Today started out a bit early. We had to take a train around 10:30 from Redfern because we would be going to Featherdale to see Australian animals!! This was very exciting! We made the train with no issues, stopping to get a quick breakfast of orange juice and chocolate milk first. Its only about a 15 minute walk from Dave’s place to the train then about a 45 minute ride with not too much to see. I finally got ahold of my dad which has been a difficult task so it was good to say hello to him. After getting off the train we had to walk through this neighborhood, basically, to get to Featherdale. It was very strange but on the way we saw the most colorful birds!! They were every color of the rainbow and just chilling in all these yards in this suburb. It’s so strange that in australia they have these birds and we have maybe the occasional blue jay. After about a mile, we came upon Featherdale. We got student tickets, I claimed to live in Australia, and then we were in, ready to see all of the awesome animals!
We came upon a wallaby first. Actually, there were a few of them and I was surprised to see them just chilling outside of any cages or anything, just hopping amongst the humans. They were too cool and I got a pic with one but was assured that there would be more beyond this area. We looked at some birds that were in a big cage and then birds that were by a watering hole type thing, along with a wombat. I didn’t have the same type of affection for wombats as I did for, say, kangaroos and koalas, but wow they were really cute in real life! Like, adorable really. Later we would see one sleeping on his back which was just adorable with their little legs sticking up. But, on to the koalas! They were in the next section which was like a row of stalls, each containing a tree. You could get pretty close, maybe about 2 meters away, and all were sleeping. Really, just the cutest thing ever. We came upon the one koala that was ‘guarded’ by a worker; this is the koala that you could touch and take pictures with. There he was, just sleeping in his short little tree, all curled up and seemingly oblivious to me being there acting like a giddy school kid next to him. We were allowed to touch anywhere but his head, which was just so cool- they are so soft!! I got a lot of good pics and would return after seeing everything to get a few pics of me and him sleeping 🙂
For the kangaroos (and emus), you could purchase an ice cream cone filled with this hamster food stuff to feed them. We got a few cones and then headed through the gate to the area. There were just tons of kangaroos! Half a dozen of them were in a hut-like thing on the side of the area so we took a few pictures of them to get some nice face close-ups. I was feeding some when all these emus came over. I do not like giant birds for the most part because they frighten me, so these were not my favorite animals. One started eating out of my cone and was getting so aggressive that I just had to let him have the whole thing before he took my hand off. Back to get more food! Armed with new ice cream cones, we began taking pics of kangaroos. I was scared at first because these are ‘wild’ animals, but they really were tame so I was more comfortable after a few minutes and was able to nearly put my arm around them and take some pics. Dave kept trying to get me to put my nose directly against theirs, but that just wasn’t happening. I would do it for just a split second so obviously it couldn’t be captured on ‘film’. It was quite muddy in the area (although it wasn’t raining and really had no impact on our time there), but I couldn’t lay down next to one to get a good shot. Anyways, we got bunches of pictures and had a lot of fun doing so. I also remember that at one point I was just surrounded by emus vying for my ice cream cones of food, which was just terrifying, but of course Dave captured that moment and it’s a pretty funny picture. We saw all sorts of cool animals in the rest of the park, like enchinda, quakas (spell check things I mean Quakers), more wombats, giant kangaroos, tons of birds and some ghost bats (not a fan). We had snacks at the food place there, french fries for me and chicken nuggets for Dave. Oh weird, they have a lot of chicken salt here. It’s pretty good, if you like salt. And, like the UK, you have to pay for ketchup, which is just retarded because it’s absolutely disgusting here anyways. We sat and ate quickly before heading back to the koalas for more pictures. Oh! Pelicans eat by sort-of picking up their food and then tossing it with their beaks into the back of their mouths. It’s very funny. After we were done with all of the animals, it was time to catch the bus back to the train station. We had a bit of time before the bus was due to arrive so we looked around the gift shop at all of the overpriced souvenirs and played with some hats and such. Finally, the bus arrived and we went to pay with our travel 10 passes. The machine rejected them and we asked the dude, wtf?! Oh, this was a private bus company. Of course, why not? Why not have a private bus company have a bus stop on the side of the rode with a schedule printed and all that takes you to the public train. It made no sense so we each had to pay for our short rides to Blacktown train station. Oddly enough, or maybe appropriately enough, there are a lot of black people here. Like, I think these are the only black people that I’ve seen in all of australia and here they are in Blacktown. I got a delicious latte at the station (first one in australia) before waiting for a few minutes for the train back to whitetown. I mean, Sydney.
Back in the Syd, we stopped at Dave’s place before 4pm class. Class wasn’t too far away and I was going to be sitting in. I heard this was the best class that he had, lecture-wise I’m assuming, and I’ve never been to a graduate class outside of psych or stats, so I really did want to go. We made it to building a few minutes and I got yet another coffee (this time I just wanted a regular coffee, so they didn’t know what the hell I was talking about) and then went into the lecture theatre (heh, ‘classroom’). There’s this German dude that carries this silver briefcase (steel?) that is ust hysterical. Most. German. Person. Ever. We sat at a table close to the back and the lecture got under way. This guy was pretty cool and I think I really did learn a thing or two, even though I wasn’t paying 100% attention. I guess it was just about currency and how exchange rates are set and how moving money works and such. Pretty interesting. Also though, I named all of my awesome pictures from the day and by 5:45 class was over. Awesome. Becca never showed up but she was in the building so we said hello to her before walking back to Red Fern station to go to Spice Market and Max Brenner!
The ride on the subway wasn’t too long, as knew, as this is Dave’s commute to work. We got off and were in Double Bay but still had some walking to do before reaching the restaurant. This was a very nice area of Sydney. Very upscale shops, an odd abundance of bridal shops however, and nice cars parked along the road. After a 10 minute walk down hill we reached Spice Market. It’s a cute little take away thai place that also has large tables for eating in. Service was quick and before I knew if Dave had his beef fried rice and then my chicken spicy basil arrived. So so good. The beef fried rice was better I think, but fried rice also comes with the inconvenience of having loads of egg in it so it would have been a pain for me to eat. I was so so full by the time we were done so we decided to find the actual bay in Double Bay. We walked past Max Brenner and then turned down Ocean Blvd., which sounded like the right thing to do. Surely enough, there was the ocean at the end of the road. It was nearly deserted and completely dark with the occasional sprinkle of rain. Just a beautiful bay with beautiful homes overlooking it. Yes, I liked this area a lot. I could live here. It began to rain a bit harder so off to Max Brenner! Now, I was not hungry in the least but WOW had this hot chocolate been hyped up. We got a table and ordered 2 hot chocolates and the chocolate fondu for 2 with strawberries, bananas, banana bread, and marshmallows. It arrived quickly and Dave watched eagerly as I took my first sip of hot chocolate. Yes, yes, it was amazing! Really, I’m super excited that there is one (two!!) in the US, although they are both in NY. The fondu was great but we didn’t even come close to finishing it. The dark chocolate, which I was eating, was so so incredibly filling. Completely full, we began the trek up the steep hill back to the train station. We were so full and it was a little nasty out at that point so we decided to get off at Central and then take the bus from there. It was a good idea as the bus came rather quickly and then it wasn’t too long until we were back. We still had to pack and shower! We spent the rest of the evening doing that and went to bed a bit too late for such an early flight and so much driving tomorrow!
