Sydney

February 10, 11
Sydney

Today’s turn around procedures were slightly odd because of another ship being in port with us and sitting at our pier. We knew it was going to happen, but this meant getting all the old passengers off and the new on using tenders, which you can imagine is not very crew friendly. Luckily, I don’t have to help with any of that, but it still meant I couldn’t get off the ship in the morning and that returning to the ship will involve a tender, which isn’t exactly preferred. Anyways, I got off the ship in the early afternoon, and after sitting on a tender for an hour waiting for a different pier to clear, I stepped back into Sydney with Terry and we set out for whatever was going to happen.
The first stop of our meandering was at a free Internet signal thanks to a coffee shop. I got a mediocre cappuccino and sat online till my battery died, but was able to do a lot of work and make a phone call home during the process. Internet usage, after 2 weeks of struggling to find anything free, was a wonderful way to start the excursion.
Moving on, Terry and I looked for a place to get lunch/dinner, more so dinner with each passing minute. After a good deal of walking, a chocolate bar to hold us over, and dealing with the occasional drizzle, we came across a pub with $6 pasta dishes. The meal was ok and of a portion you’d assume $6 might buy, but hey, at least now I wasn’t starving.
The next stop was at a music club/bar that I knew my friends were going to be heading to later that evening, I figured around 10PM, we got there at 8. I more so went to see who was playing and just to go on a walk in a direction I’ve yet to travel. The bar looked decent, but having arrived two hours early, we weren’t about to wait and moved on to the next place that caught our eye.
Terry had an urge to go to the Casino that night, and myself, having never been to a casino (aside from the Monte Carlo in Monaco, la-ti-da) figured that it’d be interesting. I planned out the walking path and we set out down the streets of Sydney.
15 minutes into the walk we were greeted by a large number of black birds flying down the streets 100 feet above us. Unsure about what kind of birds they were, Terry asked the nearest person, where we ascertained they weren’t birds at all, but gigantic bats! We kind of figured they were bats by the shape of the wings, but it just seemed too Batman-esque to be happening in a large city such as Sydney. Nevertheless, dozens of bats flew right over our head coming from the park we were on our way towards. I was thoroughly amused for the next 10 minutes looking at these bats everyone else seemed not to notice.
Along side the park, while looking around for more bats, I spotted something in the grass. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it looked like some strange combination between a squirrel and a kangaroo. Matt (my brother) has been jokingly wanting me to find him a tree kangaroo, and due in part to my knowing nothing about the animal, the darkness, and an unwavering desire to please my brother’s completely outrageous requests, decided that the foreign animal I was looking at must be the elusive tree kangaroo (and no, I was not drunk). Anyways, I jumped over the barricade into the park, stealthily ran towards the animal, chased it up a tree, and the photographed it as best I could…drawing the eyes of all those who saw me. Excited that I had photographed a tree kangaroo, I returned to the sidewalk and we pressed on towards the casino.
The casino was a really nice place, very clean and flashy, and certainly an interesting part of the evening. Most of the time was spent watching Terry gamble playing 3 card poker, a game I had no idea existed. I also did some wandering around, became a member of the casino (completely free and entitled me to 3 free coffees!), and eventually did some gambling of my own. With my $50 Australian, all I had in my wallet, Mr. Big Spender hit the roulette wheel. The roulette wheel hit back. I was out $50 within 6 minutes and ready to move on. In all honesty, it was fun and I’d have kicked myself back at the ship if I didn’t at least risk something. Anyways, $50 Australian is only about $35 US, so that makes it OK, right? Following that, I played a couple games of Keno as a joke, losing $3, walked around the casino a bit more, and headed back to the ship, returning at about 3:30 AM.
I stayed on the ship the next day seeing as the gangway was restricted to crew due to passengers boarding the ship. Nothing really happened that day while I sat in my cabin. I did however show my picture of the tree kangaroo to my roommate (who is from Sydney). He didn’t call it a tree kangaroo...he called it a “possum”. Well there went my excitement, but I do maintain that the Australian “possums” are nothing like the ones in the states.
Oh, that all aside, I’ve been learning Spanish the past week. I practice daily with the guitar player, Gustavo, who is from Argentina. I have a number of listening programs and 4 years of high school Spanish to dig out of my memory, but it’s a fun, frustrating challenge. We’ll see how fluid I can become in the next 3 months. Hasta Luego!