Sydney, Australia 2019, The End

Our last full day was spent with family that have made Australia home. Our destination was in the Northern Beaches, a two train and one hour bus ride brought us to Cromer, a beautiful hilly, lush suburb of Northern Sydney. It is a beautiful country. Beautiful people. But it was time to say goodbye.

After a lovely visit and delicious meal we got back to our place and started packing, the sad and reflective part of our journey. We reminisced as we dreaded arriving from a warm, sometimes very hot climate, to extreme cold. We planned how we would layer our clothing to keep warm while we waited for our Park’n’Fly bus. In my case, t-shirt, shirt, spring jacket and Jill would wrap a scarf around my neck. Jill the same. No pictures, no video.

For the first time, I got some pictures from the plane I was happy with, like the sunrise as we approached the BC coast and towns below. The Rocky Mountains as we departed Vancouver, and Edmonton as we were landing. The food was awesome so I had to include some of what we were served. The sky was clear when we approached Toronto so I had to take some pictures of the sparkly communities below us. It was nice to get home and once again cook with gas. 

The comfort of staying in Elizabeth Bay was priceless. It was just doors down from where I started school and also where I repeated grade 1, as recommended by a Sister of Mercy. She was right, I was not ready to move on as my language skills were lacking. My first language was Slovenian with some choice Serbian, Austrian and Italian words and expressions. 

Potts Point has been many things, as has her naughty sister, Kings Cross. I lived there during the time of transition to naughty. It has continued to change with the laws. When we lived there, I walked its streets and laneways with my sister always by my side, and we played in its parks as innocent children. Despite its change, the eclectic attraction is still ever present. We spent some time at the Piccolo Bar where like tree rings, those that frequent the Piccolo, and Vittorio, who has owned the bar since 1952, freely pass on their stories of long ago.  

Until our next trip, cheers!

Sydney, Australia 2019 Day 14

As our farewell to Sydney Downunder holiday comes close to an end, we decided to walk down the Butler Stairs to Woolloomooloo, where we saw the terrace house that housed many of those that worked on the wharfs in days gone by. We took the stairs up and over the crosstown freeway which took us to the Domain and the Australian Art Gallery. It was very humid and once again I was sweating a ton until I got acclimatized. We entered The Royal Botanic Garden. Everything has grown so much with new planting added continuously and lots of new feature displays. I was looking for the Flying Foxes, a large fruit bat that made the gardens home. We found out that they were relocated to Centennial Park which is good thing because they were destroying the trees and walking on their poop was disgusting and dangerously slippery. 

I remembered a picture of my Dad and me on a metal sculptured lion. I had the picture on my phone, I would have been about two. I stopped at the information centre and said jokingly to Jill, I’m gonna tell them I’m Bruce Cockburn and I’m wondering where the lions are. I didn’t but showed the picture. After lots of searching the apps, the woman pointed us in the direction of the lion. Bingo. Jill took several shots and some very comical, since I was a lot larger than I was in the original picture. 

We moved on to a free exhibit of plants that are carnivores. I took lots of pictures of these meat eaters that shook with excitement as I got close. We exited the gardens to Macquarie Street and passed the beautiful sandstone State Library of New South Wales. The road took us by the Sydney Hospital with a brilliant Italian designed porker. We also got a shot of a beautiful fountain in the hospital courtyard which was featured in the Aussie film, Pig in the City. We continued on to Hyde Park, a most beautiful place, full of enormous trees and the Archibald Fountain where we had our picnic of cheese, salami, olives, crackers and wine - yum.

Our goal was to eventually get  to Paddy’s Market where there are stalls full of bargain goods.

We made out like bandits with lots of bargains.

We walked down to Town Hall Station and took the train two stops to the Cross. Jill is hooked on lamb shanks so guess what’s on the menu tonight? Yep, lamb shanks. 

Tomorrow we are going to the Northern Beaches for a BBQ at Jill’s nephew’s house to hang with Richard and Sam and their two boys, Jackson and Lincoln and her sister Gay and brother-in-law Roy, who are getting away from the cold Canadian winter. Lucky them.