Moonrise

Up and at ‘em early for more diving! 

We entered the water as the sun rose on one side of the boat and the moon lingered on the other. Our dawn dive at a spot called “360” was worth every bit of lost sleep: we saw a sea turtle! As our dive guide had said beforehand, the turtles are sleepy in the morning, just like you! We saw one turtle just beneath the surface, gliding effortlessly as its legs waved back and forth through the water. The second was much deeper, weaving through the reef.

Diving once more with Joey, we went around and through the reef, oohing and aahing internally at the gorgeous colors of the lively reef. Josh and I were more and more comfortable with each dive that we did. By the end, we were able to do a flip to enter the water, even in our heavy gear, and follow Joey without issue (or ear damage). We snorkeled and dove again later that morning, this time at a portion of the reef called “5 ways” because the reef is transected in 5 places, such that a scuba diver can swim all the way through the reef multiple ways. We tried this with Joey, and while it was challenging to avoid the reef in the narrower bits, it definitely felt like an adventure. Afterward, Josh and I agreed that it felt kind of like exploring a sunken ship, because sometimes the rock closed above your head and you were momentarily in its shadow. We saw many of the same characters during our dive: sea cucumbers, schools of fish, little fish near the surface, giant fish nearer the floor, long tendrils of an unknown plant or animal stretching out into the open water (to me it looked like a tapeworm, but that’s because everything looks like a disease to a white coat).

Soon enough, it was time to return to shore. 

We retraced our bubbles (boatwaves? waveprints?) to Cairns and were suddenly on land. It was the first time in 36 hours that the ground didn’t rock beneath our feet. We trekked back to our rented room and basked in the AC and the cold luxury of the shower. On the boat, we had been permitted one 3-minute shower per day, so we were constantly salty. Refreshed, we ventured back out for dinner on the Esplanade and a moonlit walk. Cairns, like the other Australian cities we’ve visited, has some pretty great public spaces along the waterfront. It had a boardwalk as well as paved walking and bike paths. A large, gradually-deepening salt water pool (the Esplanade Lagoon) is well-used and well-loved by locals, who go for an evening dip and use the public barbecues along its perimeter. Outdoor fitness equipment dots the bike paths and signs broadcast public fitness classes held in these public spaces every day of the week. As we walked, the moon rose from behind the mountains and up into the sky, full and luminescent. I don’t think I’d ever really watched a moon rise before. Though the sky doesn’t change and the world doesn’t wake, a moonrise has its own beauty because you can look at it head-on.

Spotted: Didgeridoo. The sound of this Aboriginal instrument is really growing on me, now that we’ve heard it a few times in a few cities. If you want to listen to the didgeridoo until it grows on you, here’s10 hours of music.

Tip: Grill'd is a local burger chain that can accommodate almost any dietary restrictions (vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, dairy free, etc). Plus, they have great salads! After a couple of weeks on the road, we'll take a salad any chance we can get.

SaltKist

G’day! We arose early to make it to our boat, the SunKist, which would take us to a larger boat, the Kangaroo Explorer, where we would be staying for a night. The Kangaroo Explorer would also be our home base for two days as we snorkeled and went scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.­ As we walked to the marina, we learned a few things about Cairns, which we hadn’t yet really explored:

(1) They have massive bats by the hundreds here, too. They might be nocturnal but they were jabbering away at 7 am and still making their rounds of the city square.

(2) They have some great street art.

(3) Many of the tourists are still wandering around drunk at 7 am.

(4) Cairns is really hot. Even at sunrise. It’s like in central Vietnam where you would wake up at 5 am sweating and feeling like it had to be midday already.

We reached the marina a bit early, so we dropped off our bags on the boat and took a stroll around. The sun was still rising over the mountains, casting everything in that beautiful dawn glow. 

We meandered, laughing at silly boat names, only to discover a boat from Wilmington, DE! Geez, I can’t imagine going halfway around the world on a boat. Clearly, though, that boat was up to the challenge.

At last, it was time to leave and the SunKist scooted out of the harbor. Bouncing gently on the waves, we made our way past islands and out into the open water. Josh thought the whole thing looked like a scene out of Moana.

After a couple of hours and a stop, we finally reached the Kangaroo Explorer, which stays further out by the sections of reef. The view was incredible.

