Solid hangover this morning, but up and about at 9am. Small price to pay for the experience.
Cahill Expressway, looking west toward downtown. I was asked to take this photo by an associate.
I had Bondi Beach on my agenda, but yesterday Andy recommended Manly Beach over Bondi. Best fish and chips, he said. So I took a half-hour ferry ride out to Manly. The more time spent on the high seas, the better. Manly turns out to be a nice little seaside town. All this time I though "Manly" meant it was a gay area, but at first look it appeared not to be. Still, my lunch made me suspicious:
That's right, #69, the Manly Meal. Now that I think about it, I cannot confirm that the name of the ferry wasn't the Raging Queen, and I'm fairly certain that several seamen were aboard.
Indeed.
I took a splashy seat for the ferry ride back. A young boy whose father also braved the elements kept screaming in glee every time a wave splashed through the deck. The boy's hat blew off his head, floated straight up and then sideways onto the upper deck, where it was retrieved. After the ride back my ear was full of salt.
Royal Clock at the Queen Victoria Building, a landmark that's now a high-end shopping mall. Nearby there's a time capsule accompanied by a letter from Buckingham palace that's signed "Elizabeth R."; it was too precious to photograph. The Great Australian Clock (at the other end behind the tree) is more impressive, but I didn't want to take successive photos of clocks. That's just gay.
I knew I'd have some extra cash left over by departure time tomorrow, and I figured the typical casino edge is less than the typical exchange commission, so I headed to Darling Harbour and the Star City Casino to gamble as much as possibly and thereby cut my losses. But the casino had no Double Diamond machines, my traditional friend and foe. In fact all of the slot machines were digital--no spinning reels. So I left.
There's a species of bird in Sydney whose call sounds like a child's yell.
I noticed something significant in Sydney: A large number of girls with nice racks have adopted the Sue-Ellen Mishkie look (pre-Elaine's gift). I knew Seinfeld was popular down under but this was a pleasant bonus.
One of the last things on my list that I hadn't accomplished (besides eating a kangaroo burger) was acquiring a fresh jar of Vegemite. I have a jar in my fridge that's almost empty and expired in Jan 2000. I stopped by Woolworths (not sure if the chain is related to the American Woolworths) but couldn't find any. Then I went to KFC and had the Zinger combo, making this the second consecutive international trip on which I've enjoyed said combo.
Another cool thing on the hotel TV: The Simpsons. Also while watching the news I learned that the gigantic ship docked at Circular Quay this morning was the Star Princess, the largest cruise ship in the world. I thought that thing was big.