Water and fire

It's Sunday morning and we were moving slowly. Something about rain just makes you rather stay indoors and play with a puppy than traverse a half-unfamiliar city, but there were still things to do and see! So we checked emails and made our plans as per usual. Chris was popping back and forth between the TV room and his computer to check up on this crazy 24-hour sports car race Le Mans that he is kind of obsessed with, but he took a long enough break to take Janet to lunch. They offered to drive us into town as they were going, but Julia and I were not ready to take on the day yet, so we planned on figuring out the bus schedule. But the schedule online did not include our minor bus stop, so our guestimations made us miss the 11:45. So we figured it out in a roundabout way, and heading home until the next bus came a half hour later actually helped us save some money by eating some leftovers at the house. Food excellent on day one is usually still good on day two in my book.

This time, our path to our destination from our usual bus stop took us through Chinatown, which was fun to see in the daylight after we had so much fun there with the night markets. There were cute eateries around that made it hard to just keep walking, but to Paddy's Market we must go! This was another scenic spot we had heard just pieces about, and when we entered through one of the many arches of a classic European on the outside, warehouse on the inside, we were excited that this might be one of the rare few places in Sydney to find decent prices!

The trend we have observed in Australia, at least from being in Sydney and from Julia's experience in Lismore, Australians pay more, get paid more (minimum wage is about $20! can you imagine?), get taxed more, but get better quality stuff from the government. I am not going to get into a whole argument on economics or politics here, but it has been a little rough with our US dollars on our trip, and it is also pretty cool to see solid infrastructure and how the government provides for its people.

Anyway, Paddy's Market was a zoo. Julia and I devised a zigzag plan to basically cover every lane of stalls all smooshed together, dodging tons of people not paying attention to where they are walking and getting distracted by all of the wares to be eaten, smelled, and seen. If the US has markets like this, I have yet to discover them. While this may be overwhelming for some, Paddy's Market is meant to be not just a place you go with a list of things in mind, but rather the experience is most of the fun. We began the day with the intention of not letting each other spend any more money on gifts or souvenirs, but we both found some unique things at allowable prices for our budget. We tried on silly sunglasses, marveled at iridescent jewelry, especially that made from pearl shells and various colored stones, and even got drawn into $15 Chinese massages, also a great decision.

So we spent plenty of time walking and actually found another one of Max Brenner's chocolate cafes to try one of his milkshake creations, this time in the Chocolate Room. Julia and I caught up on everything that has happened in our lives since we had hung out a lot last summer, and we also planned our next move for our Sydney situation. One of the last things we wanted to get in before returning to our home country was a tour of the Sydney Opera House. While we have gotten plenty of photos of the outside, today, despite having to slosh through the streets, was the day we intended to take a tour of the inside.

Sadly, this is the only instance where being relaxed about our day's agenda caught us off-guard. We made it to the opera house with our pants soaked mid-calf, but the intense weather decided to let us get a few more shots of the grounds once we got up close to this magnificent architectural feat. Once we got inside and started asking questions about tours, though, we checked our watches and learned we had missed the last tour by 15 minutes! We took the opportunity to tour the gift shop of course, but it was too bad we did not get to see more of the inside.

Oh well, we at least got some beautiful night harbor shots out of the deal, and we found our way eventually to the ferry wharf to follow Chris and Janet's suggestion that we take a ferry ride to Manly, another suburb on the north side. Perhaps this would have had more entertaining views in the daylight, but nearing the winter solstice, daylight had already expired on us. So some sort of dark force was tossing our ferry violently about on the tall swells, but at least the lights around the harbor were pretty.

Ally also advised that we go to Wharfside Bar that in theory was close to where the ferry dropped us off, but we could not find it after searching the few well-lit streets around the wharf. We were also wet and tired, so we ended up at a sports bar and restaurant called Ivanhoe that served us some great food and ambiance on a good budget. The building itself was also an interesting configuration, with a more family atmosphere on the ground level, young adult to upper-middle ages on the second level eating, chatting, and/or watching the AFL (Australian Football League, aka rugby, aka footie), and when we went up to the third floor after our meal, we found a more club atmosphere. This floor would probably be cool in a couple hours, but for now, it was a dude and his laptop playing music in what felt like a dim four-star hotel lobby. Ivanhoe still would get my recommendation.

After Julia's personal pizza and my $10 steak and mash, we wandered a little bit but just did not know what to do in the area... So we got some chocolates and gummies from a candy stand near the wharf and took the ferry back. It was fun to also explore the Circular Quay area on a weekend night (technically still a weekend night with Queen's Birthday three-day weekend), but as it was mostly food, and we had just eaten, there was not much for us to do but grab a taxi and head home to the north side. We did, however, come across a large crowd circled up under an overpass, and we poked our heads over to see some street theater!

Yea, right after this photo, he backflipped through that ring of fire. It was pretty awesome.

And with that, we headed home for a chill night with the family. It was nice to be able to spend some more time hanging out with them, especially since Ally has been doing some serious studying these past few days. She said the timing of our visit was unfortunate especially since the weather is seldom like this, and also because she hardly ever studies but has a big final exam on Tuesday. Apparently Australian education is easier but harder to do well because so much rides on tests and you teaching yourself a bit of the material, and those emphases, combined with a pass-fail system, are pretty tricky! Ally is going through her own hoop of fire hoping to come out on the other side unscathed in a couple of days.

Only one more full day left for Julia and me in Sydney, goodnight all!