Celebrating the Queen

Celebrating the queen? Huh? What queen? Apparently this is the beginning of the Queen's Birthday weekend, a holiday celebrated in Australia. And "queen" is referring to the queeeeen, as some pronounce, of England. Apparently, the queen is still technically the head of state of Australia.

This country, officially named the Commonwealth of Australia, have made the queen's birthday a federal holiday despite being independent and despite many Englanders not even celebrating it! Perhaps most Aussies are just glad to get a day off of work and do not pay too much mind (the three-day weekend coincides with our visit quite well, as our host family is able to spend more time with us as they have chosen to do!). Throughout our time here, we have picked up on a rather interesting, closer, if not cosier, relationship between Australians and the Brits. Casual comments about the Brits being stuffy at one point and overindulgent at another (no offense intended) compound the relationship between these two countries into something I do not have a good grasp on yet.

And Australians' view of Americans is another story. We have common ground in that we both have some interesting vein of British rule in our history, but while Australians see their accented English as "more correct" than our mangled version, I'm sure some Americans wouldn't hesitate to take a position that we are a more legitimate country because we have been one for longer. Not to mention Australia's continued struggle to get over the embarrassment of its convict history, which is really just starting to be talked about delicately. So we all have our share of English issues and rebels, who doesn't?

Anyways, that is just a piece of my commentary that stitches together snippets of dinner table and car ride conversations as well as things overheard through the media as well. The conversations with real people of the country you visit are often something much harder to get if you do not stay with a family. So in addition to all the wonderful hospitality and comfort of staying with Janet and Chris, there is this additional benefit as well.

A few other things I have noticed the last couple days:
- For a polite version of "Well, that's just weird," where a Minnesotan might say "That's interesting," the more common Australian version is "Well, that's different." I may have heard my Iowan relatives pull that one out time and again too though.
- Everybody walking around this city is so dressed-up all the time! I was expecting laid-back Aussie-ness, especially after Julia told me in Lismore where she studied, a lot of people walk around shoeless. Perhaps its because it is an international business city, or perhaps because it is winter, but there is too much black and too much fanciness for my taste. I just want to wear my bright summer colors... and stick out like the foreigner I am...
- Advice Chris tried to hammer hard into us included giving ourselves time to figure ourselves out/party/have fun before going into grad school if that happens to be the plan down the road.
- I am still amazed by adorable houses with red-orange roofs that just dot the rolling, forested hills.

Today felt lazy on both ends, but it was fabulous to be able to fit in everything we intended to sight-see and also catch up on our rest and family time. Janet and Chris provided us with some Australian brekkie - bacon for Julia and my first ever poached eggs.

Julia and I planned on researching the altered bus schedule for its weekend routine, but Chris generously decided to drive us to downtown and actually ended up spending the whole day with us! It was fun to learn more about him as well, especially talking about international travel. A chill man in his sixties full of quips who speaks in slang and loves to text is not necessarily what you would expect to fit the serious businessman type, but he is able to take his love and smarts for bioengineering all around the world, saying "I figure if I have a work project somewhere, I have to go there!" And with his company, it seems it can work both ways so he can try and establish business connections for destinations he would find interesting to travel to. What a life.

Driving to the harbor we learned we were on our way to "Neutral Bay," apparently named because the British got here first and allowed this portion of the bay for the Russians and the French, etc. First we got out and went down to the dock to see the boats, even though we couldn't spot the yacht Chris sometimes borrows from his friend.

Next, we took a spin to another viewing area further down the harbor to park the car, take a walk by the Harbor Bridge, and get ourselves some of the typical, iconic shots of the Sydney Opera House. Thank goodness for sun (for now)!

What beautiful structures.

We also happened to be by the opera house around noontime, and apparently it is a routine that every day at noon there is a midday gun fired. But today was special: a 21-gun salute for the Queen's birthday! What a funny situation.

Next on our list was the Powerhouse Museum, which Chris accompanied us to as well. This was Sydney's museum dedicated to science, design, and innovation, but the featured exhibit was ABBA World! Australians seem to still have a particular affinity for this 70s Swedish pop troupe, and the whole scenario today is made funnier by the fact that Julia is our resident swede in Australia. Three-tiered ruffled pants, platform shoes that take the wearer to frightening heights, and stations to rock out (or pop out?) with the musicians' holograms were not exactly what I anticipated to fall under science and design, but I guess they were innovation!

