![]() |
I've always loved the Asian-style dresses, but they usually are made too small. This one fits great! |
Erin's Journal for 2/1 to 2/2/03 New South Wales For our Saturday in Sydney, we woke up pretty early at the hostel and got ready to go by 9am. We had a bit more to carry than usual with our 2 daypacks and our bag with dress-up shoes, but nothing too heavy. We headed into Paddy's Market, which was much larger and busier today than yesterday. We wandered through and actually found a couple of things we liked. I managed to get a Oriental-style dress in my size (they purposely made it for western-sizd people), which was an unnecessary but desired expense. After a couple of hours there, though, we were starved and had to move on. We stopped for a quick bite at Burger King (it's fast, ok?!), then took Glenn's mom's suggestion to take the monorail around town for some good views. Well, it served to show us just how much we've missed in this huge city! We saw Darling Harbor, caught a glimpse of the Chinese Garden (which I'd wanted to see but ran out of time), and many other districts we'd not even touched! So our conclusion was, we will have to come back to Sydney another day for at least a couple of weeks to get to a bit more of it! After that, we found a bus to take us back into the Rocks neighborhood under the Harbor Bridge, for another market Glenn's mom had recommended. The George Street Market was even more fun for me than the Paddy's Market, as it focused more on craftsmen and artists. Yes, more touristy stuff as well, but it had some very fun things. We found a few more souveniers and gifts of Australia here and left a couple of hours later with a much heavier bag. I was ready to head back out to pick up my wedding dress and get to Whale Beach, but Glenn still wanted to catch the Paddington Market, which was described in our guidebook as the best local market. So we found a bus going there, and rode the 30 minutes to that suburb. The Paddington market was also more craft-based, but we both wandered through without finding anything further to buy (what a relief on our pocketbooks!), and quickly caught the bus back to city center and the QVB to get the wedding dress. We rushed through that, as we had checked our bus schedule for Whale Beach and realized the last bus we could get before being late for dinner was coming soon. We made the bus, but it was later and later as it continued its route, and we got back to the house about a quarter after 7, 15 minutes later than dinner was planned. We apologized to Pauline and Graham, who had held dinner for us, then settled in to share our weekend adventure over the meal. After dinner, I noticed a LOT of little spiders on the ceiling of our bedroom, and upon mentioning it, found that they were the babies of a Huntsman spider. These are huge but generally harmless spiders when adults, and Graham went up to spray them all dead, noting that this was the most babies he'd ever seen in one shot! The mom was not found, but I was careful to check the bed for a 5-inch monster spider before sleeping! 2-2-03 The next morning, we had a very lazy morning (aside from the birds waking us up with their loud fights over the feeder). We spent part of the morning relaxing in the sun, slowly sipping my coffee, and planning a little bit for our reception when we return home. I also put on the wedding dress to show Pauline and Graham and to get a few photos to send home. We finally stirred ourselves to go out to the store around 4pm, as we were privileged to cook on our last night. I bought the ingredients for fajitas (Mexican style), and hoped for the best, as the ingredients didn't all have the same names as back home. It turned out ok though, and everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. I miss my Mexican food! We tried to get an early night, as we'd leave tomorrow for the north! |
![]() |
The resident rainbow lorikeets were our alarm clock each morning - that's our window they're sitting in front of! |