Thus began our snorkeling/scuba adventure. Just after lunch, we went out to snorkel on a section of the reef. The whole thing was so colorful! While I had expected color, I think I had more jewel tones in mind, not the neon rave that greeted us. There were colors I didn’t realize could be neon until I had seen them, like light purples. And that was just the coral. The fish were a riot of color, as well, often with dozens of colors of scales on a single little swimmer. I’m pretty sure most of the crazy colorful ones were wrasses, but I can’t be sure. We also saw some Dorys and some Nemos; the clownfish were rolling in the anemone fronds, just as you’d expect. Later in the afternoon, we got a chance to scuba dive on the reef. The boat moves periodically throughout the day, so this was at a different site. We were led by Joey, a dive instructor on the Kangaroo Explorer. Given that I’d only gone diving once before, I was surprised how quickly I settled into it again, isolating my breathing to my mouth and understanding that I didn’t have a snorkel that would fill with water if I turned my head too far. It was incredible how much more we could see when we scuba dived… or, at least, how much more we could see of the things that we had identified. We swam by sea stars languorously draped over rocks, pulsating giant clams with their snaggle-tooth mouths, and timid brown-and-white-speckled fish retreating into crevices before inching to again. The boat staff had said that the fish were used to divers, but I was still struck by how close they would get. Schools of fish swam by and around us, their synchronous darting somewhat hypnotizing. We were sad when Joey told us to return to the surface. The time had flown by; I was glad someone else was monitoring our oxygen tank levels.

We had hoped to do a night dive, but we learned that was only for certified scuba divers. Still, the day had worn us out and we fell asleep within minutes of lying down in our cabin.

Spotted: Apparently, to people who live in Australia, kangaroos are just "roos". As in, "We passed a whole lot of roos on the way over here."

Overheard: Our hilarious foul-mouthed Australian ship companions parenting their children.

Mom (tripping over something): S***

Daughter: Mom!

Mom: I said "Shivers", I swear!

Daughter: I want to be a marine biologist!

Mom: And to think, at her age, I wanted to be a firetruck. Not a fireman, but a firetruck.

If You Build It, They Will Buy

Saturday morning, we swapped Surfer's Paradise for another destination with an idyllic name: Dream World. I'm not sure whose dream includes a rollercoaster named the Buzz Saw, but Josh was eager to see Dream World's latest attraction: the first Australian Lego Store. So, off we drove. On the way out of Surfer's Paradise, it felt like we were going the wrong way; Cape Cod-level traffic stretched as far as the eye could see in the other direction, likely Brizzies heading out for a weekend in Paradise.

We arrived at Dream World without issue and strode up to the giant, yellow, rectangular building. Five-year-olds posed in front of the doors as their parents snapped pictures (the cheapest memento they would leave with that day). Josh declined to have his photo taken in front of the doors, although he's usually game for most other activities favored by five year olds (not limited to: snack time, nap time, aquariums in the middle of the week, and candy at every meal). The Lego Store doors slid open and... it wasn't very big. Josh quickly scoured the merchandise for country-specific items but found nothing. So, we took a stroll around the store perimeter and enjoyed the Lego sculptures that decorate every store. There weren't any wrap-around-the-entire-store designs like in the NYC Lego Store, but there were some pretty cute Australian designs and a very impressive tiger.

As we continued to the airport, we already felt nostalgia washing over us. Parks were filled with scurrying children playing cricket and soccer. A mile-long wall mural bordering the highway depicted Australian animals jumping, diving, and climbing. We were definitely going to miss Brisbane and Surfer's Paradise.

A few short hours later, we had reached our final Australian destination: Cairns.

Though the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) stretches for over 1,400 miles, Cairns is the spot to go for reef trips. Since we're not sure how much longer the GBR will survive, we made it a priority to get up here and see it. So, late in the evening, we touched down in Cairns. It looked and felt like Hawaii: water over one shoulder, densely forest mountains over the other, wet heat hugging your skin. Vending machines at the airport sold artistic flip flops ("It's art for your feet!").

After dropping off our bags, we headed out to dinner at C'est Bon. The air conditioning was a relief after our walk in the humidity. Our appetizers were incredible but the entrees left something to be desired. It seemed like the wait staff were a bit overwhelmed by the Saturday night crush, though, so perhaps the kitchen was, too. Or maybe we're just spoiled after our trip to France. Fine dining might never be the same.

