July 14th, 2007

We really need to get this new time-zone thing down. Once again up too early, we had some time to kill before the breakfast place we like was open. It turned out to be a great time of day to wander through this area. On George Street, they were setting up tents for a street market that goes on Saturdays and Sundays. We walked through that for a bit, then cut uphill through the cobbled streets carved out of the sandstone rock that give the area its name. There were some wonderful views and interesting old buildings and terraces in this road. We only passed one person, and one little sweatered dog who was not interested in our company at all. When we wound our way back down through some of these terraces it was time for breakfast! Poor Rob didn’t realize that the frittata that looked so delicious had chunks of pumpkin in it, but other than that it was a delightful breakfast. Pumpkin seems to be a feature in cuisine here, either because it’s winter or because it’s a regional food. I’m game!
After breakfast and changing some money (sadly the US dollar has hit an 18 year low against the Australian dollar), we went down to Circular Quay to buy ferry tickets to the Aquarium. We tried to buy tickets that included entrance to the Aquarium and to Wildlife World, but through miscommunication, only got Wildlife World. It just meant a few dollars not saved on the combined ticket, not a big deal. The ferries are part of the Sydney public transportation, but early on a Saturday morning, they are not at all crowded and allow for beautiful views of the Sydney harbor on the way to your destination, which for us was right outside the Aquarium. We opted for the Aquarium first and had a delightful time! There was an energetic platypus, who was no more than a foot long and every bit as ridiculous as you would expect from photos. There were many fresh water fish, some very large. One tank/enclosure had little penguins, the smallest type of penguin, and the penguins indigenous to this area. They were adorable! And then there were the ocean displays. We watched seals play in a tank with water constantly pumped in from the Sydney harbor, and sharks and rays in a similar tank next door. The really neat thing about these tanks was that there were glass tubes that you could walk through to see the sea creatures swimming over and around you! One seal spent a lot of time sitting on top of the tube, much to everyone’s delight. When we entered the shark and ray tank tubes, there was a giant ray right over us, who was probably wider than I am tall! After these tanks, there were also tanks full of reef fish of all sorts of colors, shapes and sizes. A remarkable number of them are the same or very similar to those found in the Caribbean. This was also the place that Disney/Pixar was milking the Finding Nemo story with signs on several tanks saying “find Nemo’s friends here!” Cute.
And what better to do after a morning at the aquarium than to have fish and chips for lunch? Only doing so with a flock of seagulls anxiously awaiting scraps at your feet! But the fish and chips were good and the harbor was beautiful and sunny – so a good lunch all in all. And then back into animal world for a walk through Wildlife World. This was a well done middle-of-a-city zoo. There was a butterfly room, followed by terrariums of creepy-crawlies, then snakes and reptiles. There were nocturnal animals, who were a bit hard to find, possibly because people kept trying to take flash pictures of them. And then: several large enclosures of typically Australian animals. This included wallabies of several species and koalas. These wallabies were at the smaller end of the spectrum of kangaroo-like animals, and are fascinating to watch leap around. At some point I think we need to find out exactly what separates wallaby from kangaroo. The koalas were mostly sleeping, except for one who was eating and one who was patiently readjusting her baby who was nestled into her stomach.
We took the ferry back to Circular Quay and walked quickly through the street market outside our hotel, then decided we would return tomorrow morning when it wouldn’t be quite as crowded. After grabbing a delicious piece of sweet corn to nibble on, we went back to the room for a mid-afternoon nap – hoping that this would help with the readjustment to the time zone. We had a slightly later dinner (I had pumpkin soup – yum!), with a cup of coffee, and are well on our way to staying up later than 10:00!