I've tried to stop... but I keep coming back to the game. As a kid I was never really fanatic about it, but I have good memories of going to games with my family or aunts and uncles. My great aunt Alice worked in the ticket office for the Milwaukee Brewers, so it seems like we went pretty often. I would really love the first few innings, but my young attention span couldn't handle any more than that. I knew I was a Brewers fan because I lived in Milwaukee, and I liked hearing the crowd cheer at a home run. I think this planted a seed of baseball mania that's been developing in me ever since.
Between 1993, the year of the Major League Baseball strike in North America, and 2010 I can count only two baseball games I attended live. In 1997 I watched a Brewers game in the old Milwaukee County Stadium and in 2001 I watched a Cubs vs. Brewers game in Milwaukee's new Miller Park. In 2003, I watched the Chicago Cubs lose the central division title to the Florida Marlins and since then I had only a casual interest in the game, checking the standings from time to time.
Well, not this year. So far in the season I've been to six games! The smell of the grass and the way the lights make the player's uniforms glow... the sound of the game -- a hush, a CLAP as the bat hits the ball, a growing cheer as it heads toward the center field wall, and a loud roar from the audience as the ball lands in the stands for a home run.
It's root root root for the home team, if they don't win it's a shame... for it's one, two, three strikes you're out in the old ball game!
While we were hiking around in Jamison Valley our phones had no reception. On our way back into civilization, my phone alerted me to the fact that I had missed a call from Cheryl. I called her back and she invited us to dinner with some friends in the city. "I'm told there will be a haggis there," she said. That sealed the deal.
This traditional Scottish dish is a type of sausage of savory pudding made by mincing the "pluck" of a sheep (heart, lungs, liver) with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt ... then stuffing it all into the sheep's stomach. This preparation is then boiled in stock for a few hours and then served. In our case it was served with mashed potato, mashed turnip, and white pudding -- another savory pudding made with suet, oatmeal, salt, and spices.
I was the only one at the table who cleaned my plate. This was interesting because I am a notoriously picky eater. Well first of all I was really hungry... I also liked the haggis, but it was a little dry. Ian (our host) said it was overcooked, but I wouldn't have known the difference. I will definitely try it again if I come across it, but I won't go searching for it.
Thank you Ian for a great meal! Thank you Cheryl for introducing me to new friends! This made two non-Australian holidays I had celebrated in Australia in less than a week!
After breakfast at the Sydney Fish Market we headed west on the highway toward Katoomba, the so-called "Gateway" to the Blue Mountains. The drive there was a good way to get accustomed to driving on the left since it was mostly highway driving and pretty easy. The road started to get a little bit curvey once we got up into the hills, but nothing too challenging. When we reached Katoomba, we parked in a pay spot and started walking. Our first stop was the Queen Elizabeth lookout. This is the spot where Queen Elizabeth II first viewed the Jamison Valley in 1954.
We walked down to the lookout and saw the Three Sisters, Mount Solitary, and the expansive Jamison Valley. The commonly told legend of the Three Sisters is that three sisters fell in love with three men from a neighboring tribe, but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. Battle ensued, and the sisters were turned to stone by an elder to protect them, but he was killed in the fighting and no one else could turn them back. This legend is falsely claimed to be an Indigenous Australian Dreamtime legend. (http://www.newsroom.uts.edu.au/reviews/detail.cfm?ItemId=7378)
Regardless of the authenticity of the legend, the view is geniunely fantastic. Hopefully some of my pictures will give you an idea of what makes this place so majestic.
We decided to start hiking toward Katoomba Falls, as a sign directed us. We had paid for an hour of parking and had to keep in mind the time as we took in the views. I needed to stop every couple minutes to take another photo... a rock formation, another flower, some insects, a vista across the valley - everything was amazing! We accidentally stumbled into the terminus of the Scenic Skyway, a cable gondola over the valley floor past Katoomba Falls to Scenic World. From Scenic World, we could take the Scenic Railway or Scenic Cableway to or from the Scenic Walkway around the valley floor. We decided to take the Scenic Skyway to Scenic World and back, then walk back to the car and drive back to Scenic World.