Spotted: "Until late". Businesses here give opening times (which in Surfer's Paradise were often 11 am or later), but many do not give specific closing times. Instead, they just say "until late". I'm not sure if this has some specific meaning (e.g. midnight) for locals, but it seems awfully inconvenient to only know that a restaurant or store might still be open at a particular hour.

Get Your Glow On

We had ended our day Thursday with a drive from Brisbane down to Surfer’s Paradise on Australia’s Gold Coast. As Surfer’s Paradise is only an hour south of Brizzie, it is the perfect getaway for urban dwellers. I’m guessing that 30 or 40 years ago, Surfer’s Paradise was exactly what it’s name describes: a beach bum hangout where sunburned surfers napped in bungalows before paddling out to the waves at dawn. Today, Surfer’s Paradise shows its growing pains as its laid-back vibe has begun to attract type A urbanites who need a bit of R&R. Backpackers hangouts have been pushed to the periphery, while the downtown is a mishmash of highrises and clothing stores with storewide $10 clearance sales. As we walked around in athleisure wear, club promoters vied for our business, only to be one-upped by fit young men selling tickets to club crawls. That’s right, pub crawls have officially been replaced as the kings of Friday night debauchery.

Tourist grunge aside, though, we actually really loved Surfer’s Paradise. We walked along the beach, waves crashing like clockwork to our side, for over an hour before seeking refuge in the shade of the city buildings. 

The beach was fairly empty, likely because it was a weekday, but we saw enough walkers with 30 years of sun damage to their skin to know that some locals had joined our ranks. It was easy to see why people would come here to relax and vacation – or even to retire. It had an easy pace with enough life injected by the tourists to keep businesses fresh and stores bustling. Plus, if you ever got wanderlust, Brisbane and its international airport were only an hour away. But still, the beach would always draw you home. I’m not even a beach person, and I was really enjoying myself. To be fair, though, I was envisioning jogs at dawn along the hard-packed sand, the beach to myself and the colors of the sky reflected on the water. I wonder if it would be like Barcelona, where my morning jogs coincided with the clubs closing for the night and disgorging their hard-partying dregs onto the beach to sober up. Anyway, Josh has more of a soft spot for beaches than I do and he thought it was one of the most beautiful beaches he had ever seen.

Though we had liberally applied sunscreen, our exposed skin was beginning to crisp. We retreated to the stores that lined the winding main tourist street. It seemed as though every third store was named Ugg World, Ugg Universe, Ugg King, or something similar. They know what the tourists want: a shearling vacation for their feet. At least, that’s what I presumed. As we had seen in Sydney, Ugg offers a much broader array of merchandise than we knew, including a lot of furs. We kept up our search for a Finn-colored sheepskin (Josh has a dream of our dog having carpet camouflage), but we were unsuccessful.

[A quick note to any would-be Surfer’s Paradise shoppers: price comparison is key! Out of curiosity, we compared the price of some items across stores and found up to 40% differences in the ticket price of the same item – as in, same brand, same color, same size.]

When late afternoon arrived, it was time to escape the city. We drove about an hour into the woods to the Natural Bridge, a part of a local park that has a glowworm cave. We arrived early, planning to hike other paths in the area until it got dark, only to discover that there was exactly one 1 km path to the glow worms and nothing else in the area. Plus, going off the beaten path was strictly forbidden because they’re trying to preserve that ecosystem and the land is home to the Yugambeh Aboriginals. Still, we hiked the loop to appreciate the dense, lush forest in the daylight.

The glowworms are actually the larvae of a species of fly found only in Australia and New Zealand. They luminesce to attract pretty, which get stuck in the long sticky threads that they produce. Their bioluminescence apparently peaks during the warm, wet months (December through March). As a bonus, a certain species of fungus that grows during those months is also bioluminescent. When the sun had finally set, we ventured down the path again to the glow worm cave. The walls were pitch black and the waterfall gurgled in the background. As our eyes adjusted, we saw the glow. Deep in the corners of the cave, small green dots huddled in groups and then spread across rock veins, creating green constellations overhead. It was beautiful and felt a little magical.

We ended the evening with a return to downtown Surfer’s Paradise to wander the pop-up market along the beach. I can’t say the wares were particularly tempting, but it’s a pretty great place to take an evening walk.

