Today (Monday) was our last full day in Sydney, and it was
definitely a full day! We started bright and early headed out from the hostel
to get breakfast. Surprisingly, we both
got a good night’s sleep, but no amount of sleep could have made up for the
fact that we walked so much the day before.
Both of us decided to take it a little easier today. It sounded like a good idea at the time.
With the guidance of Syd, we found a nice café, guaranteed
to have a quality cup of coffee. I say
with the guidance of Syd because she has been a barista on and off for the past
year while living in New Zealand and Australia.
It has been fun because we realized we both have the same passion for
coffee, and I don’t mean just drinking it.
I love learning about local coffee culture while comparing it to that of
the world, but I digress.
As expected the coffee at this cafe was wonderful, very
similar to some of the coffee I had in South America. That always makes me happy. Fueled up, we headed to the train station to
catch a ride to Circular Quay where we eventually boarded a ferry to the
Taronga Zoo. Now our first impressions
were that it would take us most of the morning to see everything the zoo had to
offer. That was before we were told it
is among the world’s biggest zoos. We had plans to leave the zoo after lunch
and head to Manly Beach, another popular beach on Sydney’s north shore. Five hours later we finally made it through
all the exhibits at the zoo. It was
exhausting but worth it. Not only did we
get to see all kinds of exotic new animals (or new to us), the entire zoo had
some of the best views of Sydney’s skyline.
The perfect 75 degree and sunny weather didn’t hurt either as the animals
seemed to be pretty active. Memorable moments at the zoo included Syd and I
getting lost around every corner (no exaggeration), observing sleeping koalas,
a Komodo dragon feeding, lounging kangaroos, playful chimps and gorillas, and a
free seal show. Despite the fact that we
kept getting lost, Taronga Zoo has to be one of the best zoos in the
world. It has so many opportunities to
get up close and personal to the animals. We entered an exhibit for rainforest
birds and while face to face with one, it started raining on us via
sprinklers. Talk about an authentic
experience.
We spent quite a bit of extra time at the zoo so that meant
we lost a few hours at Manly Beach. Plus we lost an extra hour because we
missed a ferry by seconds. We watched it
pull out of the wharf as we were entering the gate. Frustrating to say the least, but there are
much worse things that could have happened. We didn’t actually get to Manly until 4
o’clock p.m. Given the amount of beach
exploring we did a few days ago, neither one of us seemed to mind. Manly is the stereotypical tourist beach
town, and I loved it. We explored the
area a little before ordering ice cream cones and frolicking on the beach. Actually, not much frolicking happened due to
how tired we were, but still a great time.
We hung out and people watched, mainly admiring the surfers until almost
dark. I was pretty much reaching my
limit, in that I was dead energy wise, so Syd and I decided to get some dinner
before heading back to the city. This
gave us a chance to refuel and enjoy Manly a bit longer. We stopped at an authentic Thai place that
fit our mood and appetite perfectly. We
caught a ferry back to the city and enjoyed the night skyline all the way
back. That put us back at the hostel
around 8 p.m., enough time to shower, pack up, and relax before bed. I was so tired when we got back I tried using
my Opal Card, normally used for public transportation in Sydney, to swipe in
the main door of the hostel. It didn’t
work, so I proceeded to tell the receptionist about it. To my embarrassment, he kindly pointed out I
was using my Opal Card instead of the Hostel keycard. At least Syd got a laugh out of it. Our plans to take it easier today did not
exactly pan out, but I am not mad about it.
There is always time to sleep later.
Tomorrow we fly out around noon to head to Cairns, the
jumping point of the Great Barrier Reef.
We will be in Cairns until Friday when we fly back to Sydney. I leave from Sydney to head home on Saturday.
It is crazy to think how quickly the first leg of the trip has gone, but I know
Syd and I both made the best of it, no matter how tiring it has been. We feel as if our time in Sydney was our
chance to be tourists, and have already declared that our next few days in
Cairns will be our beach bummin’ days. I
am looking forward to it.
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