The Last Days

On Thursday we returned to Sydney. We were staying in a bed and breakfast in "The Rocks" section of the city. It is an older, historic part of the city near the footings of the harbor bridge. Some of it is characterized by historic buildings, cobblestone streets and narrow alleyways. It is also full of small shops, pubs, and cafes. Michael and I set off to find some dinner but not knowing exactly where that might be, we wandered back towards the train station and the Circular Quay (pronounced 'key'). It was getting dark and I wasn't feeling well, so we made an uninspired decision to eat at McDonalds. OK, we know we lost points as a tourist by doing so but we weren't sure we could find our way back to the B&B in the dark. McDonalds in Sydney is much like a McDonalds in the US except it was almost entirely staffed by Asians. They featured a McAustralian burger which was a burger with added bacon and pineapple. Oh, and Sydney teens hanging out in McDonalds are equally as obnoxious as their US counterparts.

On Friday, it was cold and raining. I had laryngitis by this point. We met up again with Amanda and had lunch at a nice Italian cafe. Afterwards, she and I wandered shops, particularly a bookshop, and later chatted over tea and dessert (well, she chatted, I croaked). Michael had gone off to do some photocopying and other business. I would learn later that he stopped off at the Museum of Contemporary Art also. We all met back at the bed and breakfast where we reluctantly parted. By this time I was starting to feel worse and reluctantly canceled a dinner meetup with Chris, another Sydney acquaintance, in favor of going to bed early. We were once again facing a day's worth of air travel the next day. We learned later that evening that the day had been Sydney's coldest in twelve years! (about 52 degrees F).

Pictures: some of the architecture in "the Rocks" The Orient Hotel (the pub) is a place Amanda and us hung out in twice. The bridge area is called "the Argyle cut". There's a tiny picture of our Bed & Breakfast. Much of this architecture is dated around the 1840s.