And I thought yesterday's 7 hours of walking was bad.
The nine of us (one guy, eight girls) who decided not to go surfing decided to head over to Bondi Beach on this gorgeously sunny day! We met at 10 in the lobby, boarded a bus, a train, and another bus and found ourselves facing the Pacific Ocean 90 minutes later. The group seemed to be divided between sitting on the beach and getting a tan, and going on a few infamous walks along the coast. I joined the group doing the latter, and despite our best intentions, we never did see that other group again.
The walk was from Bondi to Bronte. I wanted to go all the way to Coogee (Say each letter: cooooo-geeeeee, not cog eee), but we decided to stop after the two hour walk instead of continuing onto the five hour walk. The walk was spectacular! The views were gorgeous, the company was grand, and the weather was beautiful. I don't think we could have asked for a better day to do this walk. Be sure to check Picasa for photos!
After our walk, we boarded a bus back to Bondi Junction (a gigantic shopping mall/train station) to grab some lunch. I managed to find the only Mexican food in Australia (you could hardly call it Mexican, though), while the rest of the clan grabbed McDonalds. After lunch, we decided to board another bus back to Bondi Beach to try to meet up with the group.
Amber (a member of a CAPA group consisting of two people whom we've adopted our group) decided she wanted to buy a surf board so that she could go surfing at Bondi (she's down here until August, so she'll spend a lot more time out here than we will). The first shop she stopped in happened to have a surf board that was in rough shape (it wasn't pretty, but would do the job) for US$68!!! New surf boards were going for (reasonably priced, that is) US$600 so she got a really great deal on it, especially given the fact that she's planning to throw it away/donate it when she leaves.
After walking around Bondi for another hour or so (total walking time thus far: 5 hours), we decided to head over to Darling Harbor to check out the free Jazz and Blues festival this weekend since Darling Harbor turned 21!! Yazi and I were both very wiped out at this point since we had been walking all day yesterday, and our walk around Bondi to Bronte was no easy walk this morning. I felt like a zombie. The harbor was beautiful, though, and we took some good pictures. The Jazz and Blues festival was pretty good, there's more going on tomorrow so we plan to actually watch some shows then.
After Darling Harbor (total walking time so far: 8 hours), a few wanted to go see the Opera House all lit up, and check out this Vivid Sydney Light Tour that's going on right now. The light tour celebrates Sydney's past, present, and future. Some of the light spectacles are incredibly lame and not worth the effort to walk, while others are breathtaking! We plan to do the full thing tomorrow (I think that's another 1-2 hour walk, and we were all falling off the train at this point). Anyway, so we boarded another train to head back over to Circular Quay to see the Opera House.
I never knew this, but apparently there are light shows on the Opera House as night. Tonight's show must have been "specimen" because some of the lights looked like cells under a microscope. It was…interesting…and sort of ugly. Sorry, Opera House. We'll try again tomorrow.
Total walking time today (and more intense walking than yesterday): 10 hours!!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Circular Quay and more of the CBD
This weekend, two of my roommates are gone to a surf camp. This leaves me and Yazi on our own, and luckily, this means that we both get our own bedrooms! Friday was the first day that I had seen sun in almost a week! Seeing that, I decided to invite Yazi on a ferry ride to a point on a map that I thought may be interesting to explore (not with Yazi, of course, but to explore with the man back home that is on our mind (Jon, for her, and a secret someone for me!)): Kissing Point.
Unfortunately, Yazi had to run to CAPA and work to fill out some paper work, so I tagged along to take care of some SRC stuff, and then we were going to head out when we were both finished. Unfortunately, on the way to CAPA, the clouds rolled back in and overcast it became. Shucks. We both decided that Kissing Point would be better to do in the sun, so we postponed the plans until a later date.
The day didn't turn out to be terribly interesting. We walked around Circular Quay (pronounced Key) a bit and took in the sites, and then explored more of the CBD. Circular Quay is where all the ferries depart from and resides between the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. There were sites, there were little souvenir shops, and many restaurants. As soon as we got off the train, a gelato place caught our eye and we promptly returned for a $5.00, single scoop gelato. Mmmmm, it was delicious, and we will be returning! There was a restaurant right in Circular Quay that has a breakfast on Sunday mornings consisting of (primarily) pancakes. Sunday, Yazi and I intend to get pancakes in the Quay, board a ferry, and arrive (an hour later) as Kissing Point. We joked about sticking around to watch the sunset at Kissing Point, but that may be pushing it a bit too far!
