Exploring Sydney

I know I just blogged last night, but today was quite exciting, and I'm exhausted so I'm just hanging out in my apartment anyway.

This morning I woke up and my roommates were out running and a bunch of people were shopping, since they had all spent yesterday on the scavenger hunt to see the city.  I was jealous and everyone was busy so I decided to just go explore on my own.  I still have a lot to learn but I'm starting to figure out where I am in relation to various other places.

So we live on Regent Street, and the corner is Broadway, but if you walk down Broadway you hit George Street, which leads to the harbour.  I decided to walk down that way and just look around.  I found Chinatown and Darling Harbour, where we had our cruise, except from a different direction.  It was beautiful perfect weather, so I got a lot of nice pictures and tons of people were out and about.

Golden Water Mouth- in Chinatown. It is made from a dead tree trunk and is supposed to be good luck (this information came from Wikipedia since I couldn't find a plaque, so believe what you want)

Random street in Chinatown. Thought it was interesting.

A statue for those who helped being the Australian Industrial Revolution

An Ibis (Toby I'm starting to take bird pictures! They're hard to catch because the pretty little ones fly too much and stay in the tops of trees)

I got back to the apartment and at 2 I went with my roommate Hanna, and Justina and Belinda went on a free walking tour.  This woman, Justine, decided that tours of Sydney were too expensive, and has started giving 3 hour long walking tours for free, asking for tips at the end, but not begging.  Anyway, she was great at giving history as we went and giving us fun stories as we walked along.

Town Hall- used to be the site of a cemetery but the people were buried too close to the surface and started smelling up the place so they were all moved, and the town hall was built there.  Recently, they were renovating and found one last body and moved it to the rest.

Queen Victoria's favorite dog.  When he was moved here he was given an Australian accent and now speaks if you give money.

The tallest building in Sydney (5th tallest in Australia according to Wikipedia)

What used to be the tallest building in Sydney that you could see from the water.

Australia's coat of arms- The kangaroo and emu were chosen because they seemed to be the most civilized animals since they both walk on two legs (I guess no one tried getting near them to learn that they're both also pretty mean).  They also supposedly could not walk backwards, symbolizing the future of Australia (again no one checked).  It is also the only county's coat of arms which has two animals both of which are eaten within the country.

People rub his nose and make wishes.  The hospital behind him was built from people paid in rum.

Forgotten Songs: These bird cages were part of a festival, but have been kept up ever since.  They make noises of birds and on the ground are the names of all the species that were forced to leave due to the city being built up.

L-R: Me, Belinda, Hanna, Justina

More Fun facts:

1. While many call Sydney "Eora", 'eora' in fact means 'here'.  When people asked Aboriginal people where they were from, they would say 'eora' the same way we would say 'here', but people thought it was just what they called Sydney.

2. Cockatoos have one mate for life, and if they don't like any of them they have a divorce ceremony.  However, we were told we could find this online and haven't, so I'm starting to doubt it.

3.  The first Australian Olympic gold medalist won by mistake.  He made it to the finals, knew he could not win, and decided to stay behind the pack.  However, everyone in front of him fell, so he came in first.

4. There was a super secure APEC conference with leaders from all over the world, but these pranksters got through security.  Watch the video from 1:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SypnEO9wMtI

That's all I can think of right now.  Tonight Hanna and I made dinner in our apartment which was great after such a long day!