Rockin' Rocks

Today, I played tourist to the hilt. In the morning, it was a harbor cruise. In the afternoon, a bus tour. In between, successful shopping and fish and chips.

What a difference an hour makes. The 10am cruise I took had about 10 people. When we got back, there were at least 50 waiting for the 11am. The 10 of us had a huge boat all to ourselves, but we tended to cluster in the leeward spots. It was very windy and cloudy enough for some dramatic shots. Not much I hadn't seen before, but some new angles.

Back on shore, I headed to The Rocks, the first area settled in Sydney. Convicts tented there until more permanent housing was built. Today, it's the major tourist shopping area. Store after store of the same souvenirs with the occasional gem thrown in. In one place, I found some gift items nicer than I'd seen elsewhere and for a third of the price. In another, there were dirt cheap pieces of boulder opal that will make great pendants. The bead shop was a major disappointment, carrying nothing special and outrageously priced.

Next, it was a short walk back to Circular Quay for lunch. My craving of the day was for fish and chips. Not the best I've had, but pretty good.

The day's final adventure was a bus tour. More of The Rocks and Darling Harbor. Interesting tour though the city itself with pass-by's of the major buildings. Then we went to Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, a famous point for photo ops. Back on board, we headed to famous Bondi beach. Unfortunately, there was no surf which meant no hunky surfers. Drat! There was a good coffee shop where I got coffee affogato which was a shot of espresso with a scoop of gelato. Yum.

Probably the most interesting part of the tour was going through the residential areas. The most common building style is what they call "terrace houses." These are small row houses with second floor terraces enclosed with wrought iron work. A square cut version of the buildings in New Orleans. Brick is the most common building material, but most homes are plastered over and many are pastel. We also saw some of the nicer areas. In these, architecture ranged from up-scale versions of the terrace houses to faux gothic to modern compositions. Most of Sydney seems to have been built in the Victorian era which is clear in government, business, and residential buildings. Along the way today, I spotted a statue of "Good Prince Albert," a reflection of just how Victorian the city is.

The main supermarket chain is Woolworth's and the graphics suggest this is the same chain that was our 5 and dimes. US chains have settled in with Starbucks, McDonalds, and Happy Jack's (Burger King) all over. Restaurants cover the gamut with over a hundred nationalities represented.

Despite this cosmopolitan atmosphere, it was small-town Massachusetts that brought me some of my greatest fun. There's a jewelry store in the hotel that sells some really unique opal stuff. As I spoke with the owner and contemplated buying a couple of pieces, it came out that we had a lot in common. We both design jewelry, albeit at very different levels. We both love animals and work to end whaling. The strangest thing was when I found out she once lived in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. With this we truly bonded. Go Sox! The more we talked, the deeper the discount went until I ended up paying 30% below retail on two special pieces and getting a third piece for free. I had been ready to buy at 20% off the lot!

A couple of cultural observations. Sydney is slightly more British than most of what I've experienced of Canada, but the American influence is strong. Much of TV is American programming and many of the ads are straight of US broadcasts. Kirstie is still on Jenny Craig and Target is hip. What I've seen of Australian TV is bad soaps, low-quality versions of US news shows (complete with the same cheesy music), and sports. Lots of sports. There's some big cricket competition with England going on. On top of that, the track and field World Championships are given lots of coverage. It may just be the channels the hotel gets, but every time I turn on the TV, there's a baseball game on at least one channel.

Tomorrow's my last day in Sydney and I'm not sure what I'll do with it. At least part of the day will be spent shopping. My backpack is falling apart and won't last the trip. I should have known better than to depend on an Intel freebie!