All in all, a very uneventful day. While walking through the CBD, I bought myself a new trench coat for a whole US$20! I'm so sick of wearing the same coat every day, and it doesn't appear that I'll be able to ditch my jacket any time soon. Alas. Total walking time: 7 hours.
Unfortunately, Yazi had to run to CAPA and work to fill out some paper work, so I tagged along to take care of some SRC stuff, and then we were going to head out when we were both finished. Unfortunately, on the way to CAPA, the clouds rolled back in and overcast it became. Shucks. We both decided that Kissing Point would be better to do in the sun, so we postponed the plans until a later date.
The day didn't turn out to be terribly interesting. We walked around Circular Quay (pronounced Key) a bit and took in the sites, and then explored more of the CBD. Circular Quay is where all the ferries depart from and resides between the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. There were sites, there were little souvenir shops, and many restaurants. As soon as we got off the train, a gelato place caught our eye and we promptly returned for a $5.00, single scoop gelato. Mmmmm, it was delicious, and we will be returning! There was a restaurant right in Circular Quay that has a breakfast on Sunday mornings consisting of (primarily) pancakes. Sunday, Yazi and I intend to get pancakes in the Quay, board a ferry, and arrive (an hour later) as Kissing Point. We joked about sticking around to watch the sunset at Kissing Point, but that may be pushing it a bit too far!
All in all, a very uneventful day. While walking through the CBD, I bought myself a new trench coat for a whole US$20! I'm so sick of wearing the same coat every day, and it doesn't appear that I'll be able to ditch my jacket any time soon. Alas. Total walking time: 7 hours.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
And then one day, Anna drove.
I've gotten the sentiment on more than one occasion that Australian drivers are on the border of nuts. The bus drivers fly through the city (and are ruthless, if you're not at that stop, they're not stopping - and you do actually have to WAVE the bus down to get him to stop, even if there are 50 people waiting). Now, I really don't understand Anna Ro. Not in the slightest bit. I was certain she was says dots for at least 15 minutes before she pointed to a dart on a pant. Yesterday, she was saying something to me (that may as well have been in Korean), and then handed me my coat. I put it on and proceeded to follow her, not having a clue where we were going.
And this was when things got interesting. Picture this: A tiny Korean woman (she's shorter than I am) driving a Kia Mini Van, and flying through Australia, screaming at other drivers in Korean, Italian, and English. Two things I learned: stop signs and speed limits are only suggestions. Pedestrians don't have the right of way in Australia, so no one seems to see the point in actually stopping at a stop sign. There are also speed bumps to get people to slow down, the suggested speed limit is 25kph (the speed bumps are also pedestrian right-of-way "zebras", as they call cross walks). Anna Ro decided that 60kph was an appropriate speed for these bumps! Oh dear god!
I still don't understand the point of the trip, but she showed me a few beautiful placed in Annandale, and drove through Little Italy. I do intend to take a bus out there at some point and walk around…without the angry Korean in a mini van.
That internship is going a bit rough at the moment. I'm happy it's not my internship site every day after this week. She frequently gets into yelling fits with customers and really doesn't listen to anyone (I wonder if this is a language barrier, or just her stubbornness). Tailors are a cut of their own, and she's no different.
Needless to say, I look forward to this weekend, taking a break, and starting at Adam Worling on Tuesday (we have Monday off for the Queen's birthday). I have a lot of fun things planned for this weekend as most of the group is heading to a surf camp!
And this was when things got interesting. Picture this: A tiny Korean woman (she's shorter than I am) driving a Kia Mini Van, and flying through Australia, screaming at other drivers in Korean, Italian, and English. Two things I learned: stop signs and speed limits are only suggestions. Pedestrians don't have the right of way in Australia, so no one seems to see the point in actually stopping at a stop sign. There are also speed bumps to get people to slow down, the suggested speed limit is 25kph (the speed bumps are also pedestrian right-of-way "zebras", as they call cross walks). Anna Ro decided that 60kph was an appropriate speed for these bumps! Oh dear god!
I still don't understand the point of the trip, but she showed me a few beautiful placed in Annandale, and drove through Little Italy. I do intend to take a bus out there at some point and walk around…without the angry Korean in a mini van.