Spotted: Vomatron, a rollercoaster for the brave of heart and steel of stomach. We spotted it as we drove back to Surfer's Paradise and did not mourn the fact that we'd missed out on this local experience.

Spotted 2: A more stomach-friendly one: Hugh Chocman, a local gelato flavor to celebrate that hunky Australian-bred man-wolverine.

Hall of Famers

Did you know there's a TripAdvisor Hall of Fame? We discovered its existence today when we went to a Hall of Fame member site and were absolutely blown away by its sheer amazingness. The Lone Pine Koala Preserve has been around for almost a century now and still wows tiny children and jaded world travelers alike with its cuddly creatures and amazing demonstrations of animal prowess.

In addition to koalas, the preserve has kangaroos, raptors, platypus, sheep (and sheepdogs!), local birds, wombats, and more. We started off our day with the sheepdog show, starring Hunter (the border collie) and Dusty (the rambunctious 2-year-old Kelpie).

Our host was a lifelong sheep farmer and former professional shearer who adored the two dogs and boasted about them like a proud father. We watched the dogs round up the sheep, lead them through an agility course, and then round them up into a pen. We learned that Kelpies are trained to "back" the sheep in addition to herding them. This involves actually running along the backs of the sheep while they are in the pen.

After the sheepdog show, we went to hear about the koalas. These fuzzy little creatures, whose slow movements, long naps, and hilarious sleep poses have caused many a comparison to town drunks, are really so slow and silly because of their food offer little nutrition and, as a result, they have to have slow metabolisms. Lucky for us, this meant it was easy to stand and stare at them and take pictures to our hearts' content.

Some other fun koala facts:
- They have 5 digits on their hands, just like us, except that TWO of those forepaw digits are thumbs.

- After a 35-day gestation, a 0.5 gram joey the size of a jelly bean crawls up into its mother's pouch
- Koalas look different in the south and north of Australia, though they're the same species. In the colder south, the koalas are bigger, fuzzier, and darker-furred.
- A ton of koalas are currently dying of chlamydia (but don't worry - the Lone Pine koalas are clean).
Since this was probably Josh's most highly anticipated day of our trip, I had to get pictures of him with the little guys.

Post-koala fest, we fed kangaroos and wallabies, which I didn't know you were allowed to do...

... but they sell packets of kangaroo food pellets in the gift shop and the roos definitely knew what was up when we stepped into their enclosure.

We also watched a falconry show, which included the usual flying to and fro but also a peregrine falcon diving to catch a swinging lure (and the trainers definitely didn't make it easy). Then there was a park guide talk about platypus. Platypus are so tiny! Who knew? Finally, we saw the various other park creatures - including some beautiful birds and some truly enormous bats (1.4 meter wingspan!) and, at last, it was time to call it a day.

Haven't had enough cute koala and kangaroo pictures? Scroll to the end of this post for more.

Tips for visiting the Lone Pine Koala Preserve:
- Bring sunscreen and a hat
- Bring a camera!
- Buy kangaroo food from the General Store ($2/bag - 1 bag is plenty)
- Try to see the koalas when the employees are changing the eucalyptus branches. This wakes all the koalas up so you get to see them be active.
- You can fill water bottles from the tap in the baby changing room in the General Store.

Spotted: Free wifi! Everywhere we go, from restaurants to koala preserves, it is not only offered but aggressively advertised. Certainly makes planning easy.


More koala pics:

Bringing up Brisbane

Brisbane is the kind of city that you visit and think, “Hey, I could r­eally see myself living here.” All along the winding river – which brings river wind-iness to a whole new level – are beautiful parks, cafes you want to duck into, and apartment buildings that look new but not overly flashy. It’s a city that is approachable and has a certain planned orderliness that makes everything just… work. A speedy, incredibly punctual series of river ferry lines (one of which is free) shuttles commuters from the residential side to the downtown and back again, zigzagging along the river. Bridges alternate between being pedestrian-friendly and pedestrian-only. The downtown is bustling, with cafes and international eateries spilling out onto the sidewalk.

I should pause here and say that Brisbane is having beautiful weather right now. It’s clearly like that a good portion of the year, since almost all of the restaurants have extensive outdoor seating and open-air malls are the norm. The city squares were similarly bustling. However, the weather is not always so kind. During the heat waves a few weeks ago, temperatures reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit, a far cry from the come-outside-and-take-a-walk temperatures we experienced. We took advantage of this blessing, though, and walked and walked. When we had seen a good portion of the downtown (and stopped at the delicious Taro’s Ramen for lunch), we headed to the Royal Botanical Gardens for a shadier loop. 