Once back at Scenic World, we took the Scenic Railway to the valley floor. The Scenic Railway is actually the world's steepest funicular. This one was originally used by coal miners but is now an attraction for locals and tourists. From wikipedia:
"The Scenic Railway is said to be the steepest cable-driven funicular railway in the world, with an incline of 52 degrees over a distance of 415 metres. It was originally constructed for a coal and oil shale mining operation in the Jamison Valley in the 1880s, in order to haul shale from the valley floor up to the escarpment above. It was converted for use as a tourist attraction prior to World War II."
When we got to the bottom of the valley it seemed dark under the shade of the trees. We walked toward the north for a long time before deciding we needed to head back. Once we got back to the walkway, we walked around on the boardwalk for a while. The boardwalk takes hikers past some coal mining artifacts and a freshwater spring. There are also explanatory signs placed along the walk.
We made our way to the Scenic Cableway which takes people back up to the stop of the cliff and parking area. By now Matt and I were both pretty tired out from walking so much and the heat was starting to wear us down. We bought some water in the shop at Scenic World and got back in the car. I had missed a call from Cheryl, so I called back and she invited us to a friends' house for St. Andrews Day dinner. We punched the address into our GPS and headed back into the city.
We decided to rent a car for the weekend to get better access to the area around Sydney. On Friday I called and made a reservation for one with Hertz. We walked over on Saturday morning and picked up the car. We decided that since the rental car was in my name and I had already gained experience a few weeks prior driving Cheryl's car, that I would be the designated driver for the weekend. Our first excursion was to the Fish Market. We punched the destination into the GPS and after some fits and starts we were off.
The Sydney Fish Market on Blackwattle Bay is the largest in the southern hemisphere. It is also the world's second largest seafood market, based on variety, outside of Japan. It is possible to get a "behind the scenes" tour of the market. I called to arrange one for Thursday morning, but they were booked through mid-December! They have lobsters the size of my leg and abalones bigger than my hand. The activity is almost frantic as people buy fresh seafood and eat it right there at picnic tables placed throughout the market.
After seeing the Sydney Fish Market for a few minutes on the 26th, we wanted to go back and try out some of the fresh specialties they offer. I was particularly interested in trying a few different types of oysters and abalone. Raw oysters don't necessarily make the best breakfast, but I can eat them any time. We started off with a dozen raw Sydney Rock oysters. Then we had three cheese-filled oysters, three baked abalones, and three baked scallops. After that we wandered around a little bit to see the market in operation, and then we set the GPS for Katoomba and headed for the hills!
On November 26th, after coming back from the Olympic Park and seeing the small railway museum inside Central station, we walked to Paddy's Markets for lunch. I had some really bad Japanese food and a Heineken. The food court food was mostly lousy, but I should have had something else. Matt had a kebab and it looked really good.
We took the tram from Paddy's Markets to the Sydney Fish Market where we walked around for a bit to see the market and then bought some Balmain Bugs, prawns, and scallops for Thanksgiving Dinner at Cheryl's house in Sydney.
After a glass of wine and a quick snack of some olives and cherry tomatoes, we put the seafood into my backpack (huge mistake in retrospect, the smell lingered for weeks and through several washes!!) and headed for Central station to meet Cheryl. She drove us to her house and we waited for others to arrive.
We couldn't get the grill working because it was out of gas and then we swapped tanks but the new tank didn't have the right fitting for the grill! We gave up and just used the boil and fry methods for the bugs, scallops, and prawns. It all turned out great though! Gaelyn and Anne Marie arrived with a turkey!!! Haggie and Mary Jane and Aerhylle came to celebrate with us. It was an awesome Thanksgiving, even though we weren't in America for the tradition.
