Tourist Tuesdays Once Again

I did tourist Tuesday again yesterday and took a bus into the city. I’m writing a research paper on Susannah Place, which is a four-attached homes that have been in The Rocks (which is right on Sydney’s harbor near the Central Business District) since the early 1800s. These particular homes were actually inhabited until 1990 by families, so they have managed to stay standing through The Rocks reformation. Originally, The Rocks was a home for wealthy individuals coming to Australia from Britain. It’s location of the harbor provided prime real estate with harbor views. This home was built by a family and split into four units so the family could collect rent on the other three homes for the rest of their lives. After the couples passing, two of the homes went to their daughter and the other two to the Anglican Church.

As time progressed, the Rocks become more a of working-class area because of the shipments that would come into the nearby wharf at Circular Quay. The men of the household would go down to the wharf each day and try to get picked for work. For some families, that was their only income so the kids would be sent to collect bottles and such for returns. The Susannah Place house on the corner was a bit luckier in this regard though because the front of the home was converted into a corner shop and the family had both the income from the shop (ran by the mother and children) as well as the income from the wharf. This house was always kept the most fashionable because of this and the museum foundation had decorated it with pieces to demonstrate as much. I thought it was cool how they had a little window cut out of the wall between their sitting room and the corner shop so they could relax when no one was shopping.

I was also really impressed that one of the homes was inhabited until 1990, when the Historic Houses Trust took over to preserve but not renovate the homes for tourist purposes. Until 2006, two caretakers lived in the corner shop home, which is amazing because being such old houses they had almost no modern improvements. Electricity was sparse, the bathrooms and tubs were outdoors, and they had to heat their water over a fire. The caretakers weren’t even living in the most modern house (where the family lived until 1990) where a handmade shower had been built in the basement. It’s hard to imagine a couple that attached to the past that they would live in such a home.

I couldn’t take pictures inside the houses, but I was able to take some of the outside. The homes are currently surrounded by high rises and no longer have harbor views after a hotel was built behind them, but the scenery was beautiful in the glory day pictures the tour guide showed us.

The front of the houses

And the back.

After the tour, I took the Manly Ferry from Circular Quay over to the beach town of Manly. The ferry ride was nice, but I’m not sure why everyone says it’s something you must absolutely do while in Sydney. It takes you around the harbor and deposits you on the Corso, which is the main walking street in Manly. I figured out what bus I would need to get home and then set off for the International College of Tourism and Management. Needless to say, I was surprised when the college turned out to be a castle. Sydney doesn’t seem nearly old enough for me to go exploring and stumble upon castle grounds. I’m not really sure if I was supposed to be there, but I wandered around anyways. It was too breathtaking not to take pictures of both the school and the view of the harbor it had from its peak. I even went inside to get a look at the grand hall. A couple of people shot me some weird looks though, so I didn’t stay long.

Views from the Manly ferry

My mom and I are doing that in a couple of weeks!

Those are the botanical gardens

Castle!

Views from campus

I'm a long way from home

Afterward, I wandered around the rest of Manly. The homes are so quaint and pretty. It has been a long time since I’ve admired the houses in a beach town, but these were definitely nice. I picked out a few that I would love to have as a vacation home, and that’s saying a lot since I don’t even like beaches.

Some of the pretty houses

View from the sailing club

Manly is surrounded on both sides by the harbor and has to be less than a mile wide (I really have no idea) with a hill set in the middle, so it wasn’t long before I ended up on the other side of the island where Manly beach is located. I walked down to the waterfront and took a couple of pictures. It was getting chilly though because the sun was setting, so I headed back to the Corso for some shopping.

Manly Beach

The Corso

I was able to find a Swiss Ice Cream shop that sells possibly the best ice cream in Australia. It was at least the best that I’ve had. $7 for two scoops is starting to seem normal to me though, so that’s a tad scary. At least they don’t charge extra for cones here. I had the Swiss chocolate and strawberries.