The gardens were lush and gorgeous and boasted an incredible variety of flora. The gardens border the city’s skyscrapers on one side, the technologic university on another, and the river around its other edges. Birds called loudly to one another, cackling and cooing. It really sounded like they were right next to you, and this seemed particularly out of place when a 50-story bank building was visible over the treetops ahead. Though the heart of the city was so close, the portion of the park by the river did feel like an escape. It also offered some interesting tidbits, such as the reason behind the sheer cliff faces across the river: a significant amount of stone used to build the original city was quarried from this river bank, and it left behind the riverfront façade we see today.

Since the river was so beautiful, we decided to take a free little cruise up and down it. We grabbed outdoor seats on the CityHopper (the free ferry) and rode it end to end, enjoying the skyline and the parks that dotted the riverfront. It’s really amazing how much green we’ve seen in each of the Australian cities we’ve visited so far.

To close the evening, we splurged on a fancy dinner: the degustation menu at Alchemy. This came highly recommended by our good friend the internet, and it was certainly an experience. I don’t know that it lived up to the hype, but we are also now spoiled by our recent French adventure. However, this tasting menu had the distinct advantage of being complete after 2 hours instead of 5. Sometimes, it’s the little things.

Spotted: Australian posters similar to some of those seen at the Women's March

TIP: Gippsland Dairy. Their yogurt is the stuff of dairy dreams. If you EVER get the chance to try it, go for it. My favorite flavor so far is passionfruit twist, but all of their flavors are amazing due to the rich creaminess of their slow-churning process.

View From the Top

Sunshine at last! We took full advantage of our beautiful, balmy weather and rode out to Katoomba, a town about two hours outside of Sydney from which we could access the Blue Mountains national park. The Blue Mountains are gorgeous, with sheer yellow cliffs bordering a deep, forest-filled canyon. Waterfalls envelop you in white noise and frequent lookouts lead you down to the ideal vantage points.

We chose to start our journey at Echo Point, where many of the hiking paths begin, instead of at Scenic World. From our limited internet research, it seems that Scenic World is also a starting point for hikes but mainly draws people interested in its funicular railway, scenic skyway, and cableway – three modes of transportation that take you on a death-defying trip down the edge of the cliff face or over the gaping chasm between two cliff faces. Josh wasn’t thrilled about dangling over the canyon and I was eager to set out on foot, so Echo Point fit us well. Since we hadn’t planned a firm route and had limited time, we opted for a sort of sampler platter of Blue Mountain highlights, including the Honeymoon Bridge, The Three Sisters, and some cascades. 

We were unable to discover why Honeymoon Bridge is so named, but I can only imagine the namer had a tempestuous pre-marital love life or anticipated a rocky romance ahead. We braved a very steep descent down a hundred or more stone steps to the bridge, which hangs between the sheer face of the main landmass and the sheer face of a spindly rock spike about 20 meters away (a sort of poor man’s Scenic World cableway experience - Josh was thrilled). There isn’t anything at the other side of the bridge except a large sign telling people not to climb the spindly rock, a notion that would never have crossed my mind, anyway.

Another stop was The Three Sisters, or Meehni, Wimlah, and Gunnedoo. These three rock pillars were formed by erosion of the soft sandstone in the Jamison Valley. The sisters are, in the tradition of beautiful women, controversial; a commonly-told “Aboriginal” legend about them has since been debunked as a fabrication by a non-Aboriginal local to add interest to the rock formation. 

After our hike, we caught a train back to Sydney just in time for my BridgeClimb. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the largest steel through arch bridge in the world and boasts beautiful views of the harbor and such notable landmarks as the Sydney Opera House. While there have been illegal (and possibly alcohol-fueled) expeditions to the top of the bridge since it opened in 1932, the official (and safer) BridgeClimb experience has only been around since 1998. This allows you to climb the southern half of the bridge to the summit, which sits 440 feet above sea level. Based on the input of countless wonderful online reviews, I chose to do the twilight climb and see the city in daylight, dusk-light, and darkness. The city was beautiful from above, particularly in the hazy twilight. Since Sydney lacks a lot of the architectural beauty of other, more historic, skylines, it was mostly the natural landmarks – the harbor and its bays, the mountains in the distance, the islands – that I found beautiful. I surprised myself by feeling no nervousness. Perhaps it was the incredibly thorough pre-climb briefing and simulation session or the amount of safety gear strapped to my body, but the only heart rate-raising part was the stairs. For anyone not inclined to climb the whole bridge, you can get a beautiful view from the top of the pylons (giant stone tower-like structures at the ends of the bridge).