Moving through the more obviously sciencey portions of the museum, it was fun to find ourselves surrounded by airplanes and trains, "flying boats" and Mars rovers, and the latest creations by the cyber world and ecological science field. There was also an exhibit dedicated to today's award-winning technological innovation designed for humanity and our planet - there's hope yet!

Another event that happened to line up perfectly with our visit to Sydney was the Jazz and Blues Festival that culminated today. Accordingly, we were hoping to be able to choose from multiple stages of live music to relax in Darling Harbor, and while that was still possible, the weather made it increasingly less desirable. The rain held off long enough for us to grab some Danish ice cream and a seat at this open-air perfectly positioned bar to listen to smooth jazz and photographically document some of the passersby.

Julia and I both took a liking to the Darling Harbor area. Filled with tons of popular, cute harbor-front restaurants, a food court and shopping complex behind us, seagulls swooping and "fairy floss" (cotton candy) abounding, it seems like a fun place to meet up with friends and hang out. Chris led us on some more exploratory ventures around the area, with the Queen Victoria Building first.

We had passed the Queen Victoria Building on our own several times and knew it was a landmark on the map, but we just thought it was special for its incredible Victorian architecture on the outside (which I stupidly did not get a photo of...) - never thought to go in it! Inside was actually a mostly high-end shopping center also outfitted with cafes and specialty stores. The one Julia and I were most drawn to was a photography shop with some spectacular prints of Sydney that we simply could not capture ourselves, so we both went home with a couple of souvenirs to add to our collections.

After investigating the QVB for a few, we returned to Darling Harbor to join Chris in taking care of his craving for a hot dog, but when we popped outside again, the weather had turned on us! However, it took a long enough break so we could wander through the Chinese Garden of Friendship without getting too wet.

This little scenic spot is surprisingly almost as calm and peaceful as the many gardens I explored in China itself, despite its location in the middle of downtown Sydney. This was Julia's first Chinese garden experience, and Chris's as well despite living here for so many years. I got to play a half-knowledgeable tour guide, figuring out some of the characters inscribed on intricately designed China-red corridors as we wove around the Daoist paradise in harmony with the surrounding urban-scape. Still, it felt a little strange to see the skyscrapers poking above the Chinese-style towers, especially when you couldn't hear the sounds of the city beyond the walls.

So the clouds held off just long enough for us to make it through the entirety of the garden, but they were not so kind as we were contemplating staying at the Harbor for some jazz or heading home. If it weren't raining... Glad there were still a few hardcore fans, but we decided to call it a day.

Surprisingly it was only about 5pm when we made it back home despite all the territory we had covered and the weather issues we had endured. But it felt great to sit by the fire Chris lit, edit my photos, play with Prince, sip some Australian Semillon Savignon Blanc called "Rolling," and set the table for another fabulous meal. Tonight, Janet and Ally put together the first tomato soup I have fallen in love with, coq au vin (chicken cooked in wine) with Chris' twist of Rosé wine instead of a traditional red wine, peas, and mashed potatoes, accompanied by a Shiraz called "Climbing" (evidently the next step up from "Rolling"...). Mmmm, the process of cooking. Not like I would have an easy time convincing myself to spend this much time preparing my food by myself, but perhaps with friends sometime I will make it happen...

This was a feast fit for the queen herself! Okay, maybe that is a stretch. But I'm sure anyone who tried this food would be pleased. So though I suspect most of you are probably lukewarm to celebrating it, happy Queen's Birthday, everyone!

Chocolate Revolution and Asian Invasion

Friday was another morning we could take slowly and head out with the anticipation of lunch downtown, but there was slightly more chaos around the house than usual. As I was preparing an apple with peanut butter for breakfast, a man came through wearing a portable vacuum/mop contraption on his back as Prince barked from the backyard. A couple of women also came to wash the windows, and while I am not accustomed to having others come in and help clean my house, I am not sure how customary that is here. One of the women brought her two-year-old son, so Julia and I took turns checking emails and keeping him from breaking too many of the toys Chris gave him. I'm sure he didn't know what to think about the way we spoke! How do you explain accents to a toddler? We just talk funny, I suppose.

Chris and Janet stayed home, involved with the cleaning, and Julia and I once again set off on the bus to York St., downtown. Once we got our bearings, we hoped that our strategy of wandering yesterday paid some dividends, despite not taking note of fun places we found by accident. This time at least, it did! Yesterday we had come across a place called Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar, which sounded intriguing, so we poked our heads in, and then decided to spend more than a few minutes there.

