Recent Adventures

I've done a lot of things since my trip to New Zealand, and I am going to a bunch of them into one giant post! Get ready for a whirlwind of mini-adventures within Sydney.

Opera House

The study abroad program bought us all tickets to see the movie Singin' in the Rain underscored by the Sydney Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House. I really enjoyed it. I had never seen a performance in such a format, but it really worked, and of course the concert hall itself was also beautiful.

Kamay Botany Bay National Park

That same weekend, I went to Kamay Botany Bay National Park with a couple friends. Kamay is the Aboriginal word for the area, and the white people called it Botany Bay when they arrived. It is the area where Captain Cook first landed in Australia and claimed it for the British. The park was about 1.5 hours away from where we live (by bus). It was filled with breathtaking ocean views, and supposedly it is a good place for whale watching, so I will definitely be going back soon, as it is now whale season here!

That evening we had dinner at a dumpling restaurant in Chinatown, and got dessert at a place called Kuki, which had giant cookies and soft serve. Yum!

West Side Story

The highlight of the next weekend was seeing West Side Story put on by the Handa Opera. It was performed on a stage floating in the Sydney Harbour, and the seats were on land in the Royal Botanic Gardens. I had seen the stage all set up multiple times during the day while strolling through the Gardens, so I knew I needed to see the show. And oh, it was so good! I cannot believe I had never seen a live production of West Side Story before! There is nothing quite like a good dance fight. The stage was tilted like in Shakespearean times, and after the song "America", there were fireworks! It was also interesting to me to see America represented on an Australian stage - the gun violence, the American dream, and everything else this show depicts.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/063e13_59e45348ef924fe49658b6565b389b47/720p/mp4/file.mp4

^^ Look at that view! The stage, the city skyline, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge - so many icons visible from my seat!

Brontë Beach

On Tuesday of that week, we went to Brontë Beach and oh my gosh! This was the best beach I have been to in Sydney. I don't know if it was just perfect weather conditions or if it was the beach itself, but the waves were just perfect for frolicking in. We then got a late lunch/early dinner at a sandwich place off the beaten path in Bondi, and I saw this neat house on the way there:

Quarantine Station

Not too long ago, it was raining here in Sydney and seemed like it would never stop. I sat inside doing work and wishing for the sun for a few days, but eventually I knew I could not let the rain stop me from exploring. So I put on my rain jacket, grabbed an umbrella, and hopped on a ferry to Manly. Pouring rain meant the beach was closed, but it was also very chilly so I wouldn't have wanted that anyway.

No, my goal was not the beach but the old Quarantine Station. From the 1830s to 1984, incoming ships were sent there if they had anyone who was ill onboard. Apparently Sydney had issues with the bubonic plague and influenza back in the day, so they were trying to take care of those. If you were a first class passenger on your ship, you also got first class treatment on land. Even if you weren't, everyone just kinda hung out outside, playing and talking and waiting for the quarantine period to be over.

Nowadays, it has been converted into a hotel and conference center. Only one room out of all the buildings has been preserved as it would have looked when a quarantined individual was staying there.

These are the showers where they would wash the diseases off

Probably the coolest thing they had there was a natural rock wall that had a ton of graffiti on it. Over the station's 150 years of operation, people from almost every ship left their mark on this wall. Most are fancy carvings of names of people and ships and reasons for quarantine, but others are just a painted flag that somehow hasn't faded away. It was cool to stand there and read as many of them as possible. The whole place is also said to be haunted. OooooOOOOooo.

Once I was thoroughly soaked, I decided it was time to cross something off my food bucket list: a cookie from Butter Boy in Manly. I got a Double Chocolate Chip cookie with some soft serve, and it was heavenly. Definitely worth the hype.

Other Food Adventures

There is a Japanese crepe place right near my accommodation and I have been gazing at it longingly all semester, so a few of us finally went! It was yummy, but I might have to go back and try another flavor because mine was a limited edition chocolate mousse crepe and I want to try a more normal nutella one.

Another fun restaurant I visited was called Big Daddy's Burger Bar, and it was an American-themed diner! The food was adequate, nothing too incredible (I got a burger). But oh, the ambience! Felt just like home - or rather, a weird imitation of home. What a great place to eat a burger with an American flag sticking out of it while listening to the song "American Pie" on the radio. Yes, that actually happened.

I currently have one more day of classes but 7 more major assignments and 3 final exams to study for. Busy, stressful times! But I will try to keep the blog posts coming as I only have 3.5 more weeks here. AAAAH!