[Fun fact: in 1973, Philippe Petit, the rogue highwire walker, set up a wire between the two pylons on the south side and surprised Sydney with the sight of a man seemingly walking on air one morning. When he was arrested, he managed to pick the watch of the arresting officer. No word if he gave it back. The documentary about Philippe Petit’s highwire feats, including the Sydney bridge and the World Trade Centers, Man on Wire, is currently available on Netflix.]

Since the bridge climb (and its associated preparation) takes 3.5 hours, I was reunited with Josh late in the evening. It had been a long day – our last full day in Sydney – and we walked home through our temporary hometown streets enjoying the warm summer evening.

Spotted: Street Art Walk Katoomba, a local art initiative that fills an alleyway with giant, colorful murals. As a big fan of urban murals, I wanted to give them a shout-out. Learn more here: http://bluemountainsculturalcentre.com.au/street-art-walk/

P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

After many years of traveling with Jess, I, Josh have finally volunteered to write a guest post on the travel blog.

We began the day with the now familiar rain-soaked walk towards Darling Harbor, but this time we finally stopped at the harbor's many attractions, the Sydney Aquarium. As soon as we entered, employees took our photos in front of a green screen, coaxing us into various poses and suggesting facial expressions. We later found out, as we exited the aquarium, that we were posing with giant prehistoric fish or cuddly penguins. It seems we  had more adventures than we realized!

The aquarium itself contained a number of exhibits, each with not only the appropriate climate but also tank accessories to create a realistic habitat. For example, the Sydney Harbor tank contained empty beer bottles, car tires, and other trash in a sad replica of the sea floor. After several smaller tanks, we reached one of the main events: a giant tank containing dugongs, manta rays, and an array of smaller, colorful fish. 

Of all of these, though, the dugongs stole the show. Dugongs closely resemble manatees, their sea-dwelling cousins, but their closest land relative is the elephant. These gentle creatures consume about 200 kilograms of lettuce daily, which their keepers attach to trays placed at the bottom of the tank, closely emulating sea grass, their only source of food. The other creatures in the tank also provided amusement and wonder, from the gliding wings of the manta rays to the lazy sharks perched above the walking tube glass.

The crowd favorite exhibit was next, the Penguin Expedition. 

The first part of the area contained a boat ride, carrying the passengers past penguin enclosures. The penguins themselves marched past the visitors in formation, dove into the water, and darted around for food. We marveled at their prowess in the water as they easily ducked and dodged, grabbing at small bits of food. As an individual who just started swimming again, I envied their deft movements.


Finally, we arrived at the shark tank for a glass-bottom boat tour to feed fish and sharks. Our guide, Eduardo, introduced us his work buddies, including Bruiser, a gray nurse shark. After some fun facts about the creatures swimming below us, we pulled bowls of food from beneath our seats and tossed them overboard. With a flash, the fish found the food in a frenzy and consumed all they could find. The sharks had a more difficult time, bumbling around with their poor eyesight. After about seven false passes, Bruiser and his buddies eventually found the squids, and with a quick snap, lunch was served.

Leaving the aquarium, we left for our own lunch spot, Mr. Wong's, which is a Chinese restaurant known for its Peking duck. Despite the incredibly large number of Asian residents in Sydney, they were notably underrepresented among Mr. Wong's patrons. Still, the Peking duck was delicious, slathered in plum sauce and wrapped in pancakes with scallions and cucumber.

Re-energized, we ducked into the Museum of Contemporary Art. 

The museum itself was free, but the temporary exhibit, by Tatsuo Miyajima, required tickets. As we wandered the permanent exhibits, our favorite part was the comments and interpretations from children who had visited the museum, immortalized in placards beneath some of the exhibits. Kids truly say the darndest things. 

We finished our visit with Tatsuo Miyajima's exhibit, which revolved around digital numbers that flickered between numbers and turned on and off. He was able to convey powerful messages using only simple, everyday items.