It is a cafe based entirely on chocolate, rather than coffee - what a novel idea! As neither Julia nor I are fans of coffee but we are of chocolate, this place is perfect for us. It is not necessarily perfect for our budget, but a treat, right? Apparently this Max Brenner character has a few other similar cafes around Sydney with different names, and we bought some chocolate as gifts for our families on our first visit but wanted to return today to try the hot cocoa. Her coconut-flavored hot chocolate and my mint-flavored both came in "hug mugs," with more of an egg-shape, pictured below.

On a chilly day in Sydney, it was worth it. And we schemed on how to bring the chocolate revolution back to our home country.

We felt the sweetness and warmth radiate through our cores, and we were set to take on the drizzles to come. Julia and I picked the Australia Museum as our wet-weather activity, so we got a chance to see more of Hyde Park (where we began and ended our sightseeing on day one).

Julia thought I was slightly crazy for following the ibises around to snap a few photos, but as much as I have seen them in Florida when visiting my grandparents, they have never been wandering around me this close before.

In one day we proved we could re-discover our accidental findings, and with the Australia Museum, Julia and I proved we also could figure out where we needed to go when we set our minds to it. The featured exhibit proved intriguing, and Julia just happened to match its advertisement with all of her natural beauty!

The Birds of Paradise exhibit was extremely interesting. It a multi-faceted, informative (but not obviously, annoyingly educational) look into Australians' relationship with nature through the history of the many varieties of birds of paradise, the Aboriginal peoples of this continent emulating the birds' beauty, and even how what we think of as modern society embracing the bright colors and showiness to attract mates.

The other exhibit we focused on was to help us learn and understand more about Australian aboriginal peoples. I really connected with the messages of a spiritual bond with the land and nature and the importance of an understanding of world, place, and self. At least as a white American, I felt this exhibit was extremely well-done as it was beautiful, informative, and able to critique and chastise the historical relationship between whites and Aboriginal peoples.

The biggest takeaway for me was that I had never heard of the practice that lasted over 150 years in which generations of babies were "rescued" (aka forcibly removed) from their families so they could grow up in "Australian" families and be assimilated. 100,000 kids grew up not knowing their history, not knowing their birth families, and not being allowed to ask questions. So many parallels can be drawn with the US' treatment of Native Americans as well. It is so frustrating to learn history sometimes, but building a consciousness is vital, especially as issues of race still permeate societies and probably always will. I am thankful the Australia Museum has worked to help its people and its foreign visitors understand more about what Australia is still working through in order to help its people heal and move forward to tackling current issues such as representation in the media, etc. Keep workin', Australia!

Both Julia and I found ourselves so deep into both of these exhibits that when we checked the time, it was 2:30pm and we had not eaten lunch! Thankfully we both had some snacks stashed in our bags even though we definitely did not expect to spend so much time at this one museum. With those two exhibits down, we felt like we had learned quite a bit already but still decided to take a spin through a couple more dedicated to Australian creatures. We could more skim these since we spent a couple hours with things that crawl, fly, run, and swim at Wildlife World and the Aquarium yesterday, but it was still fun to learn some about the ancient giants that used to roam these lands, such as the ancestors to kangaroos! I think we both got a little museumed-out at reasonably the same time, so while we originally had considered searching out others of Sydney's notable galleries, food was more important.

This time out we had cravings for Asian cuisine, but our failure to document our favorite spots the last couple days actually did hurt us today as we canvassed several blocks in the rain looking for this underground food court we had come across on the first day. Eventually we did find it for some Thai noodles but with a process slightly more irritating than it could have been.

Another silly thing is that our agenda took us next to the World Square and then to Chinatown, both of which were quite well-stocked with Asian cuisine. Asian cultural influences abounded in these two areas. We were not sure what the World Square was exactly, but we discovered it was a large shopping complex with restaurants, bars, and stores, where we ended up finding a couple cute stores and more food we enjoyed. I got really excited (more than I thought I would), when Julia wanted to explore the Asian bakery (where I introduced her to little pastries I had tried in China, Singapore, and Malaysia, such as a red bean bun - a soft, doughy, flat roll with a sweet filling made of red bean paste) and the Asian grocery store, where we came away with some rice crackers like my roommate Jessie brings from her own Chinatown in San Francisco. I truly had no idea how much I needed an Asian culture fix and how much tacit knowledge I had gained from my time on that continent (and from all my Asian friends at Carleton!).

