Tasty Groove: Last day in Sydney

G’day!

Super beautiful day in Sydney. Still not enough time in the day to do all I wanted to do, but I did do a lot so I can’t complain too much. A bit of a bummer this is my last day. I would have liked to branch out more and maybe hit the zoo and Bondi Beach among many places. I was going to go to the art museum here but when I walked up, busses and busses of children were being let out so I did an about face and strolled elsewhere.

I had been seeing a ton of signs for ANZAC day celebrations coming up. April 25^th to be exact. I even wandered over to the ANZAC memorial this morning. It stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and is really meant to represent all military lost due to war. The date specifically is when the ANZAC invaded Gallipoli in 1915 during WWI. Gallopoli is on a peninsula in Turkey and the Australians (and New Zealanders) were supposed to land, surprise the Ottomans, kick ass and clear the way for the allies. Instead they hit a stalemate for something like 8 months of trench warfare before withdrawing. 8000 Australians died in that one conflict so it became the equivalent of America’s Veterans Day or maybe Memorial Day. One of my favorite movies when I was young was Gallipoli starring a young Mel Gibson as one of the two main characters. Awesome movie…but not a happy one at all. Anyway, there you go, I look things up so you don’t have to.

After the memorial, I wandered over to St Mary’s cathedral. Beautiful church, but I was wearing my running shoes since I knew I was going to be walking around. Little did I know, they squeak like a mofo on the marble/stone of the church. Loudly. All those people being quiet, some praying, and there I was squeak squeak. I looked goofy trying to walk in different ways to lessen the squeak and none of them worked. So I squeaked out a side door as quickly as I could.

St Mary's Cathedral

It is a long, squeaky floor

From there I walked past the throngs of school children getting ready to tour the Art Gallery and made it over to Woolloomooloo Bay. Beautiful looking hotel on the pier there…the Olovo. Also there is this famous pie stand that I had read about called Harry’s. I am sure it’s the equivalent of going to Nathans or something like that. Their signature is a Tiger Pie which is any of their pies with mushy peas and gravy on top. Can you say gut bomb? It was maybe 9:30 or 10 when I got there and I had breakfast before I left the hotel so there is no way I could have done that. I did try a sausage roll of mince meat and onion with “tomato sauce” (aka catsup….or ketchup…whichever you prefer) on it. Not that great….I had about half and then tossed the rest.

Get the Tiger Pie! Or not....

From there it’s a nice path around the harbor side over to the Opera House. Along the way there were art exhibits and sculptures out. Some pretty interesting pieces.

Uhm...yeah...

You also pass by Mrs Macquarie’s Chair which is a ledge carved into the side of a hill where Australia’s first governor’s wife liked to sit and watch the harbor.

There's a chair in there..behind that one person....

Just past that they have stands set up for an outdoor performance of Turandot. I almost wish I had purchased a ticket for it. Seems like it would be something cool to see. I have never been to an Opera but what the heck, right? If it had actually been IN the opera house, I might have been more likely to do it. Of course, the only thing I know about the Opera is it has Nessun Dorma in it. Always makes the hairs on the nape of my neck stand up. When I was wandering around the Botanical gardens yesterday I must have heard them practicing because I heard that song but didn’t connect it to the fact they were actually doing the opera outside. Whoa…just checked prices…$200 a ticket…guess I won’t be seeing that tonight afterall.

Not too happy with the in your face-ness of these pics. Need to come up with more subtle shots or something. And to be fair, I have seen Makers in a few bars here so it's not like I am breaking new ground. But still, as an ambassador, gotta represent.

I tried to do a self tour of the Opera House thinking I could just wander around respectfully, but that was not to be. They had things roped off but I could see tour groups behind those roped areas so I broke down and bought the tour.

Cool representation on where the shape of the Opera house came from.

The guide wasn’t bad…just not good enough to remember his name. Plus he was a loud breather. We wore headsets like yesterday so we could hear him and he left his mike on all the time…and you could year the inhale/exhale every time. You ever been on a conference call and someone has their microphone next to their nostril and you can hear them breath? That was this dude…for an hour. He was informative and did a good tour, but breathing. There are 2 halls as part of the House, one for the opera & ballet (the smaller one if you had to guess) and one for the symphony. The ballet was practicing Swan Lake when we saw the inside of the smaller one (beautiful place, btw… but we couldn’t take photos because of the practice). We were supposed to be quiet while they were practicing but the steady breathing for the couple of minutes we watched them twirl was a bit distracting. The symphony was practicing Bruckner’s 4th symphony when we went into the larger hall…which was even more beautiful than the first one. I had to take the earphones off while we were in there because the breathing was drowning out the music. Sadly we couldn’t take photos in there either due to the practicing going on.

As an aside, the TV is on in the background as I am writing this and I think I am watching the next big thing to hit the US. It seems like just the trainwreck reality show that would make it big. It’s called: Married at first sight. That’s right…3 relationship experts match 5 dudes with 5 women and the first time they see each other is at their wedding. Yeah. While I am on the topic, Reddit has clips from time to time of a morning show host, Karl, just cracking up at crazy stuff that happens on the Today show (Australia’s version). Since I am here…and awake early in the morning…I watched it today and they did the story of the guy who made the Scarlett Johansen doll and he started snorting midway through and hid behind his cohost. Payoff! Bonus Karl (video about midway down)

Anyway, after the Opera House, I jumped on the ferry over to Manly near the mouth of Sydney Harbor. It only costs $7AU (.77 US to $1 AU) each way and lets you see most of the same locations that a harbor tour would. Sure you don’t have someone telling you what you are seeing, but it was still a cool trip both ways.

Ft Dennison in the middle of the harbor

Bridge and Opera house...another view

Looking out at the Pacific through the harbor opening

When I told Daniel (the bridge guide) that I was going to Manly he lit up and said I HAD to go to Chica Bonita close to the ferry terminal for the best burrito in Sydney. It was lunch time so what the heck. Little hole in the wall, but I got the carne asada burrito and a Tecate and boy was it good. They had a chipotle hot sauce and a habanero one as well. Both seemed like they were homemade and each was great. They also had one made with Carolina reaper peppers. That one had a great flavor…before it melted your face off. I really only tried that one with some chips after eating the burrito. I sat at the bar and the bartender was pretty cool. He and I chatted about what I was doing and his bucket list includes Portland! I guess some of his family lives in Culver City, CA so he’s been to the US in the past, but the whole Portland vibe is something he wants to experience.

After lunch I headed to Manly Beach which is on the Pacific. Super windy but nice and sunny. I walked the boardwalk for a bit before heading back to Sydney.

Manly Beach

Once I got back, I went to the Sydney Tower Eye to get a bird’s eye view of the city. They had a 3D movie thing before they let us up in it. Pretty cool effects and during it, a bubble machine started sending bubbles through the room. Seeing them off the screen even more than the 3D visuals was pretty cool. The tower is a tower but had cool views.