Finally, we strolled over to the Sydney Opera House to catch an evening show, Great Opera Hits, which included famous arias from well-known operas. As we neared the opera house, we realized that the famous white roof isn't actually large panels but small, off-white tiles in a geometric pattern. Though the facade was beautiful, the inside of the structure was a bit more austere, with exposed concrete walls. However, the show matched the facade - it was beautiful. And the show host and pianist, Guy Noble, was hilarious. He cracked jokes and even sipped champagne through a straw as he accompanied the arias. Four singers cycled through, performing individually or in duets, before the finale where they sang as an ensemble. After the finale, the Americans all gave a standing ovation while we slipped out in the fading light to beat the crowds.


Spotted: Revolving door direction. Many of the skyscrapers have revolving doors, but were not operating as they were closed on a Sunday. Because Australia was a British colony and therefore follows the British right of way on roads, we were curious if their revolving doors also rotated clockwise instead of the counter-clockwise directions that we are familiar with in America. We finally passed one that was in operation and we were correct! Even their doors rotate backwards.

Manly Eye Candy

Another day, another rainstorm. It seems that our arrival coincided with a break in Australia's terrible heat wave, which is great for them but means rainy skies for us. Still, we have continued undeterred with our on-foot adventures. We spent the morning aimlessly wandering the downtown, popping into stores of interest as we got to know the city. After we had worked up an appetite, we lunched at Mamak, a Malaysian restaurant that filled all of its tables within minutes of its lunchtime opening. We soon discovered why. It's slow-simmered curries, coconut rice, and crepe-like desserts make me mourn my Malaysian food-less years. 

Sated, we meandered back to the waterfront and boarded a ferry to Manly Beach. A quick 15-20 minute ride from Sydney's Darling Harbor, Manly is the surfer-cool cousin to Sydney's urban sprawl. Since it was a Saturday, the ferry was filled with tourists and tween locals alike. Manly's appeal is understandable: a beach town feel, corridors of ice cream parlor and surf board shops, miles of beaches and trails. Manly was particularly busy during our visit as two events vied for tourists' attention: a CrossFit competition and the Australian surfing championships. I'm sure that both raised the average fitness of the people around us, because otherwise Australians are direct descendants of Greek gods. Further down the beach, hundreds of amateur surfers dotted the waves, a seemingly random few popping up as each wave reared. 

Still further down, we passed a low stone wall with silver sculptures emerging from its crevices, dozens of wetsuit-clad scuba divers waddling to the water's edge, and trees filled with birds gossiping. We tried to take the hiking trails back to the pier, 

but the lush vegetation swallowed the paths whole about a kilometer in and we were forced to retrace our steps. We passed everything in reverse and the normalcy of it all, the calm joy, the sense that life was being fully lived, settled over us. 

Our ride back to Darling Harbor was, on the other hand, somewhat peculiar. See, Sydney's Mardi Gras celebration, which seems to be a thinly-veiled Pride celebration, was that evening, and our fellow passengers were in stunning rainbow regalia. Tutus, six-inch silver sparkly platform thigh-high boots, bodysuits, glitter, hair dye, flag capes, and more glitter were de rigueur. Perhaps even more stunning, though, was the sight out the window of the ferry. The "rougher-than-normal surf", which caused our 700-person ferry to list in one direction and then the other, had brought out the local sailing daredevils. Hundreds of sailboats filled the water around us, some with their masts nearly parallel to the war and their crews all sitting on the top edge to prevent the vessel from capsizing. One boat nearly clipped our ferry, forcing us to turn at the last minute. Harrowing for all, though I think our ferry would win that round of harbor chicken. 

Once we were safely back on land, we enjoyed the long walk home, passing hordes of Mardi Gras revelers headed the opposite direction in increasingly outlandish outfits. Such enthusiastm suggested the parade and party would make for an evening to remember but, alas, jetlag reared its ugly head and we were near comatose.

Spotted (and tasted!): The world's best Japanese cheesecake. Given that most Asian countries are largely lactose intolerant, making the best indigestible product seems a dubious honor, but we were sufficiently intrigued. The cheesecake was much less firm than a traditional cheesecake but just as rich and overwhelming as you'd expect.

Spotted #2: The strangest cars (and I don't mean the color). Part sedan, part truck, and we've seen them all over the place. This one has its truck bed covered.