concluded that modern art appreciation wasn't my forte.
We did play table tennis on a really cool table, which may have been the most fun part of the day!
This abstract map of Australia was quite interesting too.
The room full of blank books was also intriguing, though I question whether there is anything artistic here at all.
Having seen all of the galleries at Mona, we caught the ferry back to Hobart. Our plan for the evening was to hire another car and drive up Mount Wellington to take in the views. We got the car, grabbed some food from the hostel and started the long ascent up the mountain. The views out over the city as we climbed were superb, just as the sun was beginning to set, though clouds were starting to roll in.
As we neared the summit of the mountain, we stopped to take some more photographs.
The wind was howling at the summit of the mountain and there was snow on the ground, so we quickly braved the cold to snap some photos then dived back into the warm car. The thermometer on the car was showing just above zero degrees celsius, but I think the wind chill must have taken it down to minus two or three, at least. I completely forgot I was in Australia.
Although we had brought sandwiches along for dinner, we decided that something suitably warmer was in order. Having eased our way down the narrow mountain road, we walked to a local pizza takeaway shop and got ourselves a far better evening meal. Dinner finished, I took on Jessica at pool. She claims to have won the game, but when you "win" by dropping balls into the pockets every time your opponent isn't looking, I'm not sure it counts! Haha!
Though it was the final night of our trip, we weren't flying back to Sydney until the following evening, so had another early night to make the most of the next day. We were up early once more, with the car packed and ready for a drive south towards Port Arthur. The small, secluded town is the site of an old convicts prison and looked like a fascinating place to visit. The drive took around an hour and a half and it was great to be behind the wheel of a car for the second time in a week.
There were more brilliant views across the water on the way.
We arrived at the prison site and bought our tickets, which included a tour and a boat cruise. We wandered around the museum part of the centre before heading down to the jetty and boarding the boat.
Here's me on the boat, which took us around the bay and around the Isle of the Dead.
This was the view from the boat, looking back towards the prison.
The Isle of the Dead where all of the officers and convicts who died at the prison were buried. There was an extraordinary number of bodies essentially dumped on the tiny island. Quite unbelievable.
On our way back to Hobart, we stopped by a blow hole to have lunch. Unfortunately, there wasn't a high enough tide or big enough waves to see the blow hole in action. Though, it still afforded us a nice spot to take some more photos.
The final stop on our journey back was at Seven Mile Beach, which we'd seen from the plane a few days earlier. The beach is amazing, even in the winter.
Jessica taking some artistic snaps.
One final photograph of the sun setting over Hobart, for good measure. I've definitely taken more than my fair share of scenic photographs during my time in Australia.
After returning the car to the hire company, we went to the pub for a beer before it was time to go to the airport. Having checked in and sat around for a while, we boarded the plane and found our seats. We chatted for a while, before I fell asleep. Our post-exam adventure was over. Another two states and cities visited in Australia. Kerry was due to arrive in Sydney early the next morning, for the start of another crazy busy fortnight. I'm sure the next blog post will be equally as action-packed as this one has been!
Until then,
Jamie
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