That internship is going a bit rough at the moment. I'm happy it's not my internship site every day after this week. She frequently gets into yelling fits with customers and really doesn't listen to anyone (I wonder if this is a language barrier, or just her stubbornness). Tailors are a cut of their own, and she's no different.
Needless to say, I look forward to this weekend, taking a break, and starting at Adam Worling on Tuesday (we have Monday off for the Queen's birthday). I have a lot of fun things planned for this weekend as most of the group is heading to a surf camp!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Anna Ro, day one
Today was the first day of my internship at Anna Ro. Fall semester 2008, we happened to do a pretty intense study of tailoring in studio with Carlos Chavez, a local tailor who makes custom suits (running about $4,000 a piece). Anna Ro is the Australian Korean Carlos Chavez. First day of work and she's already got me pad stitching (a very time intensive stitch that makes hand made suits look impeccable). She was very impressed with my skills and has me now working on fixing a suit with some serious problems (the lining and shell of the wool shrank up when it was steamed, but the horse hair remained the same size, so there is some intense pulling. The lining was also stitched too tightly, so I have to pull most of it out and loosen it, after fixing the front/front facing). It's pretty intense and I really didn't think I would be tailoring at all, but it is great to be learning under her.
The shop is located in a neighborhood with a lot of Italians who immigrated from Italy. Most of the people coming into her shop speak to her in Italian (she speaks Korean, Japanese, Italian, English, and French), and I finally found a use for my Italian skills! This one very interesting character came in and said that the entire Italian community comes to her for tailoring because she's the only tailor who speaks Italian. A high-profile man with the FBI also came in and Anna instructed me to measure him under her direction. That was uncomfortable, but I survived.
There's a guitar shop a few stores down, and the owner is apparently teaching Anna how to play guitar. He comes into the shop every day at three and forces her to play. His name is Phil and he is a very nice man. He was joking today that I came to Australia to work with Koreans and listen to them play American music. Australia is great! There's another girl who works in the shop as well named Sylvia (Korean) who semi-has a job offer with Calvin Klein back in Korea. They'll give her the job if she learns how to speak English and she was given a year. She moves back to Korea in two months to take her job.
I think I'm going to enjoy my time at Anna Ro, but at the same time, I'm happy that I'm only there one day a week. It's an interesting shop dynamic and I think I'll enjoy Adam Worling PR a bit more. We'll see though. Pad Stitching is quite fun!!
On another note, I was elected to Student Representative Council! I will be working with representatives from other CAPA groups (our group is 18, but there are roughly 85 total CAPA students here this summer) to plan events around Sydney. Congratulations to me!
The shop is located in a neighborhood with a lot of Italians who immigrated from Italy. Most of the people coming into her shop speak to her in Italian (she speaks Korean, Japanese, Italian, English, and French), and I finally found a use for my Italian skills! This one very interesting character came in and said that the entire Italian community comes to her for tailoring because she's the only tailor who speaks Italian. A high-profile man with the FBI also came in and Anna instructed me to measure him under her direction. That was uncomfortable, but I survived.
There's a guitar shop a few stores down, and the owner is apparently teaching Anna how to play guitar. He comes into the shop every day at three and forces her to play. His name is Phil and he is a very nice man. He was joking today that I came to Australia to work with Koreans and listen to them play American music. Australia is great! There's another girl who works in the shop as well named Sylvia (Korean) who semi-has a job offer with Calvin Klein back in Korea. They'll give her the job if she learns how to speak English and she was given a year. She moves back to Korea in two months to take her job.
I think I'm going to enjoy my time at Anna Ro, but at the same time, I'm happy that I'm only there one day a week. It's an interesting shop dynamic and I think I'll enjoy Adam Worling PR a bit more. We'll see though. Pad Stitching is quite fun!!
On another note, I was elected to Student Representative Council! I will be working with representatives from other CAPA groups (our group is 18, but there are roughly 85 total CAPA students here this summer) to plan events around Sydney. Congratulations to me!
"Don't ever go to Redfern," they said on the plane...
So, I generally have a pretty great sense of direction, not going to lie. Today, maybe it was the vertigo, but my sense of direction was completely off. I don't know what it is, but ever since landing in Sydney I feel like I've been unable to read a map properly. I miss my google maps on my blackberry, that's for sure! Anyway, here's how today unfolded.
