Sydney (part 2)

Sorry for my recent silence on here... I wish I could say something unutterably cool had happened, like I'd discovered the whereabouts of a gold field in the outback and had spent the last week or so wallowing in accolades and assembling an entourage, but no such luck. I could totally use the extra cash, too.

The rest of my time in Sydney wasn't nearly as active as the first few days. Thursday I just hung around Newtown and then met Steph after work for drinks and dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant with some of her coworkers. It was my first meal at a Vietnamese place, and I have to say, me likey. Then we walked back home and watched the end of Lost (it premiered in Australia that night) and The Amazing Race.

Friday I slept in again, then got set to head to the beach (I hadn't yet been to Bondi, which is the most famous beach in Sydney). First I stopped off in downtown Sydney to see about changing my ticket home from Tahiti so I could try and make a friend's wedding in Chicago which is set for the day I get back. The woman I spoke to was supremely unhelpful, but she did point out that it actually says 'no changes permitted' right on my ticket. Dammit. (I've since decided to go anyway, though I'll miss the ceremony and have to deal with an interesting luggage exchange during the few hours I'll be in LA--clothing appropriate to the South Pacific will not be of much use to me in Chicago this time of year.) The ticket place was not too far from the Queen Victoria building, which is a really nice mall in downtown Sydney, and as I was walking by my eye was caught by a few things, so I went in to have a look. And my anti-shopping resolve was broken. I spent a couple hours there, then decided I didn't want to carry all my loot to the beach, so I headed back to Newtown, and then did a bit of shopping there as well (King Street shops are similar to those on Melrose). I finally headed to Bondi around 3:30, more out of a sense of obligation to see it than out of any real beachy feeling I had. I got there at 4:30, had a look around, laid out for maybe half an hour, got some subpar fish and chips, and then had to leave (after about an hour and a half there) to get back and get ready for the evening. After a nightmarish navigation of Sydney's public transportation system, I finally got back around 7:30, rushed to get ready, and then Steph, her friend Christine and I caught a cab to a place called Goodbar, where there was a tsunami relief party being held for the staff at several local hospitals. We stayed there the rest of the night.

Steph woke me up the next morning. It took a couple tries. We went for breakfast at a Turkish restaurant she apparently went to almost every week. We were starving and it was delicious... hummus and chips, scrambled eggs with spinach and feta... we ate a ton, and eventually our food comas combined with our hangovers to leave us both completely exhausted. But we'd planned to go shopping, so we drove to Paddy's market and walked around for a bit. It's in the middle of a really nice shopping district but we couldn't get motivated enough to explore this larger territory. We went home and napped. I think it's interesting that both of the days where we actually had time to hang out, we were too hung over to actually do anything. That night we went to a nearby pub for dinner and cocktails, went home and watched Desperate Housewives, and that was it. Steph had work early the next morning and I had to catch a flight to Cairns that afternoon. I woke up, packed, had lunch at my favorite place down the street (called Taste, they made fresh salads and pasta salads every day that are soooo good) followed by dessert at my favorite gelato place across the street, then took a train to the airport. I'd been asleep (passed out more like) and hadn't seen Sydney when I flew in, and the view on the way out was gorgeous, all blue water and beaches, and I could pick out the white of the Opera House.

I miss Sydney.