"'For The Climb of Your Life!'TM" and "Perfect Day of Bats and Crabs"

Day 53 - "'For The Climb of Your Life!'TM" - Sydney, Australia

OK, we're a few blogs behind, so we'll try to keep these short.

Eric for some inexplicable reason, woke up before 7am and headed out to explore the local Woolworths (a huge retail chain in Australia) while the rest of us slept. After coming back and telling me how wonderful it was, I went back with him and bought some croissants and crullers for breakfast. They were still warm from coming straight out of the oven. Looked like they were a great alternative to the stale items being sold at the Starbucks down the street. We will be back.

The five of us then jumped on a local bus to head to Bondi Beach (btw, it's pronounced, "Bon-dye" not "Bon-dee"). There was a sculptures by the sea exhibit going on this week that we wanted to catch. It was quite interesting. Lots of different sculptures varying immensely from one another. Some seemed to have meaning, others seemed very arbitrary. My favorite was probably the most simplistic. It was a ginormous plastic straw stuck into the ocean. We had fun taking pictures with that one.

Amy had read about this one controversial sculpture of a naked boy. We kept trying to find it but with no luck. We took a break at this local surfers beach to catch some rays and enjoy the surf. It was a pretty windy day, but temperature-wise it wasn't too bad - similar to SF. We were about to give up on finding the statue when Eric spotted it. It was right behind us! Anyhow, after some amusement with the naked boy, we decided to head off to find some grub.

Since none of us were that hungry yet, we decided to hop back on the bus to Sydney to grab food there. Mar had read about this Thai fusion place called Longrain, so we went there for lunch. We started with some prawns wrapped in betel leaf, then had minced chicken with long bean, fried river trout with mango salad, and some mixed veggies. The food was very good but a bit pricey for my blood. Kinda like Slanted Door.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to change into our climbing gear in anticipation of our Harbour Bridge Climb. I'm not sure why, but I assumed that all we were doing was walking across the bridge. I didn't realize that we were actually climbing up to the top of the bridge! We opted for a twilight climb, so we caught both the day and night views of the city.

We had to change into climbing gear which consisted of a full body suit, a belt with a chain to strap us to the bridge, a head lamp, a fleece, a headset radio, and optional accessories included a beanie, a snot rag, and gloves. After gearing up and taking a practice climb in an indoor area, we were ready.

Our tour guide was Sophie, a college student and a charismatic leader. She took us up the bridge - the peak is over 450+ feet. I was a bit scared climbing up and down the ladders and then looking down through the grated floors to see nothing but water. That was soon forgotten though by the breathtaking view you get from up there. It's amazing!!

We had a fantastic climb (over 3.5 hours in total) and as an added bonus, got to see into the windows of a few apartments and caught one person getting out of the shower and another sitting on the thrown. hahaha!

After all that climbing, we were starving, so we headed over to the Australian hotel for some barbecue emu pizza, margherita pizza, Greek salad, and some local beers. The emu was quite tasty. It tasted like a tougher smoked beef. Not as gamey as the kangaroo. Amy didn't like it, but the rest of us thought it was pretty good.

As usual, after dinner, Eric was still not full, so I accompanied him to Hungry Jacks for a cheeseburger. Not as good as Burger King - it wasn't flame-broiled!



Day 54 - "Perfect Day of Bats and Crabs" - Sydney, Australia

Tired of the high food prices we've been experiencing, we decided to have breakfast at Woolworths. While James and Mar slept in, Amy and I ventured there to get a breakfast of chocolate croissants and hash browns. Eric joined us a bit later, and then we met Mar and James back at the hotel. Amy and I really wanted to see the aquarium, so Mar and James decided to join us. Eric opted out and decided to hang out around the hotel instead.

The Aquarium was a bit pricey, about $31/adult but again my student ID came in handy - knocked $10 off the price! Go me! Amy and I enjoyed seeing the dugongs (it's what they call manatees out here), sharks, and giant turtles. After seeing the great barrier reef exhibit, I am both excited and nervous as to what sort of sea creatures we're going to encounter. My favorite exhibit was the leafy sea dragons. Those things are just so darn cool. Sadly, the aquarium wasn't that big, so we were done in a little over an hour.

We then met up with Eric at the Fish Market. Apparently, at 5:30 am everyday they have an auction for all the fresh tuna and other fish that come in and some get shipped back to Japan for sashimi. After entering the fish market and seeing all it had to offer (fresh fish, oysters, crabs, lobsters, sea bugs, abalone etc.) we quickly split up and it was every man for him/herself! Mar, James and Eric opted for various types of fish and chips while Amy and I had to have the uber-fresh sashimi from Peter's. The line was long, but after eavesdropping on some locals talking about how this was the place to get super fresh sashimi, we knew we had chosen right.

There was so much fresh fish, we were overwhelmed. The lady behind the counter was getting annoyed with us and was like "Just pick one!" We finally settled on salmon, tuna, king fish sashimi and abalone sashimi. Everything was so tasty! The abalone was interesting. It was a little sweet, had the texture of oysters but was crunchy. Eric says the fish and chips were just OK. They didn't come in a paper bag with vinegar like in England. We heard New Zealand may be better, so we'll try again there.

After lunch, we decided to take the ferry over to Manly Beach which is north of the harbour. It was similar to Bondi Beach, but not as nice as Kangaroo Island. It was pretty crowded on the beach and lots of surfers in the water. Eric and James went into the water. It was a little cold, but fun to go up against the waves. Meanwhile, the rest of us laid out on the beach and ate the bag of chips we had bought from Woolworths. We've become addicted to these honey soy chicken chips.

We caught the ferry back to Sydney Harbour so we see the flying fox bats come out at night. These bats were flying in every direction. There was this tree between the Opera House and Botanical Gardens where some of them would fly to either eat the fruit or just hang there. It was pretty neat to be up close to watch.

It was getting late and we were all getting hungry. So we made our way to the Golden Century Restaurant for some Chinese food. We had heard and read about the Tasmanian King Crabs here that was supposed to be really good. Even at 8:30pm, there was a wait of 45 minutes. We finally sat down ready to feast on some King crab, but it was not meant to be. No more Tasmanian King Crab left. I was devastated. I had been looking forward to this meal ever since arriving to Sydney.

Instead we had mud crab cooked with ginger and shallots, steamed Barramunda fish, baby bok choy and snow pea sprouts. Everything was really tasty, especially the mud crab. Its shell was more like a stone crab and very meaty. It was perfect, the sauce on the crab was delicious. Maybe there will be another opportunity to have Tasmanian King Crab. We'll see.

With our bellies full, we went back to the hotel to rest.

For the pictures of days 53 and 54, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5405003126454736529&authkey=Gv1sRgCPqC96mbp5DRHQ&feat=email