For our last full day in Australia, we decided to take the ferry across Sydney harbor, to the nearby suburb of Manly. Manly is known for it’s spectacular beaches, where surfing enthusiasts hit the waves starting at dawn (even in the winter). Yesterday, there was apparently a baby humpback whale seen splashing in the waves with the swimmers (unfortunately it didn’t make a repeat appearance today while we were there).
The ferry was a pleasant 20 minutes through the harbor, where we got some great views of the bridge and opera house, as well as views of the surrounding neighborhoods on either side of the water, with beautiful houses climbing up the hills. When Chris makes his millions getting a recording deal, I definitely want a house on the water here.
We were entertained on our way there by eavesdropping on more obnoxious Americans, whose conversation went something like this:
(looking at the Sydney skyline, with the Sydney Tower – like Seattle’s Space Needle – a prominent feature, impossible to miss, and written about in nearly every tourist brochure)
American lady #1 – “Look at that big tower thing!”
American lady #2 – “It looks just like a needle or something”
Lady #1 – “It’s so big, what do you think it is?”
Lady #2 – (Asking an Australian sitting next to her) – “What is that big thing there, do you see it?”
Lady #1 – “It’s that big tower thing, with the needle on top, do you see it?”
Lady #2 - (now ignoring the Australian who was starting to tell her about the Sydney Tower) – “Oh, I know, it must be a restaurant, like the one at home that turns around?” (Referring to some kind of revolving restaurant in the US)
Lady #1 – “Except I’m sure this one doesn’t turn around.”
They went on to talk about the incredible “pointy tower thing” for several more minutes, with the whole conversation occurring while they were trying to keep track of several small children that they were holding on those child “leashes”, and offering to give them pretzels if they would please just sit down. It’s very embarrassing being an American in a foreign country sometimes (although amusing to listen to others).
Manly itself, on first appearance, seems similar to many other beach towns we’ve been too – upscale touristy versions of Charleston or Florida or the Outer Banks. We crossed through a central public square, with lots of shops, restaurants, fountains, etc. We came to a beautiful beach – it reminded me of Waikiki, only without the skyscrapers. Manly has multiple coves and beaches, and there are maps detailing many different walks you can take around the water edge.
We started off down one of the many public paths taking us around the coastline to a park in a marine preserve. This particular bay is known for being home to several endangered species, including the woody sea dragon. Next time we’ll have to come in the summer, so we can get in some snorkeling. Even though it’s the middle of the winter here, it was still a sunny beautiful day, and there were a lot of people in the water – all with full wetsuits.
We were going to venture a little further into the “bush” in the nature preserve, but then Chris got “surprised” (I think scared) by a very large spider. It didn’t really come out in the photo, but he assures everyone that it was both big and scary (and I’ll agree to that, although I think pretty much all spiders are scary). Given that we’d both recently read Bill Bryson’s book about Australia, which describes the many poisonous spiders to be found here, we both felt it would be safer to stick to the paths along the coast rather than venture inland.
Our time at the beach made for a quiet and relaxing day – a great way to end what has otherwise been a busy and eventful trip. We’ll head out for one last dinner on the town tonight, then tomorrow we head back to the airport for the last round of planes taking us back to New York.
Tomorrow, we travel through time…
When watching TV in Australia, it’s easy to think you’re in the US. But once you get lulled into that universal Americanism of the couch potato, you’re soon to be reminded that you’re in a strange and different place. So OK, you can watch Letterman, the Simpsons, and Oprah. You can watch the world news on the BBC, which is a little weird, but nothing you don’t find on PBS at home. But if you try to watch sports, you’re bound to see something weird.
OK, I know what you’re thinking—Chris is going to blabber more about cricket. Although that’s been a continued source of entertainment on this trip, I’ll let it lie for the time being. In Australia, it’s a given that you’ll see cricket, rugby, soccer, and Australian football (a game one can easily mistake for rugby). I’m also not surprised to see a lot more formula-1 racing—I know it’s much more popular outside of the US. But I’m not talking about those obvious ones. I’m talking about really weird stuff. I’ve seen indoor men’s volleyball. I’ve seen swimming. I’ve seen track and field. Americans don’t even pretend to care about these things on non-Olympic years. But one race I saw takes the cake. I see a pretty scrawny, weird-looking kid racing around a track with a pained expression on his face. I’m thinking, why is he running so awkwardly? The commentators made a remark about how he’s so far ahead he’s walking to the finish line. I’m thinking, is he at the very end of a marathon? Why else would someone run in such a bizarre fashion? Then the camera panned out and I saw the rest of his body. He was powerwalking. Yes, I saw a televised international teenage powerwalking competition.
