Travelogue Day 3

27/5/06

Mark meets us in the lobby for a whirlwind historical tour. I'll need A.C.'s notes to adequately recall the information, but we learned a lot about when which buildings were built where (Most of the oldest good looking buildings were due to governor Macquarie, as were many roads and other such infrastructural things), the discovery and growth of Australia, and a bit about Australia's history with its indigenous peoples.

We visited the Sydney (or is it New South Wales?) library, old customs house,
Australia Museum, the Rocks, Hyde Park, and many other places. I took many pictures that should refresh the memory. After Mark's wife Charlie met us for lunch, he left us to our own devices for the rest of the day. While everyone else went to the markets in Glebe (which I hear weren't as hippie as expected), Devon and I walked around in the Royal Botanic Gardens, taking photos of exotic (for us) plants and wildlife. Bats, birds, and great views were in abundance at the botanical gardens, and we only covered maybe one quarter of its space. (sadly, we didn't make it into the sex and death exhibit)






We made our way back, enlisted Mike, Marc, and Tom, and headed back to the Lansdowne for dinner. The Thai fishcakes weren't bad, and Coopers red label was good.

We adjourned back to the UniLodge for some beers on the roof with everyone (the UniLodge roof has a great view of the Sydney skyline) before losing three and going to another bar, whose sign just read Sports Bar, for $2.50 Victoria Bitters and drinking games that I wasn't quite into.

Sleep.

** All photos were taken by me. Yes, I have (far too) many more. Some of these have had the brightness and/or contrast adjusted for the better or worse. The bats will look blurry because I was using the digital zoom on a point-and-shoot digital camera. They were rather high in the air.