Open House Sunday

I went to the Rose Seidler House today, which was built by Harry Seidler, an Austrian famous for his architecture. He has contributed quite a few buildings to the Sydney skyline, as well as building this house. The area around the house is beautiful and smells of hickory smoke because at this time of year they are burning some of the bush in the surrounding area to prevent uncontrolled summer bush fires. It smelt amazing as soon as I stepped off the bus.

I was basically in the middle of suburbia though, so my friend Ed who lives near the house joined me with his dad’s car. We took the short tour through the house and watched a video downstairs about the architect. I found it fascinating, but I could tell he was bored (as most guys would be). I was really excited to find a wallaby in the backyard though!

Rose Seidler House

I believe this is a wallaby

We drove over to the nearby Bobbin Head National Park afterward and wandered around for a bit. There were quite a few people there since it was a weekend in the middle of the day and all of the picnic tables were full. We wandered about ten minutes into the bush though and found a shady place to sit and hang out. I was startled when we first sat down because a huge lizard crawled out from under the rock and I thought it was a snake. There was a lot of interesting looking flies and mosquitoes around too. I think it’s because we choose to sit next to a stagnant-looking creek, but it was weird to see the different sorts of bugs they have in Australia.

Bobbin Head

It’s also nice to know someone with a car, as I saved much time and money instead of taking the bus. I also have no idea how I would have caught the bus home from where we were.

Coastal Tour

We went on a bus tour today of the coast South of Sydney. I really had no idea what the trip actually consisted of, except for free lunch, so my expectations were probably too high. In the end, the trip amounted to much more than 5 hours of driving with very little actual sightseeing. What we did see was pretty, but I think I’m already getting too used to the sights around here. Things certainly aren’t breathtaking anymore.

The morning started off with a stop at McDonalds for coffee. I found it kind of strange that inside the McDonald’s there was a separate pastry/coffee counter from the regular food counter. After the group ate, we stopped at a lookout right on the coast. We took a few pictures, but it was super windy and it felt like we were going to blow off the cliff, so we didn’t stay long.

Sarah and I's shadow

Next up was a Buddhist Temple. I don’t really know anything about it, but the grounds were nice. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but it looked like pretty much every other Buddhist temple that I’ve seen in my life J

The Pagoda

Interesting looking plant outside

The main temple

Then we stopped at another rocky outlook/park. This one had a hole in the rocks where the pressure from the tide would cause the water to blow up into the air. Our tour guide called in the blow hole. There was a lighthouse too, but it wasn’t very large and/or pretty, just basic white.

The blow hole -- I couldn't get a good action shot

We picked up lunch in town. I was highly disappointed because the e-mail about the trip from our campus coordinator had said lunch was included but our guide just dropped us off. I was glad that the prices out in the tiny town were much cheaper than Sydney, but it still cost me $8 for an order of fries and an ice cream. I was really annoyed though that when we got back to the bus and were taken to our “picnic” spot to eat there was a group of people cooking sausages for us. We were told to buy lunch, yet then there was free lunch anyways. I was already full from my fries so I didn’t even get to partake in the sausages, which probably would have been a much better means to satisfy my hunger. Our guide definitely miscommunicated.

After lunch, two people from the national parks office came to talk to us about aboriginal culture. We learned about a couple of plants in the area that are safe to eat and actually have health properties. I can’t remember what any of them were, but she gave us some leaves to chew on that were supposed to help with dehydration and showed how to use water and leaves to make a cream to clear up pimples. The guy showed us some of the weapons available to hunters and taught us how to throw a boomerang and play the didgeridoo.

Demonstrating on the didgeridoo -- I believe he was imitating the emu call at this point 

On the way home, we passed a random fudge and toffee self-serve station on the side of the road. The deserts were just sitting in a refrigerator with a little box for money on the bottom. It was bizarre. A bunch of the girls bought some though. We also stopped at a national park at the top of a hill with an outlook over a waterfall. It was pretty but hard to take pictures of because of the sun’s intensity.

Literally, the middle of nowhere

Morton National Park

Fitzroy Falls

City Hike

Yesterday, I decided to head into the city and visit a few museums that I wanted to see and were only open on Saturdays. I woke up early because most of them closed by mid-afternoon and I wanted to walk everywhere instead of relying on buses once I got to the city, even though most of the places I visited were a few kilometers apart.

I first went to the government house, which is the oldest building still standing in all of Australia. It was not the original government building, but the second one built in a slightly more private spot than the first (which is now completely surrounded by office buildings). The tour was pretty boring overall and we only got to see a few of the rooms. I felt like I was seeing the New South Wales version of the White House. I did find out some interesting facts though. Apparently, governor Macquarie, the namesake for my school and many other places around Sydney, fought for Britain in the American Revolution. Also,  the first queen of Australia—Queen Charlotte—was also queen of America before it was free from British rule, that’s why a lot of places in the United States are named Charlotte.

Government House

View of the harbour from the Government House

City view from the botanical garden

After the tour, I wandered around the grounds of the house and through the botanical gardens that sit on the Sydney Harbour. It still amazes me how much of the harbor remains green. Considering the lack of further expansion available to Sydney, you would think the green spaces would be the first thing they would destroy, especially ones that sit on the harbor front and could be prime real estate.

I made my way through the city and Kings Cross (the red light district of the Sydney, which is pretty sketchy even during the day) over to Potts Point, where the Elizabeth Bay house is located. I stopped at a few random street markets I saw on the way, but didn’t see anything interesting or affordable at them. The Elizabeth Bay House, while pretty, was not very interesting. It was much larger on the inside than it appeared from the outside and it overlooked another pretty part of the harbor, but I felt like I was just walking through an old house with some old furniture. I did really like the massive wine cellar in the basement though.

Wine Cellar in Elizabeth Bay house

Elizabeth Bay

Elizabeth Bay House

I headed to Paddington afterward to visit Paddington Markets, which is a large collection of art and clothing dealers who gather on the grounds of an area public school each Saturday. I was tempted to pick up one of the matted pictures of Sydney to match the painting I have from Italy, but none of them seemed quite right. I found the most amazing bookstore in Paddington called Ampersand Cafe. It was three floors of secondhand books with a cafe in the middle. Tables were spaced out on all three floors so that you could read and eat in whatever little nook you wanted to. I wish Paddington weren't an hour and a half bus ride from Macquarie because it seemed like the perfect place to go and read for the afternoon.

I finished earlier than expected so I decided to walk across town to Paddy’s Market and pick up some cheaper fruit. In the process, I walked through an area of Sydney where, for the first time, I felt like I shouldn’t be walking through. It was fairly derelict and I think I passed three people in the whole of ten minutes, which is strange for any other part of Sydney. It didn’t help that halfway through the walk the skies darkened, giving the whole place an eerie vibe. Needless to say, I was glad when I reached Chinatown. I was able to find some cheap grapes, eggs, apples, and bananas at Paddy’s before walking back to the main bus station to head back to campus. It started to rain just as I was crossing the street in front of the bus stop, but I lucked out because my bus pulled up almost instantly. I was so happy to sit down after all of the walking.