Sydney Aquarium
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Yesterday was a pretty sweet day. It all started out with meeting Karen and her friends and then heading for Sydney Aquarium.
Sydney Aquarium was pretty awesome, and the sharks were especially breath taking to see. I’ll definitely have to go for a swim with sharks some day – well in a safe way that is :). If they’ll misbehave I’ve always got my special point-the-shark-in-the-eyes-ninja-move that I’ve been secretly working on. Too bad it isn’t field tested yet!
After the tour at the aquarium we headed for dinner at an Italian restaurant somewhat close to where Karen and her friends were staying. My dish (Ribeye steak something) was just friggin’ awesomelicious. Good food, good company, good conversation = awesomeness.
After the dinner we walked down to Circular Quay where we had a few glasses of wine and enjoyed the surrounding views with the Opera House and all.
Good stuff!
And oh, I have to remind myself to get a new camera since my current one sucks. Hard.
Chill Sunday
So yesterday was a pretty chill day.
It started out with some kajaking (my first time ever) in the National Park with a friend of the family I’m staying with. Kajaking was awesome when I finally got a hang of it.
After that I hit the gym and did some back and tummy exercises. After my tour at the gym I went home, made some pasta carbonara on kangaroo mince and then finished of the day with a little jog around the town I’m staying in.
This Tuesday I’ll meet up with Karen again and we’ll hit the Sydney Aquarium. That will be fun!
Bondi Beach
Yesterday I went to Bondi Beach for the first time. That beach is just awesome, and yeah, there are quite a few people running around there.
After the little tour around the beach Lois (another backpacker staying in Caringbah – now we’re officially 2!) and I met up with her friends, had a few drinks and just had a chill evening. Good Stuff!
Oh yeah, I updated the photo album with the pictures from Bondi as well.
Taronga Zoo
Yesterday I spent the entire day at Taronga Zoo with my German friend Karen. The weather could have been a bit better but I sure as hell had an awesome time. Next time though, I guess one should pay more attention to the map of the zoo – going by Mr. Turtle’s little enclosure 5 or 6 times in a consecutive row might, just might, be considered to be lost :).
During our time at the zoo we also attended two shows: the free flight bird show and the seal show.
The free flight bird show was soo amazing. Everything from small owls to giant condors participated in the show, and it was just mind blowing to see how well these animals could be trained. At the end of the show a lot of different birds came flying in and it was so beautiful. During this specific show there was a quite worrisome event taking place at the same time as the end of the show – there was a falcon flying around preying on the cockatoos. It all went well though and no birds got hurt. I guess my dad would’ve loved to see this show.
The next show, the seal show, was also extremely spectacular. I was just blown away by how intelligent these guys are and how well trained they can be. They responded to verbal cues in an instant and they pretty much knew the show by heart. It was also a bit of surprise to learn that they’re pretty damn fast (they can swim up to 40km/h under water) and that they’re pretty agile animals. I’ve always had a preconception about seals that they were supposed to be slow and lazy so I guess I learned something today as well.
And yeah, check out the Taronga Zoo photo album.
Darling Harbour
Yesterday I spent the entire day walking around in Darling Harbour and its surrounding areas. All I can say is whoa, Sydney just keeps blowing my mind away. It isn’t just that it’s so friggin’ beautiful here, it also seems that there’s always people on the run and things happening all the time. That’s a bit of a contrast compared to my home town in Sweden where basically nothing happens.
Walking around in Darling Harbour I also found this little gem called the Chinese Garden. It’s just like a little bit of China in the middle of the city. It was a very relaxing place and if I would’ve been living in Sydney permanently I would definitely go there to read a book or just chill. Oh yeah, I also met a funny little German girl named Karen that I’m going to hang out with.
After my little tour in the Chinese Garden I headed for China Town, which was actually a bit disappointing. I had high expectations that it would be a cool place (just the type of place you see in movies and stuff) but it was just regular buildings with Chinese signs slapped on.