There was a nice-looking bottleshop next door, so I stopped in and found some of the cheapest prices I’ve seen since I’ve been in Sydney. I was pretty far from home, but since I planned on catching the bus soon, I picked up a bottle of wine for $5 and some Bacardi Breezers (not legal in the US). Then I stopped at Aldi’s, which even with the terrible service might be my favorite store in Sydney because of the cheap prices, for a banana bread mix.

I had to take two buses to get back to campus, but luckily I managed to get dropped off right behind my apartment complex, so I didn’t have to walk far with my purchases. 

Tourist Tuesdays

I had a really good day in the city yesterday. Going into town by myself made me feel really independent. It also really made me look forward to go going to New Zealand, particularly Queenstown, where I’ll be completely on my own. I like being self-reliant.

I actually missed the bus that I had planned to take into the city by about two minutes. I saw it go past as I was walking down the hill and since the village’s bus station is pretty minor, it didn’t even stop. It sucks because I was on time, it was just early. I know now for next time though. I was able to walk to the next bus stop, which is on campus, and by the time I got there I caught a different bus that was going to the same place—the Queen Victoria Bus Station, which lets out in the center of the central city.

I spent the day wandering around and touring museums. I took some pictures of centrepoint tower, also known as Sydney tower to tourists. It was once a mere tourist destination as the tallest point in the city, but now it’s being used for advertisement. I went to the Hyde Park Barracks museum, which has plenty of information about Sydney’s past as a convict community. It was entirely interesting, but I took some cool pictures of the barrack recreation. Apparently they slept in hammocks. I find that really weird, for some reason, but maybe the wooden beds overflowing with people is still stuck in my mind from the tours I went on of the concentration camps in Europe.

Pretty fountain in some courtyard

Inside the barracks

Outside of the Hyde Park Barracks

Centrepoint Tower

Next was the Museum of Sydney, which I surprisingly found fascinating. This one wasn’t even on my list of museums to see, but since I could get in free, I figured I would go. The place wasn’t very large but they have a lot of interesting information about how Sydney has progressed as a community. I also really enjoyed their then and now exhibit, which showcased pictures from the past taken in the same place present day. A lot of people found pictures from their parents and grandparents and went to the same exact place to hold up the picture and take another snapshot. It was really cool. They also had two landscape photos of Sydney—one from the 1800’s and another from 2003. It’s amazing to see how much the landscape has changed. For example, there used to be a law that buildings couldn’t be higher than 150 meters, but when that was abolished in the 1950’s the central business district full of skyscrapers sprung up.

Museum of Sydney!

Finally, I visited the Police and Justice Museum, which was a complete waste of time. I took a cliché picture in the mock court room, but other than that, the only interesting thing I learned was that Australia used to have a height and weight requirement for its police officers. The height requirement was 5’9; I’m not sure about the weight. Female officers also apparently didn’t become widespread until the 1970s.

My cliche picture -- the guy who took it for me was cracking up

I have no idea how an accident like this happens

I tried to go to a historic house afterward in the Rocks district, but apparently my information was wrong and you can only see the house by guided tour. I had thought it was open daily from 2-6, but I was told at the information desk that guided tours run for an hour at 2, 3, and 4 only. I was a little disappointed because that was the museum I was most excited about, but I’ll have to go back another day.

I spent the rest of my time on my own wandering around the Rocks. It appears to be the cheaper district in town, at least on the North side, from what I’ve seen. I found a place where I could get a chicken burger for $5.50, which is starting to sound amazingly cheap to me. They also had a lot of $5 happy hours in that area. I was tempted to sit down and people watch with a glass of wine, but it was so cold outside. They have heaters on almost every outdoor patio, but that still only helps so much. Instead I decided to get a $6.50 ice cream from Copenhagen ice cream (so good), which doesn’t really make much more sense since I continued to wander around outside while eating it.

I ended up sitting by the harbor as the sun went down and watching the boats come in to the wharfs and the lightening on the opera house change. Watching Sydney light up at night is really cool. I can’t wait to spend more time in the city once it gets warmer.

My view of the bridge

Darling Harbour at night