Fair, Museum, & 7 Bridges Walk
Yet another exciting weekend in Sydney. I had big plans for Saturday, which began by meeting Melvin at the Town Hall at 11:45. I was all proud of myself for showing up exactly on time, to the minute, 
and then got M’s message that he’d be late because all the buses from Newtown were full and weren’t stopping for people. So I killed time by eyeing the fake goths on the Town Hall stairs passing joints around, taking pictures of the gorgeous purple-flowered tree next to the building, and in general just enjoying the glorious weather. Deep blue skies, puffy white clouds, and in the 70′s… that always manages to make me exceedingly happy.
Finally he arrived, and we headed over to Hyde Park for the Food & Wine Fair. We each bought 4 $2.50-tickets to swap for food and drinks at the various stands throughout the park, which were manned by reps from cafes, restaurants, and bars in the city providing samples of their cuisine. We wandered around for awhile before deciding on a worthy lunch, which was a chicken burger in my case, and then sat by Archibald fountain in the middle of the park. The park, naturally, was packed with people. Of course afterwards, we discovered that 2/3 of the total stalls were stationed on the other end of the park, and provided much more appealing food. Oops. We did, however, each have one ticket left, which we spent on coffee later on. Aside from culinary indulgence, I rather enjoyed watching people grill meat and prepare the food… so many good smells coming from every direction! And proceeds went toward Aids research, which makes that chicken and coffee even better.
Around 2 or so, we wandered away from the park and through the Royal Botanical Gardens, which were especially pretty now that spring is here and everything is in bloom. It was the weekend, so we saw lots of families with kids there. And lots of bats just hanging from the trees, out in the sun. We made our way to the Opera House and Circular Quay, which seemed much less crowded than usual. Not that that’s a bad thing.
By 3:00, we were at the Justice and Police Museum. It ended up being really awesome and interesting. They had so many old black and white photos on display from the old Sydney, when the convicts were around and the streets were really wide. One room had a wall full of mugshots, all of which were much more artistic than the mugshots taken nowadays. The coolest part was that we got to see the old cells and courtroom! There were narrow hallways with small doorways [people were on average much shorter back then], and a cell would have a small bucket in the corner as the bathroom, and small wooden boards on the ground to serve as beds. Talk about uncomfortable. There was another room with a big desk and some old documents on display, and then the courtroom had all the benches for the various people who would appear in court, plus some benches *behind bars*, and then some ugly old uniforms and wigs on display in the back of the room. Other rooms had old police badges, weapons, and keys on display. It was fascinating. Sydney was full of crime before it became the city it is today… crazy. Oh and I loved seeing the handwriting on those old documents! It looks so much more… fancy?… than most people’s handwriting today.
After the museum, Melvin and I just wandered around Circular Quay, waiting for Mike to show up. We were going to check out the Dutch photography exhibit at the Customs House but it had closed at 4. We got a little bored, so we walked around The Rocks and figured we’d wait at Pancakes On The Rocks since it’s known to be super crowded all the time, especially at dinner. Unfortunately, we got there and saw that it was STILL closed for renovations, even though it should have reopened nearly 2 months ago! Bummer. I hope it reopens before I have to leave! If not, we may have to trek up to Parramatta to the other restaurant. We left slightly disappointed, and ended up walking around in circles looking for a decently priced restaurant to eat at. We were unsuccessful. But Mike finally arrived, and we kept looking for a place until we finally decided on an Italian place called Zia-something. After about 5 minutes there, we walked out in total disgust of the service we’d had. The waiter wouldn’t let us switch tables [Mike was sitting in the aisle and everyone kept pushing past him because the tables were too close together] even though there was a free one next to us, and then he kept ignoring us and didn’t even bother to tell us we couldn’t have the other table after saying he was going to ask his manager. The other waiter was equally as appalling. So after placing our order, we just up and left without a word. It actually felt good. Down the street we ended up at Amo Roma, a much fancier Italian restaurant with the same priced pizzas. Needless to say, the service was infinitely better, and we all were glad to have left that other place. The pizza was delicious.
On a random note, the stores in Sydney have Christmas decorations up already. And it’s October. What gives? Although I have to say, QVB looks gorgeous in all its decor! Especially the ginormous Christmas tree stationed in the center of the buiding, stretching 3 floors.
On Sunday, I embarked on the Seven Bridges Walk, a 9-5 event put on by Sydney, encouraging health and exercise and raising money for various disease research foundations by collecting tolls at the 7 bridges. They gave all participants an event passport, which they scanned at each bridge and rest stop to keep track of our progress. Plus, it gave us a map of the course. I didn’t start til noon [daylight savings stole an hour from me!], but still managed to make it to North Sydney by 5:00. The walk was long, but the weather once again was glorious. Some parts were boring and went through woods and drab parks, but other parts went through ritzy neighborhoods and across bridges that afforded incredible views of the harbour from the inner bays, specifically the one heading to Hunters Hill. I’d never been that far inland, so it was great to see the harbour from a different angle. There were lots of people doing this walk and I saw a lot of the same faces throughout the day, but it was nice to veer of the path on occasion and explore on my own. I walked down to the bay at Lane Cove, which was quiet with just a few people fishing and maybe about 50 boats moored.
By far the best views came from Balls Head, just behind McMahon’s Point and Luna Park. It looked like the buildings on McMahon, and the Opera House, were directly underneath the harbour bridge. I sat there for some time, admiring the view and watching boats come in and out. 5:00 passed, and I was craving that gelato I didn’t get to have last night, so I finally got back on the path and headed toward the harbour bridge. I cut through to Milsons Point and over to Luna Park, where I had been several times this year to oogle at the skyline at all times of day. Still as gorgeous as ever. And by 6:30, I was at Circular Quay with my gelato, feet about to fall off after about 20km and 6.5 hours [with some stops] of walking.