Mind you, I am not watching the bizarre sports channels on a 1000-channel cable TV. I have about 15 channels in this hotel. This is not ESPN-8, “The Ocho,” or anything. It’s just regular TV.
In Nepal, TV basically shows no sports except for cricket. But I did enjoy reading the sports headlines in the newspaper every day. In the US, outside of the Olympics, usually sports headlines don’t deviate from baseball, football, and basketball. (Though golf is also common.) A hockey headline is a rare sight, and in the right season, you might get the occasional tennis or NASCAR headline. But in Nepal, the non-cricket headlines could be about anything! Formula-1 was in the news since Michael Schumacher is coming out of retirement. (Never heard of him? In the 90s, only a few athletes like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods made more money.) In Nepal, I also saw headlines about judo, volleyball, cycling, tae-kwon-do, track, and wrestling (not WWE). In an article about a martial arts championship going on in Thailand, the newspaper commented that all the Nepali competitors were out of medal competition except for in a certain class of judo, because only three countries had entered that particular field. I thought that the most ridiculous headline I saw was about badminton—something like “Nepalese Shuttlers Flying High”—until I saw a newspaper headline about competitive rock climbing. You can’t make this stuff up.
On a related note, during our 13-hour layover in the Delhi airport transit room, we sat for several hours next to the Afghani martial arts team returning from that Thailand competition. I didn’t talk to them much, but an annoying hippie girl behind me did. It was interesting listening to their conversations. They were excited to meet an American, and talked mostly about cultural differences, like the fact that they don’t drink alcohol because they’re Muslims, and that it’s very difficult to get good jobs in Afghanistan and in America it’s pretty easy (relatively speaking). They asked her what religion she was and she responded “Child of the Earth.” Ugh. Then they started talking about drugs, and she was amazed they were from Afghanistan and didn’t know what opium was. Great ambassador for America, that one.
Put on my brown leather shoes and boarded a plane. Touched down in the land of the kangaroos just a little bit south of Brisbane.
Then we went walking in Sydney. We went walking on our feet for like 10 long miles. We went walking in Sydney. And now that’s why Melissa’s full of smiles.
OK, this song is quickly deteriorating into a bad case of rhyme time. And actually, if you’re in Australia, Brisbane doesn’t even rhyme with plane.
It was not a remarkable day, but quite pleasant. Yesterday we were completely exhausted and slept all day. That was because we spent the last two nights in the Delhi airport and in flight, and we didn’t sleep much either night. It was sad to leave Kathmandu, but I was ready to go, and it’s nice to be able to drink tap water again. Australia is just so agreeable!
Our walk took us around a few small inlets of the harbor and through the botanical gardens. I liked that they had a sign that said “Please walk on the grass, smell the roses, and hug the trees.” There’s a fountain there with freshwater eels that sometimes eat small ducks, and despite draining the fountain several times, the eels keep coming back. What an interesting mystery. They think the baby eels wriggle across the lawn from the harbor—weird. We didn’t see the eels, though.
We did see bats. Lots of them! They were hanging from the trees in the gardens, occasionally flying around. They made a lot of noise. I think it’s because they were trying to sleep but it was too bright out.
The walk gave us lots of great views of the opera house as we gradually made our way to its steps. It really is an amazing building—I could just look at it all day. We had lunch on the dock nearby, and a mean seagull eyed our plates the whole time from a nearby umbrella. As soon as Melissa got up, the seagull made its swoop and knocked one of the glasses off onto the cement sidewalk. Stupid bird. We had been warned, though, by the sign that said “Birds will try to take food from your plate.” Australia has great signs of warning. I also bought a kangaroo tie.
Then we went to the harbor bridge and walked across. It was a long, beautiful walk with lots of great views. I was pretty tired, though, and we soon made our way back to the hotel. I estimate we walked 12 miles, but Melissa thinks it was 8. I’m a little too tired right now to be witty in this blog entry.
We’re headed to dinner soon. Last night we had food at a German restaurant, and I ordered weiner schnitzel. I had no idea what it was. Turns out its like a big slab of fried beef, I think. Melissa liked her chicken paprika.
The one complaint about Sydney remains: it’s really expensive. Australian dollars are worth slightly less than American, so I have to remind myself that it’s about 10% less than it seems, but still. Two sandwiches and two drinks for lunch was $35. The hotel charges by the minute (and the megabyte!) for internet usage, we have to pay the hotel extra for a shuttle to the airport, and I still can’t get over that sidewalk cafes charge extra to eat in! Whatever, nobody wants to read this trivial nonsense. I think I should put this blog entry out of its misery. See you in a couple days.