Unannounced to me, school is closed on Sunday. I found this out while standing outside school, the school that's an hour away from my apartment. I was able to pick up internet outside of the building so I managed to call home for a bit, send some pre-typed e-mails, but was unable to really do anything else. After my battery died a short hour later, I had recalled our CAPA leader Zara stating that there was a pretty spectacular view of the bridge and the opera house just down the hill from school. So I took off, down a hill (not even knowing if it was the right hill), following the two signs there were for McMahon's Point (assuming this was what she was talking about).
Her statement of Sydney hills rivaling San Francisco hills seemed to have escaped my mine at this point.
Holy cow are my legs sore! I walked down a hill for a good 35-40 minutes. I kept doubting that I was going the right direction, but I didn't have anything else to do so I figured why not. Eventually I made it, and yes it was worth it, but man that was a long walk! The views were spectacular and there wasn't anyone else in the area so I was able to sit and enjoy the view for awhile. But then came the task of getting back up the hill…
There was a ferry stop right around the corner from the point. I went and waited for a ferry for a good thirty minutes. After seeing that still none were coming, I left, and decided to walk back up the darn hill that took me forty minutes to walk down. Mind you, I still have my laptop on me at this point, so I'm carrying an extra 10 pounds. After an hour I was back at the top, exhausted, and back on a train over the harbor. My next quest was to find my internship site.
I wanted to follow the path I would be taking on a usual basis, so I backtracked nearly all the way to my apartment (even though I saw a bus I would eventually be taking while in downtown). I found my first bus stop and bus perfectly fine. Now, the first bus I take is to a train station, but there are three different train stations in this area. I should note here that train stations are not well marked in Sydney. Usually you have to walk through a mall to get to them, and I was actually very confused at this point as to how many train stations were in this area. But, the bus I needed to take supposedly ended its route at the station I needed to get off at. Sounds easy enough, right?
Nope.
The first train station is Central - the biggest train station in Sydney. It has four bus stops to access it. At the fourth bus stop, everyone got off the bus. I, stupidly, assumed this was the last stop so rushed off the bus as well ONLY TO SEE HIM CONTINUE ON HIS ROUTE! First mistake. Not knowing quite where he was heading, and my map not notifying me what stations were in the area, I started to make assumptions (second mistake). I knew I needed to get to Railway Station, and I was at Central Station. I walked into Central thinking I could just easily hop a train to Railway Station. Remember that note about Central being the biggest train station in Sydney? Yeah, there are over 30 platforms. Try easily catching a train ANYWHERE! From Central, I had two options for next stops: Town Hall and Redfern. I knew Town Hall wasn't right, so I assumed (third mistake) that Railway Stations was Redfern and headed over to Redfern.
Apparently, Redfern = the ghetto of Sydney. And yes, I still had my laptop on me. Thinking I may still vaguely be in the right area, I walked 20 feet to the left, 50 feet to the right, and promptly ran back into the station. Being in the ghetto of Sydney, however, the train platforms were not well marked and it ended up taking me twenty five minutes to get back to a station that was 30 seconds away! Ugh, after getting back to Central and finding my way out of that maze, I pulled out my maps and started walking again. Eventually (20 minutes later) I found my stop…where I needed to be over an hour ago…and it was fifty feet from where I had gotten off the bus in the first place (please, Sydney, label your streets better).
For the second leg of my trip, there are 5-6 different buses I can take. Two of the buses that I could take pulled up at the same time so I hoped on the second one. After 20 minutes of riding that bus, a red flag really, really, REALLY should have gone off when the first bus turned off the road my internship is on and my bus didn't (fourth mistake - if I could take either of these buses, my internship really should have been before the first bus turned off). But, I kept going. (There were a few indicators for other peoples internships that I was looking for; my only indicator is a street name, and Sydney does not label the streets at every street corner.) I kept going for another forty minutes. And then my bus turned, and I wasn't at my internship, and I knew I was in the wrong place.
This was the point where I sent my roommates a text stating that I was incredibly lost. They were unable to locate me on a map, and I knew that was trouble (ahaha, oh god that was trouble). I crossed the street and checked the timetables and thank god the same bus I was on was coming back in 12 minutes (supposedly, the numbers are really just suggestions). I boarded the bus, however, to find out that I had gone so far out of the zones that my travel pass covers that it would cost me an additional $5 to get back to the city!! AHAHAH! $5 for a flippin' bus ride all because I was lost! Hah! Of course I had to pay it, and I asked the bus driver to let me off at Johnston Street (I still needed to find my internship). The sad thing was that as soon as he let me off at Johnston Street, I turned around and the shop was right there - I easily could have taken his bus back to the city. But nope, he pulled away right as I was about to get back on and there I was, waiting for another 20 minutes.