After this I eventually found my way into Market City which is a huge building that sports loads and loads of concession stands of all shapes and sizes. Basically, the whole ‘Market City’-thingie was about Asian people trying to sell cheap knockoffs and other random shit to tourists and aussies. Oh, I also met a few Swedish blokes there, I might join ‘em for some beers some day. Awesome!
You should definitely check out the Photo Album – it has been updated with a lot of new photos.
And yeah, I’ll try to update the blog more often from now on.
Partying in King’s Cross
This Saturday I went out partying in King’s Cross in Sydney, an area that’s supposedly the equivalent of the Red Light District in Amsterdam. Apparently prostitution is legal here in Australia.
Whenever you tell anyone you’re heading to King’s Cross, people (or well, what I’ve experienced, people aged 30+) tend to tell you that it’s a neighborhood you really got to be alert and paying attention in. Usually they’ll also tell you a few stories about all the weird things that have happened there.
To my surprise King’s Cross wasn’t like what people have told me. I didn’t see any soliciting going on and the only peculiar thing I saw was that there were just a lot of homeless people hanging around. But I guess you shouldn’t take my words too seriously, I was seriously drunk while I was running around there between different clubs. What you can take my word for though, is that King’s Cross is a massive area to party in. Shitloads of people, shitloads of clubs. Awesomeness!
What wasn’t awesome was waking up Sunday morning partly hung-over and feeling bloated as hell. One of the things I was supposed to do in Australia was to lose some weight. Drinking every weekend surely doesn’t help one achieve that goal.
So I just had to do something about it. I put on my sneakers and ran down to the beach, took a swim for 1 hour or something and then ran back home. That’s some lovely exercise! Today (it’s Monday right now) I’ll be heading down to Miranda to get my gym membership sorted out – I really miss weight lifting.
Cheers!
First swim
The weather is slowly getting better here (finally – after an entire week!) so last night I took the bike down to Cronulla beach for a swim.
The water temperature probably was something like 20 degrees, so it was a bit cold first before I got used to it.
Today I’ll be going into Sydney for some serious exploration!
Miranda
Last night I took a walk down to Miranda which is a suburb close to Caringbah. The gym I’ll probably go to is located there and Miranda also sports a four story high shopping mall (which I have to explore more thoroughly some day).
And yeah, I updated the photo album.
A few observations
So I just wanted to jot down a few observations I’ve made so far.
First of all – this place is huge. There are houses just everywhere (they’re pretty fond of one-story houses) so it takes a while to get somewhere if you’re walking, taking a jog or going by bicycle.
Another remarkable thing is that when it’s raining, it’s really raining. You can’t really compare the way it rains in Sweden to the way it rains here – here it’s just pouring down.
So here’s the five million dollar question: What happens if you let a confused little swede find his own way around Cronulla (without any real knowledge about the area) in the midst of the sickest rain showers ever? You’ll get a lost, wet and pretty damn angry little swede on your hands.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I was that poor little lost swede. I just wanted to get down to Cronulla by myself and explore a few things. I started walking from the house around 6ishPM and I eventually got down to Cronulla where I walked along the beach on The Esplanade. After that little tour I was trying to find a way straight back to Caringbah. The only problem is that Cronulla is a peninsula and that it therefore is impossible to get straight back to Caringbah – DOH! So I walked around there getting more and more lost by the minute and suddenly the rain started pouring down. Needless to say, I was like a sponge when I finally got home after running around in the rain for 2 hours. Checking the distance on Google Maps, it appears as if I ran/walked 12 kilometers. But hey, at least I got some exercise.
Other cool things I’ve observed is that stuff like groceries and alcohol are cheaper here. 1kg of minced beef costs 6 AUD (35 SEK) compared to somewhat around 50-60 SEK back home. Regarding the beer and drinks, they’re basically 25-50% cheaper here than back in Sweden. Awesome!
Last night = Major Awesomeness
So I went partying last night as well and all I can say is that I had an extremely awesome time. Hanging out with Andy, Joey and the rest of the guys have been a true pleasure and it’s going to be awesome to party and hang out with them in Perth when I go there in April or something.
I met some new friends as well, one aussie girl and one girl from Scotland who lives pretty close by. The more people I get to know down under, the better.
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