We had turkey and potatoes, prawns, bugs, scallops, an abalone. Matt and Gaelyn played pool in the garage before dinner. The mosquitoes were pretty rough being the middle of summer, so we had the bug zapper on. My feet got a few bites that would annoy me for the rest of the week!
November 26th was Thanksgiving, so I took the day off to celebrate my American holiday with Matt from New York and my friends in Sydney. But in the morning, Matt and I took the train to the Olympic Park in the Homebush suburb of Sydney. The city of Sydney hosted the 2000 summer olympic games and I have heard a few people call that year a "turning point" for Sydney and Australia. I overheard an Aussie talking about it at the airport and he said that before 2000, Sydney was an Australian city and after 2000 it was a global city.
I think it would be exciting to live through that kind of transformation. If I lived in Sydney, I would be proud of being a world class city - especially considering its unlikely history as a penal colony for a late discovery-era England. The Olympic Park in Sydney is a reminder of that transformation from a dusty backwater to a modern metropolis. It is also a great public space for Sydneysiders and other Earthlings. It blends a set of buildings used for trade shows and sport events with a natural setting that highlights its uniquely Australian location.
Matt and I walked around and saw the main stadium and the stables. We walked over to the brick pit and walked about a third of the ring walk. I couldn't figure out what the ring walk was for until I found a description on the internet. The ring walk is a raised walkway that makes a perfect circle over the brick pit, which is flooded and reported to be a habitat for rare frogs. That's all it is... it doesn't mean anything and it was never used for anything other than walking over the brick pit in a circle. As you can see from my photos, it's rather large!
After walking back to the train station we were exhausted and it was starting to get very hot. We grabbed some cold drinks before getting on the train back to Central station in Sydney. In Central station we took a quick tour of the railway museum they have in the station.
We had plans to meet Cheryl later for a Thanksgiving Dinner so we needed to head over to the fish market to pick up some things to grill...
After spending a few hours at the aquarium, I grabbed a coffee and we wandered around Darling Harbour for a little while. There was an exhibit set up by UNICEF where they took photos of children and asked them to draw pictures of themselves. The results were interesting and sometimes very funny and endearing. There was also an exhibit that discussed the history of Darling Harbour and how it developed into the pedestrian entertainment thoroughfair that it is today.
UNICEF Exhibit (Click thumbnails to see larger Photos)
We walked around the harbour and past the fountains and decided to go see Star City Casino where we could get a drink. We were going to get dinner at Astral, the restaurant on the top floor of the Star City Casino Hotel. The problem was we were both getting tired and the restaurant would not be open until later. We just found a place in the casino where we got a beer and rested our feet. After that, we walked back to The Rocks and had some bar food at the same sport bar that Cheryl and friends took me to before going to the observatory.
Star City (Click thumbnails to see larger Photos)
In 2007 on my first visit to Sydney I spent my last three nights at the Star City Casino Hotel because the hotel I was staying in for the first part of my trip was not able to extend my booking when I was asked to stay for an extra 3 nights. I really liked the room there and there is plenty to see and do around the casino and Darling Harbour.
The Sydney Aquarium is probably, for me, the main attraction at Darling Harbour. They have an impressive assortment of aquatic life, especially native Australian species like the saltwater crocodile. I had the day off after working all night, so in the late morning on Tuesday, November 24th I met Matt by Town Hall and we walked to the aquarium. People were starting to put up Christmas decorations everywhere, it was impossible to shake the novelty of seeing Christmas decorations in the middle of the summer!
Long-Necked Turtle
Saltwater Crocodile
A couple of things I really like about the Sydney Aquarium are the glass tunnels where visitors can walk beaneath the shark aquarium and where visitors can stand on the glass and see fish and other things beneath them. There is a viewing area where music creates an underwater feeling and visitors can sit down and listen and watch. I created a video to capture the feeling.
(Click thumbnails for larger photos)
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