Sydney travelogue (3): The dream run continues

It would become a boring account if I were to write one post for each day (like my previous one) that I spent in Sydney. So instead I will just briefly summarize the best parts about the next six days of my trip.

THE WEATHER
The weather played a crucial role to make it all so memorable for me. The sun shone with just the right intensity. The winds blew lightly. Except for one day my nose did not get an opportunity to become red. As a result we didn't have to protect ourselves in layers of clothings and could actually enjoy getting sun tanned at Bondi beach.


THE CONFERENCE
WATOC 2008 was a very well attended conference. To everybody's and specially the Chairman's surprise even on the concluding day the auditorium was packed. There had been over 800 participants coming from more than 45 countries. There were three sessions of some 200 posters each. What I'll remember about the Welcome Reception is the koala bear and the snake that they had brought to enthrall us delegates.



THE FOOD
McDonalds was my breakfast stop. I happily had hot cakes and burgers there. Sometimes I would have fish and chips with tartar sauce from this Sea Food Take Away or a chicken schnitzel at a Grill in the Harbourside mall as a filling brunch. On other times we fought our way through chicken sandwiches and pizzas. We discovered an Indian fast food joint Pakwaan where we would go for dinner for a break from the usual.

THE WALKING-SPREES
I guess the reason I did not add any weight even after eating all the junk food was because of the amount of walking I did. Everything seemed to be a short distance away which would cause Rahul and me to end up walking every time for at least 30 minutes. If not for sightseeing then simply because we had some time to kill we would take a walk, though a slow one, around Darling Harbour. Thanks to the vastness of the Singapore Airport we found ourselves once again walking for an hour there.

THE FERRY RIDES
Though I didn't return to Manly I did on two occasions take a ferry ride from the Circular Quay to Darling Harbour once in the afternoon and once at night. Both times I was left spellbound because during this particular ride the ferry would actually pass under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and one could see the Sydney Opera House behind it!

THE SIGHTSEEING
Amidst the tight conference schedule it was difficult to do much. But Rahul and I found time to see the Opera House from up-close. I had originally planned to walk the whole length of the Royal Botanical Gardens up to the Macquaries Chair. But both of us had lost steam and instead decided to take a breather by sitting it out in the lush green grass.











We had some amazing time in the Sydney Aquarium where we got to see all kinds of fish (what else). There was an area which was a part of the Great Barrier Reef and it was inhabited by hundreds of colourful fish. We walked through a glass tunnel and could see sharks and turtles floating all around us. My favourite was a section where they had the same fish that were in the movie Finding Nemo. They were the real counterparts of the animated characters who played crucial roles in the film! Kids (and me too) would get excited on being able to identify Nemo, Marlin, Dory and Gill.

Another day when the conference got over early we went to Sydney Wildlife World where we got see everything from insects to venomous snakes, from jumping kangaroos and dormant koala bears to 80 kinds of fluttering butterflies. We also spent some time in the Anzac War Memorial at Hyde Park and the nearby St. Mary's Church.










One morning I discovered The Welcome Wall surrounding the National Maritime Museum. The Welcome Wall which symbolizes the Australian diversity and unity and had inscribed on it names of those who have migrated to Australia.

An unplanned detour that I had made on the Thursday evening and never once regretted was to The Chinese Garden. Its every stone, flower, tree, bridge and lake was seeped in beauty. Its supposed to be a garden of friendship and sadly I was there all alone wishing as always for company. :p









A wish of mine that I did fulfill partly was to walk on the Sydney Harbour Bridge a la Aamir Khan and Preity Zinta in the Dil Chahta Hai song Jaane kyon... Why partly because I never walked the whole length of the bridge. Reaching the starting point itself took quite a lot of searching. So by the time I was on it I was drained already. Besides it was very windy and with cars zooming past constantly I was getting tizzy. Still walk I did a fair distance and the view of the Opera House and the Circular Quay that I saw from the top was worth the walk.








THE SOUVENIR SHOPPING
A thing that I loved about the shops in Sydney were the grand displays that would entice me. But I refrained myself and was content with the bit of souvenir shopping that I did. My favourite buys were a bowl-plate-spoon set with cute koalas printed on it for my 8 month old niece, a kangaroo shaped bag and cool shades for myself and a tie with tiny kangaroos design for Daddy. I also bought a travel diary to write about each new journey that I will be taking.

THE DRAGGING EFFECT
I have to specially mention my labmate Rahul here who bore me and my "chalo na". I really pushed him sometimes and he would give in to my enthusiasm. The good guy that he is, he only complained about it on returning. :-)