I eventually got home, and stayed in the rest of the night (enough being lost for one day). What will take me 40 minutes on a usual basis took me nearly four hours today. And this is why we find places in advance...
Unannounced to me, school is closed on Sunday. I found this out while standing outside school, the school that's an hour away from my apartment. I was able to pick up internet outside of the building so I managed to call home for a bit, send some pre-typed e-mails, but was unable to really do anything else. After my battery died a short hour later, I had recalled our CAPA leader Zara stating that there was a pretty spectacular view of the bridge and the opera house just down the hill from school. So I took off, down a hill (not even knowing if it was the right hill), following the two signs there were for McMahon's Point (assuming this was what she was talking about).
Her statement of Sydney hills rivaling San Francisco hills seemed to have escaped my mine at this point.
Holy cow are my legs sore! I walked down a hill for a good 35-40 minutes. I kept doubting that I was going the right direction, but I didn't have anything else to do so I figured why not. Eventually I made it, and yes it was worth it, but man that was a long walk! The views were spectacular and there wasn't anyone else in the area so I was able to sit and enjoy the view for awhile. But then came the task of getting back up the hill…
There was a ferry stop right around the corner from the point. I went and waited for a ferry for a good thirty minutes. After seeing that still none were coming, I left, and decided to walk back up the darn hill that took me forty minutes to walk down. Mind you, I still have my laptop on me at this point, so I'm carrying an extra 10 pounds. After an hour I was back at the top, exhausted, and back on a train over the harbor. My next quest was to find my internship site.
I wanted to follow the path I would be taking on a usual basis, so I backtracked nearly all the way to my apartment (even though I saw a bus I would eventually be taking while in downtown). I found my first bus stop and bus perfectly fine. Now, the first bus I take is to a train station, but there are three different train stations in this area. I should note here that train stations are not well marked in Sydney. Usually you have to walk through a mall to get to them, and I was actually very confused at this point as to how many train stations were in this area. But, the bus I needed to take supposedly ended its route at the station I needed to get off at. Sounds easy enough, right?
Nope.
The first train station is Central - the biggest train station in Sydney. It has four bus stops to access it. At the fourth bus stop, everyone got off the bus. I, stupidly, assumed this was the last stop so rushed off the bus as well ONLY TO SEE HIM CONTINUE ON HIS ROUTE! First mistake. Not knowing quite where he was heading, and my map not notifying me what stations were in the area, I started to make assumptions (second mistake). I knew I needed to get to Railway Station, and I was at Central Station. I walked into Central thinking I could just easily hop a train to Railway Station. Remember that note about Central being the biggest train station in Sydney? Yeah, there are over 30 platforms. Try easily catching a train ANYWHERE! From Central, I had two options for next stops: Town Hall and Redfern. I knew Town Hall wasn't right, so I assumed (third mistake) that Railway Stations was Redfern and headed over to Redfern.
Apparently, Redfern = the ghetto of Sydney. And yes, I still had my laptop on me. Thinking I may still vaguely be in the right area, I walked 20 feet to the left, 50 feet to the right, and promptly ran back into the station. Being in the ghetto of Sydney, however, the train platforms were not well marked and it ended up taking me twenty five minutes to get back to a station that was 30 seconds away! Ugh, after getting back to Central and finding my way out of that maze, I pulled out my maps and started walking again. Eventually (20 minutes later) I found my stop…where I needed to be over an hour ago…and it was fifty feet from where I had gotten off the bus in the first place (please, Sydney, label your streets better).
For the second leg of my trip, there are 5-6 different buses I can take. Two of the buses that I could take pulled up at the same time so I hoped on the second one. After 20 minutes of riding that bus, a red flag really, really, REALLY should have gone off when the first bus turned off the road my internship is on and my bus didn't (fourth mistake - if I could take either of these buses, my internship really should have been before the first bus turned off). But, I kept going. (There were a few indicators for other peoples internships that I was looking for; my only indicator is a street name, and Sydney does not label the streets at every street corner.) I kept going for another forty minutes. And then my bus turned, and I wasn't at my internship, and I knew I was in the wrong place.
