February 17th
Today was fun. I had signed up to attend the Sydney Bus Trip before I got to Australia, and after checking my information, realized with glee that I did not have to get myself to Sydney this morning, I only had to get myself to the International Building on campus. When I arrived, I found John from UMD and sat with him on the bus.
The bus took us all over the place in Sydney and our tour guide Debbie filled my brain with lovely factoids that are more than likely useless, but might come in handy for some sort of trivia game one day. The first place we got out of the bus on the tour was near Mrs. Macquarie's chair, named for Lady Macquarie, wife of Lachlan Macquarie.
The tour guide said the seat was probably more comfortable because of the serious amount of padding she had due to her frilly dresses.
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
Lachlan Macquarie was the man who first took Australia seriously (I believe he is considered to be the father of Australia) and also had such an ego problem he named everything in sight after himself. He is also who our university is named after.
The spot we stopped at was a great place to take pictures of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
We also saw a sweet lizard-like animal.
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
One of my favorite things about Australia is how different the wildlife is from home. True, Australia is home to some of the most deadly animals on the planet, but until I get stung by one of those, I'm in awe of the creatures who live here. For the most part, that awe doesn't exactly apply to the human beings. No offense. (offence?)
After we got back on the bus, our next stop was at Bondi Beach. I'm still caught off guard by it being summertime in February, but the beach was very nice, even with the clouds. I had these delicious wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce, which I crave like Tim-Tams on a regular basis. At Bondi, I saw the area that the surf camp instructors warned us about, which is an area by the rocks with a permanent rip (rip current). It's also apparently where the show Bondi Rescue is filmed. Bascially, it's a show where they film people being rescued on Bondi Beach from the rip.
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
We then hopped back on the bus and went to the top of a hill where there were expensive houses. Sadly, that's all I got out of that part of the tour. "This house is this many million dollars, etc." The park we stopped at did have a very nice view of the city, which would have been even better without clouds, but so it goes.
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
The next leg of the tour was probably my favorite. I have no idea why, but for some reason I was entranced by the cliffs we walked along near the water. I can tell that I was entranced because I took copius amounts of pictures during this part. I believe we were near an area called "The Gap" where there were many tall cliffs with menacing rocks at the bottom. Apparently, it's a suicide hotspot and since I just visited the Golden Gate Bridge a few days before, I'm also apparently on a giant tour of suicide hotspots. Morbid!
Regardless, the cliffs were gorgeous.
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
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| From Sydney Bus Tour |
Ok, sorry. I'll stop the cliff pictures now.
The tour ended at some bar in Sydney, we got our "free/we already paid for it" drink and afterward we headed home peacefully. On a side note, our bus driver Leigh was quite hysterical in a very subtle way. I appreciated his humor very much.
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