Post Thirteen: A Taste of 'Real' Australia

Wildlife World, the Aquarium, Paddy's Markets, and the Rocks (again).

It has been a weekend of discovery!

Early morning Saturday began with a trainride to Haymarket and Paddy's markets. a huuuuuuge building filled with stalls mostly selling junk...but there were some treasures, and most of it was alooooot cheaper than one could find the same junk anywhere else. There was also a rather large fresh fruit and veggie market from which I bought a peach. YUM! DLC so far has had apples and oranges...other than a banana from the wellness table this is all the fruit I have eaten. Thus the peach was divine.

Frilled Lizard

From there it was a lovely walk down Darling Harbor to the Aquarium and Wildlife World. WW was first, there we learned all about some of Australia's native (and apparently very very poisonous) spiders, snakes, lizards, and mammals. I saw a wombat and it has been confirmed that (for me anyway) they are way cuter than either Koalas or Kangaroos. Other than learning that the funnel-web spider lives in cities such as Sydney and is undetectable by people, very common, and also the most dangerous spider in the world... The main attraction at the wildlife place was the giant 5 meter (16 foot) saltwater crocodile named Rex. He was very active and put on quite the show for us onlookers. Things to know about this lovely lizard, apparently he was discovered in a residential creek/wetwater area a few years ago when just one too many of the neighborhood dogs had gone missing.

After WW it was on to the Aquarium, a neat place that is alot bigger than it looks, the Aquarium has rather large sharks, some dugongs, jellyfish, eels (I do not like these critters, too close to leeches I have decided), some huge sea turtles, and all manner of tropical fish (that I hope to see some of perhaps in their natural habitat maybe on a visit to the reef? possibly?). I also noted the Giant Cuttlefish. there is a documentary on these extraordinary creatures that I watched once upon a time, they change color, and some grow really big while others are smaller but smarter, sounds boring perhaps but it is worth the watch. It was really fun to see some real Australian Wildlife, even though it was behind glass, I think there are some (like the sharks) that I prefer that way...

In the tunnel

Nurses Walk and Surgeons Court, right near the old hospital of course!

Finally we went from there to the Rocks again. We went to the free museum on the history of the area, enjoyed a meat pie in a quiet backalley, sampled local honey (quite good stuff really), then meandered around until finally departing and returning to Uni from Circular Quay. Oh! Also, in the Rocks this day I discovered the Anzac Cookie! an excellent confection made of brown sugar, a little coconut and macadamia perhaps, and oats and butter and honey, it really is a delightful cookie. Now that I have made that discovery, they will be the end of me.

All in all, a fairly straightforward Australian filled day.