This was the point where I sent my roommates a text stating that I was incredibly lost. They were unable to locate me on a map, and I knew that was trouble (ahaha, oh god that was trouble). I crossed the street and checked the timetables and thank god the same bus I was on was coming back in 12 minutes (supposedly, the numbers are really just suggestions). I boarded the bus, however, to find out that I had gone so far out of the zones that my travel pass covers that it would cost me an additional $5 to get back to the city!! AHAHAH! $5 for a flippin' bus ride all because I was lost! Hah! Of course I had to pay it, and I asked the bus driver to let me off at Johnston Street (I still needed to find my internship). The sad thing was that as soon as he let me off at Johnston Street, I turned around and the shop was right there - I easily could have taken his bus back to the city. But nope, he pulled away right as I was about to get back on and there I was, waiting for another 20 minutes.
I eventually got home, and stayed in the rest of the night (enough being lost for one day). What will take me 40 minutes on a usual basis took me nearly four hours today. And this is why we find places in advance...
Sydneysiders and their dogs
The dogs around here are amazing. They don't look like US dogs, that's for sure. Yes, there are four paws, there's fur and wet noses, but they just aren't built like American dogs. I believe they're a bit stockier, and the breeds are almost unrecognizable. Also, the dogs are AMAZINGLY well trained. I don't think there are necessarily leash laws around Australia because 75% of the dogs I've seen haven't had leashes on. These dogs are, quite literally, a matter of feet from busy downtown streets, and stay within 3-4 feet of their owners. There doesn't seem to be any real effort made by the owners either to keep their dogs near. Even passing perfect strangers, they don't bark, don't sniff, don't make any effort to acknowledge their existence. It's quite amazing.
Paddington Markets (Oxford Street) and the CBD
Saturday I decided to ditch the rest of the group and travel solo. I was finally given a map of the bus system, so I decided I could do well enough on my own. Besides, getting lost every now and then is good for you.
I started the day off by heading into Town Hall to catch a bus down Oxford Street. Now, Oxford Street heads all the way out to Bondi Beach and I know I didn't want to go that far (A - I plan to do Bondi on another day, and B- I had no clue where these "markets" were on Oxford, so I decided to ride the bus until things no longer looked interesting, get off, and walk all the way back through the interestingness). I rode down Oxford for 30-35 minutes, and when I got off I was ready for Breakfast #2 (my meals in Australia consist of breakfast at 7, breakfast 2 at 9, and lunch at 2, no dinner). I stopped by a juice bar and picked up a ridiculously expensive "medium" (small) smoothie (this was not the last expensive drink I encountered this day - I almost paid $10 for an Earl Grey, no thanks). I then started my trek back to town, stopping in almost ever shop along the way. Every Saturday morning, Paddington (a district in Sydney) has a market that allows designers who are just starting out to sell their goods. Of course, it was ridiculously expensive. There was a very cute (very, very cute) artistic print that I wanted (4x6, 8x10 with the mat), but it was $130. Adorable, but I could have done it in Illustrator in 5 minutes for free. Disappointing, but inspiring too. I bought two scarves and no more. I've noticed that I'm wearing my black trench and a scarf everywhere, so all photos of me consist of these two things. I need more scarves, and I plan to find another (cheap) trench coat to switch up my photos a bit. I found some good shops though that I intend to return to at another point.
By the time I returned to the city, I was already kind of tired. I'm certain that this was at least a three mile walk so far, if not closer to four when you include all of the walking around in the shops. However, the stop I needed to go to in order to get back to the apartment was right next to Hyde Park. The trees in Hyde Park are absolutely beautiful. They are breathtaking and quite fantastic. I spent a great deal of time taking photos of them (not all of them were uploaded - I thought I would spare you the 40 pictures of the exact same kind of tree). I didn't realize it, but I was actually walking on quite the path through the park and ended up at a fountain, a memorial to King George IV and King George V, St. Mary's church. Behind these two things turned out to be the Hyde Park Barrack's Museum, which had a student entrance rate of $5. There was a special going on about the convicts and their journey to Australia, so I decided to go in. It was an interesting, but small museum. Not much to write about it. There are some photos posted on Picasa if you're interested. I'm happy I went; I found out that there were five Hanson's registered as convicts who came to Australia!