When we took ourselves to Chinatown for actual dinner, we continued our Asian adventures by finding ourselves in a traditional northern Chinese hole-in-the-wall restaurant. I'm sure the restaurant staff got a kick out of us white girls trying to figure everything out, but I had a semi-idea of how to order us some rice, lemon chicken, and a sweet potato dish I had never seen before. That turned out to be the funniest part of our evening. These were sweet potatoes with hot toffee drizzled on top, which made them quite toasty to eat! I'm sure they were watching us attempt to tackle these potatoes, and our server eventually came over and gave us forks so that we would spear them and dip them in the mysterious bowl of water that had also been placed on our table - apparently it was for cooling our potatoes to eat them. Brilliant.

A day including a multitude of food adventures is the best kind of day in my book at least, and then we stumbled upon something even better for adventuring - a night market in Chinatown! Julia helped me resist the temptations of Asian desserts, and thankfully it was enough to soak in all the sights, sounds, and smells of the stalls, and even dash into (well, actually spend about twenty minutes) a DVD store.

We also happened to stumble upon a building whose second floor housed all the Asian arcade games one could need. I, for one, am happy about Asian cultural importation in Australia!

While it was late, Julia and I felt our night was not quite over. So we decided to walk over to Darling Harbour to see if anything special was happening there on a Friday night. In the process, we remembered the IMAX theater we had thought about visiting for a movie sometime. While we had both seen IMAX movies before, seeing one in Sydney would be special not only for the novel value, but also for the fact that it is the largest IMAX theater in the world!

We got tickets for the newly released, most recent Pirates of the Caribbean movie and got perfect seats in the back row for the 3D, ginormous screen wonders. The 8-story tall screen of Pirates coming at us was incredible, even if the movie itself was not spectacular. It still made for an entertaining finish to our Friday evening.

Final fun fact: the last couple days we also have heard Chris utter a phrase that I have only ever heard from Tigger on Winnie the Pooh: Ta-ta for now!

Crikey mate!

After a lazy morning with all the family out on their various tasks and Prince excited to still have playmates, Julia and I had to lock up the bungalow and make a quick dash out the door to adventure unfortunately sans schnauzer. Here's Julia in front of their house:

More cute houses in the neighborhood.

With a couple minutes walk and a couple left turns we arrived at the bus stop for line 207 to take us from the northern suburbs across the Harbor Bridge to downtown Sydney.

We basically figured out the whole bus deal with minor confusion, and our bus was a few minutes late as Julia noted Australians notoriously are. She unfortunately did not have the small bills to purchase her ticket right there, but the bus driver was sweet to let us on with buying one ticket for the two of us.

From our half hour bus ride into the city a few of my observations include:
- Instead of "no passing," signs say "No overtaking on bridge" - British lingo!
- Perhaps I'm just used to "Minnesota nice," but strangers generally don't just smile. People are extremely nice when you actually talk with them, but random people usually are paid no mind.
- Buses are quite modern, efficient, and well-kept, a testament to Australia's solid public transport and infrastructure.
- The city is populous, but it is much more green and much less crowded than expected. Sidewalks are never jam-packed like you would see in businessy New York, and joggers have ample space to weave around other pedestrians without much hassle.

We definitely did plenty of walking today as well! Julia and I set on our adventure with basically a checklist of things to get in today with free reign to wander and explore whatever seems interesting on our way to our target destinations. We crossed a few paths more than once, ended up going towards the harbor when we intended to go the opposite direction, but we got some decent bearings eventually and accomplished our agenda with more fun in the process!

Other photos in and around the city:

We made it to our first intentional stop after some fun exploring: the Sydney Tower. Once we got ourselves to the general area, it was not too difficult to spot above the rest of the skyscrapers and make our way towards it. Seems like everything this week will cost us a pretty penny, what with the oh-so-wonderful perpetual economic mess of the US, strong Australian dollar, etc., but we found a good deal where we could get a discount ticket package for the Tower, Wildlife World, and the Aquarium - the three stops we happened to be planning on for today!

The Centrepoint Tower, one of the world's top ten tallest buildings and the second tallest observation tower in the southern half of the globe, was what we wanted to start our day off with. Getting ourselves a good view of the city could only come from as bird's-eye as we could make it.

