Sydney in a few days...
After the tournament Cara, Whit, Claire, and I were invited into "The Wedge" a three story apartment in the Sydney suburb of Newtown inhabited by frisbee friends: Nadine, Marcus, Emily, and Greg. We have taken over the living room in this large apartment. Newtown is a hip neighborhood in Sydney. King street, which is just outside the window is full of cafes, pubs, restaurants, and book stores. It is also close to the oldest university in Australia, University of Sydney.
For our first day at The Wedge we took advantage of some free passes to the Sydney Aquarium provided by our amazing host Nadine. We saw all types of fish and learned a few things as well. Did you know that the male platypus has a venomous spur on their hind legs? It's not enough to kill a human, but it will give you a sting. We also saw a salt water crocodile, seals, nurse sharks, a ray-shark, and a guitar-fish.
That night we met two friends (Ru traveling from Germany and McTee traveling from the Bay Area) in Bondi Beach for dinner at a Thai restaurant. Ru and McTie were leaving for New Zealand the next day to continue their adventures. They traveled across Australia after Worlds in a VW campervan, a good way to go if you've
got the money and time. After dinner we went to our first "RSL club" to find some cheap beer. RSL clubs are equivalent to VFW's in the U.S., except with alcohol. The clubs are different from the pubs because they only allow in locals who are members of the club and visitors who can prove they don't live within a certain distance of the club...a couple thousand miles back to Texas was sufficient. Because they are exclusive they have entertainment for their members such as pokie machines (video poker) which makes money so they can lower their price of beer. It's a nice alternative to most of the expensive pubs in Australia.
The next day was a rainy day, so we decided to venture out into Newtown and enjoy some coffee in a cafe while reading and writing post cards back home. By the time we got back it was time to watch Borat! Amazing! After a few more hours whiling away at The Wedge we were invited to play in Sydney's Ultimate League play. They split up into about four divisions based on skill and play one game a week on Tuesday nights. The league pretty much lasts all year round. A different take on league play which seems to be the norm in Australia. Whit and I played on the Inner West team, while Cara and Claire played on other teams. Also, teams get to choose their players instead of a random draft.
The next day was also overcast and we split up to stay with separate frisbee friends in different parts of the city. Cara and I moved to Surry Hills to stay with Ed, a friend Cara met at the Melbourne Hat Tournament. Ed was born in Australia and grew up in Canada, and just moved back to live in Australia after spending six years as a lawyer in Canada. While we were staying with him he accepted a job as a recruiter hired out to law firms. Congratulations! Claire and Whit moved in to a house in Bondi lived in by a work-friend from the Bay Area. Surry Hills is another very nice part of town which is nicely located near a lot of pubs and restaurants. Ed lives with 3 roommates and a friend who is living their currently. Dave, Michael, and Tiernan are all from Ireland working for awhile in Australia and Steve is from the UK. After settling into Ed's place Cara and I got ready for our big date to the play "Babes in the Wood" at the OPERA HOUSE!
Ed told us of a beer and pizza dinner for $10 which happens on Wednesdays at a local pub just a block away. The price sounded right so we headed to dinner just before 6pm when the deal started. We arrived a little early so we order a drink to wait it out. We each ordered a pizza and beer which truly was $10 a piece. What we received was amazing! A huge gourmet pizza (I got the Spanish and Cara got the Salmon) and a long-neck (750 mls) Cooper's Ale...which is a quality beer. We each ate half of our pizza and took the rest to eat the next day. Finishing the beers got us to a good place to ride the train to Circular Quay and the Opera House. It was an awesome experience to actually get to see a play in the Opera House. The play was a really good social/political satire on present day Australian life, and therefore present day Western society in general. It was very entertaining and thought provoking. So the play was great, but the views of the Harbor and Opera House at night at intermission were reason enough to go.
Thursday was a beautiful day. We met Whit and Claire at Bondi Beach. Mark (Steve's brother visiting from Japan where he is working in the JET program) and Ed joined us at the beach as well. We hung out on the beach, surfed, swam, and played paddle ball. The beach was crowded in a nice way. The sand along the east coast is very fine and soft. Not beautifully white like Destin, Florida but golden and of similar texture. We ended our day at the beach at dusk with some fish and chips and a beer in a pub overlooking the bay. That night we met up with Claire and Whit in Surry Hills to wander around and find a pub and some grub. Our grub was delicious Indian restaurant called Maya's on Cleveland St. where we had masala dosas. We then met up with Ed and his roommates at the Dolphin pub on the way back home.
Friday morning we picked up our brand new Toyota Camry rental car from Apollo rentals and headed towards the Blue Mountains to begin our Roadtrip of New South Wales Holiday Extravaganza! There's another whole post about that one...check it out.
(P.S. Check out the updated pictures from the Great Ocean Road entry below!)