After the museum, I knew it was time for food. Seeing nothing around me that looked good, I started to head towards things that looked interesting until I found something to eat. Oh boy was that a mistake! I somehow ended up in the most expensive part of Sydney. This is where all of the high-end designer's shops were (Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry, etc.). This was interesting because in Minneapolis we don't have any of those shops, but at the same time, food was much more expensive in this part of town than other parts (and food is already quite expensive in Sydney)! This is where I managed to encounter a $10 cuppa tea. Yikes. Luckily I caught that one before ordering. I was also able to find a "designer chocolates" shop where chocolate bars were roughly $63, and a box of chocolates was $160 (in US: $39 and $128, roughly). Just like my mother says that I have an amazing ability to pick out the most expensive item in the store, I also have an amazing ability to find the most expensive parts of Sydney. :D
I eventually found Sydney Central, a congregation of 140 restaurants serving international cuisine. I had a Tropical Crepe, which consisted of ham, pineapple, and cheese inside of a crepe. It was pretty good - I prefer sweet, breakfast-y crepes though. After this, I tooled around a few more malls for a couple hours and eventually headed home.
I started the day off by heading into Town Hall to catch a bus down Oxford Street. Now, Oxford Street heads all the way out to Bondi Beach and I know I didn't want to go that far (A - I plan to do Bondi on another day, and B- I had no clue where these "markets" were on Oxford, so I decided to ride the bus until things no longer looked interesting, get off, and walk all the way back through the interestingness). I rode down Oxford for 30-35 minutes, and when I got off I was ready for Breakfast #2 (my meals in Australia consist of breakfast at 7, breakfast 2 at 9, and lunch at 2, no dinner). I stopped by a juice bar and picked up a ridiculously expensive "medium" (small) smoothie (this was not the last expensive drink I encountered this day - I almost paid $10 for an Earl Grey, no thanks). I then started my trek back to town, stopping in almost ever shop along the way. Every Saturday morning, Paddington (a district in Sydney) has a market that allows designers who are just starting out to sell their goods. Of course, it was ridiculously expensive. There was a very cute (very, very cute) artistic print that I wanted (4x6, 8x10 with the mat), but it was $130. Adorable, but I could have done it in Illustrator in 5 minutes for free. Disappointing, but inspiring too. I bought two scarves and no more. I've noticed that I'm wearing my black trench and a scarf everywhere, so all photos of me consist of these two things. I need more scarves, and I plan to find another (cheap) trench coat to switch up my photos a bit. I found some good shops though that I intend to return to at another point.
By the time I returned to the city, I was already kind of tired. I'm certain that this was at least a three mile walk so far, if not closer to four when you include all of the walking around in the shops. However, the stop I needed to go to in order to get back to the apartment was right next to Hyde Park. The trees in Hyde Park are absolutely beautiful. They are breathtaking and quite fantastic. I spent a great deal of time taking photos of them (not all of them were uploaded - I thought I would spare you the 40 pictures of the exact same kind of tree). I didn't realize it, but I was actually walking on quite the path through the park and ended up at a fountain, a memorial to King George IV and King George V, St. Mary's church. Behind these two things turned out to be the Hyde Park Barrack's Museum, which had a student entrance rate of $5. There was a special going on about the convicts and their journey to Australia, so I decided to go in. It was an interesting, but small museum. Not much to write about it. There are some photos posted on Picasa if you're interested. I'm happy I went; I found out that there were five Hanson's registered as convicts who came to Australia!
After the museum, I knew it was time for food. Seeing nothing around me that looked good, I started to head towards things that looked interesting until I found something to eat. Oh boy was that a mistake! I somehow ended up in the most expensive part of Sydney. This is where all of the high-end designer's shops were (Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry, etc.). This was interesting because in Minneapolis we don't have any of those shops, but at the same time, food was much more expensive in this part of town than other parts (and food is already quite expensive in Sydney)! This is where I managed to encounter a $10 cuppa tea. Yikes. Luckily I caught that one before ordering. I was also able to find a "designer chocolates" shop where chocolate bars were roughly $63, and a box of chocolates was $160 (in US: $39 and $128, roughly). Just like my mother says that I have an amazing ability to pick out the most expensive item in the store, I also have an amazing ability to find the most expensive parts of Sydney. :D
I eventually found Sydney Central, a congregation of 140 restaurants serving international cuisine. I had a Tropical Crepe, which consisted of ham, pineapple, and cheese inside of a crepe. It was pretty good - I prefer sweet, breakfast-y crepes though. After this, I tooled around a few more malls for a couple hours and eventually headed home.
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