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Tuesday, July 20, 2004
The Abuse of a Travel Pass
 
This morning I woke up, not knowing what I would do with myself. I took a shower, and got dressed, at which point Lisa got home from taking her mom to the airport, as she left to go back home. I was then informed that her mom had left behind her weekly travel pass, which still had one day left on it. Lisa had her own as well, so we set off to make the most of unlimited travel on Sydney's public transportation system.

Our first stop was town hall, where we went to find a shop Lisa had heard was having a sale on dresses, and she wanted to find one for the Biomed Ball coming up in a few weeks. After finding the store, a short search turned up nothing right and we headed off in search of adventure. So then we proceeded to Chinatown, just a short bus ride away, where we went to the bakery of choice and ate custard and coconut slice buns. Then it was a short walk to Central, the railway station, and took a train from there to Circular Quay. We decided to get on the first ferry leaving, and ended up going to Neutral Bay, an altogether unremarkable subrub on the northern shore. We walked around, following signs to Nutcote, which we later found out was the house of a famous kids author. Unfortunately the house was only open Wed. to Sun. 11am to 3pm, and we were wrong on both the day and the time. Finding nothing else of interest (not even a shop) we went back to the ferry. We later found out that there was an upscale shopping center and restaurant row not too far away, but it would have to wait for another day.

We got back on the ferry, back to the Quay, and then moved over one pier and hopped on another one, headed to Milsons Point, and the infamous Luna Park. We took a few pictures of us getting eaten by the scary face, and wandered through the park. As it was a Tuesday afternoon, it was pretty dead, and did little to sway us to actually spend money there. We did have some fun in the gift shop, playing with the toys and taking nerd tests. Then it was time to go, and although our goal was to use as much public transport as possible, we decided to walk back over the harbour bridge, as the sun was almost setting and we thought it would be cool to watch it set over the bridge. It was, and we got back to our side of Sydney and decided to find a bar and have a drink. We stopped briefly at the Glenmore Hotel, which had a rooftop bar, but it was completely empty, and kind of chilly, so we headed down to George St. to the Mercantile Hotel, an Irish pub where we had a beer. Following that we walked up the street to a little bakery, split a sausage roll, and then went next door to the Fortune of War, supposedly Sydney's oldest pub. To honor it, we each had a schooner of Toohey's Old. Then we walked around a few shops and decided to head home and invite everyone over for white russians. We figured we would pick up the alcohol when we got home, but a 20 minute, 3 liquer store walk convince us that everything local was closed by then, so we had to call Sam and ask him to pick it up on his way over.

Our place was converged on at 9:30 and we talked, drank a little and decided to watch Suddenly 30, also known as 13 going on 30, depending on what country you are in. It was a cute romantic comedy type thing, light and funny. After the movie we talked about having a holiday dinner of a sort of Christmas in July type, and decided that Saturday night would be the night. The party broke up around 2, and now we just have to look forward to this weekend when we will get to try traditional holdiday dishes from around the world. My stomach can't wait.


Comments:

Although I already knew about your days adventure, it was fun reading about it. I love all the things you are doing. Enjoy dinner on Saturday and hopefully the recipes I sent will help make the evening exceptional. Let me know the reviews....you can't go wrong with the noodle pudding.
 
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