Back to ground level for Julia to introduce me to some foods including Tim Tams, a wonderfully simple cookie, really 2 small, rectangular cookies sandwiching chocolate and covered in chocolate. The dark chocolate version was our treat today. And a couple of these followed my lunch of pie! No, not dessert pie like we'd assume. If you go to a pie shop, many are meat pies that you pick up and eat with your hands. So mine was basically beef stew wrapped in perhaps a thick croissant-like crust. Trying more Aussie foods, check.










Next on our list was to make our way to Darling Harbour (another sweet name, pun intended), which soon became one of our favorite areas. Right on the wharf were adjacent pinpoints for us, with Wildlife World coming first. Rather than going to one of the other zoo options Sydney has to offer, we chose to just do Wildlife World because it houses only Australia's unique creatures, rather than showing off a mix of worldly wildlife. And it only took us about an hour to spend time with the crocs, skinks, echidnae, kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, and wombats (among others, including all the intense spiders that my momma had been reading and warning me about...).

And take silly pictures!

The crocodile was sunbathing on the other side of the tank when we got there, but it seemed as soon as it had an audience, it came right up and modeled for us!

Thank goodness for thick glass. It's times like these we miss the Crocodile Hunter...

Now for the fuzzier and more iconic creatures:

My new favorite animal! In my opinion, the wombat is the most underrated of all the cute and cuddly-looking Aussies. It reminds me of a giant guinea pig and just kind of snuffles around in the dirt. Wombats are marsupials like kangaroos and koalas, and apparently their behinds are their best weapon against attackers too! What cool little guys.

(This one is plastic...)

But who can forget kookaburras and koalas?

Just woke up from its nap for a snack.

Now on to the Aquarium to visit the things that lurk in the water that can also seriously injure/maim/kill you if you're not smart about it... Like this huge fish.

Well, this coral cannot kill you (that I know of), but I'm sure other things in the Great Barrier Reef can! Next time I visit this continent, that's a place I definitely have to get to.

These jellies could do some damage though.

Find the seahorse! Sea dragon, pardon me. Hint: it's the thing that looks like a weed! Also known as a weedy sea dragon. What I wouldn't give to discover and name a species...

Apologies for the lack of clarity of this shot but it is the best I could do in the 360 degree aquarium tunnel to snap a profile of the dugong, or what most of us would know as a manatee. Such a graceful creature that happens to be known also as the nickname "sea cow."

Here's another, more lethal, graceful beauty: the stingray.

Perhaps not up close though! Julia remarked, "He has a huge nose like the kind we'd be embarrassed about!"

More crazy inhabitants of Aussie waters, like this turtle that is actually intentionally stuck! They wedge themselves in between rocks so they can nap without getting swept away by the strong currents.

So after platypuses, eels, and octopi (oh my!), poking sea urchins, and taking advantage of all the ways the Sydney Aquarium made their really cool creatures accessible to its visitors, Julia and I took a short rest by the huge wall of fish, this great window into the tank before our final stop on our day trip.

We had a little time to kill before our only scheduled event of the day, but after going through the souvenirs we had collected during the day's work, it was time to check in for the Sydney Showboat! It was a bit pricey, but we decided to splurge a little on this showboat dinner cruise around the harbor to see the lights of Sydney at night and have a little fun.

While magic and showgirls are not our typical choice of entertainment, the experience was great. A swanky three course meal was included in our ticket and we celebrated a successful day of sightseeing with a glass of wine. My task was to introduce Julia to a wine I thought she'd enjoy, Moscato, a sweet dessert wine that my Singaporean friend Deborah gave me to try when I visited her, while tonight I tasted a Shiraz Cabernet - it's fun exploring wine now that we're 21!

After our main course, we ran out on the deck to get a few shots of the night harbor scene.

The other fun part of the evening was that we hadn't gotten a wonderful picture of the two of us since we were young, but there was a photographer running around taking portraits of all the guests. We were hoping they would be complimentary with our ticket too, but unfortunately that was not the case. As much as we loved the photo when he presented it to us, it was not a love worth $15 per. But the sweet thing is that when we were going to give the photos back, the couple dining next to us had overheard our deliberations and paid for one for each of us! Random acts of kindness.

Julia and I ended our night by popping into a pub by the wharf to just hang out and play some pool (despite the fact that our pool skills are quite lacking), where we ended up being challenged to a game by a couple of tipsy boys who were amusing in that haven't-graduated-high school kind of way (drinking age in Australia is 18). Apparently being American women makes us charming, charming enough that we beat them as awful as we are and have an entertaining story to tell.

Goodnight all!