[ talk - coldplay ]
24 Mar 06
9:09 am
Yeseterday definitely started out to be less than ideal. The morning was fine. We woke up, had breakfast, watched a lot of Simpsons. It’s been raining a lot in Sydney & Uncle James’s backyard is fucking awesome, so the combination of the two made for some sweet photographs. Especially when I found the spider the size of your palm…ish. Yayyy photography’s fun.
We didn’t quite get out of the house by the time we had hoped to. We were aiming for 10 or 11. Didn’t get out til 12. The plan WAS to go to the Sydney Harbour, take a ferry around the Harbour to Taronga & go to the zoo, then maybe go to the beach at Bondi, then end up back in the city to do the Sydney Harbour bridge climb. Well, Suave thought it a good idea to drive into the city even knowing that it’s typical big city and there are cars up the ass. Sydney, however, really has no structure whatsoever to its layout and is a bitch to get around.
Got into the city and found a parking garage - $35 for the day. To park. Insane. Said “fuck it” and found another garage. $13 for an hour, $25 for 2, $37 for 3, etc. etc…yea, fuck that. Decided it’d be best to go back to the $35 garage because at least that was a flat rate for the day. Found our way back there, but the lot was full. It was about 2:00 now & we were still driving around just looking to park, so then we decided to drive to Sydney Uni to park at Vanessa’s place, but the longest we could park for was 2 hours & we needed an all-day parking.
Soooo we drove back to Uncle’s James’s in Summer Hill to park the car at 2:30 and just take the train into the city. Got into the city at 3:00, had lunch at an awesome HEALTHY fast food place called Well-being, then just started walking towards what Suave THOUGHT was the right way towards the Opera House & the Sydney Harbour bridge (the Circular Quay area). Walked for a good mile or more towards & on the Darling Harbour when Suave realized it was the Circular Quay harbour we were meant to be on to see the House & Bridge, not the Darling Harbour, which, of course, was on the opposite side of the city from where we needed to be. So we walked…and walked…and a bit more…until we finally got to Circular Quay. Photographed the Bridge & Opera house, did the touristy thing and walked around there for a bit exploring. Had a really good muffin & danish at a café and by that time, it was time to head to the BridgeClimb headquarters.
The BridgeClimb was fucking sweet. We signed up for a night climb so that we could start climbing hopefully when the sun was setting & be at the peak of the bridge by the time it was dark. A day or night climb was $160 while a sunrise or twilight climb was $230, so we planned it so that we could get a bit of both for the price of the cheaper one. The system of how the whole thing worked was really, really neat and all the employees running the show were great as well. We got briefed, signed liability forms, got breathalized, got suited up in cool skydiving-type jumpsuits, supplied with handkerchief, beanie, rain jacket, headlamp, headset (as to hear the climb leader while out on the bridge), & harness belt. Climbed a small sample element on the inside of the BridgeClimb center to understand how it all works, then headed out towards the bridge. Every element of the climb was awesome. We were told it takes about an hour to reach the peak from the start of the climb, but not because it was far so much as because we had plenty of opportunities to stop and look around and take in the sights. The stops were even more pleasant cause we had the opportunity to talk with a really cute English girl, Ella, and her mate Lily while atop the bridge. We’re gonna give them a call when we’re out tonight and they’ll hopefully come meet up with us for a few drinks. The whole climb experience took about 3 - 3 ½ hours total and well worth the money. Our climb leader Tim was very personable and had lots of good information to throw at us while climbing the bridge.
Once we were finally done and had bought two pictures they had taken of us on the bridge for $15 per picture and the most expensive socks ever purchased ($12.95…cause I forgot to bring socks), it was 9:30 or so and we headed back into the city to grab a bite to eat. Passed by a pub just around the corner from the Climb place & Tim was there having a cigarette by himself, so we gave him some company while he & Suave shared a few beers. Kind of a disappointment because he was super personable and upbeat on the bridge, but off the job was really quiet and seemed to not give a shit about the world. Was actually kind of a douche. Didn’t even thank Suave for treating him to a drink. Oh well.
Started walking again towards the center of the city/the train station in the pouring rain to find something to eat. Tried going to the top of the Shangri-La Hotel to take pictures of the city at night, but we couldn’t do it at the top floor restaurant, and the next 5 floors down that had the bars & views to do it, you needed a card-key to get to. So that didn’t work. Tried going to the top of Australia Square (which wasn’t a square building at all, so much as it was circular) to the Summit Orbit restaurant up there. We were greeted by a hostess immediately after stepping off the elevator who told us the restaurant wasn’t tourist friendly & we had to be eating there if we wanted to be there, plus there was a strict dress code. She let us slide with our shorts & t-shirts, but I had to change out of flip-flops into my shoes if we wanted to be up there. Did that, then we decided that no matter what, even if we got food there, we wouldn’t be able to get any pictures, so we left, though it was sick while we were up there cause the entire restaurant was on a turning floor, so while you’re sitting at your table eating, you can see the full 360˚ view of the city from the top.
Kept walking and walking and found no food places open where we could eat. Walked through the train station and back out and finally found what we were looking for - a tiny side-of-the-street Kebab place just outside the station. Perfect. A kebab here isn’t a bunch of meat on a stick like back home. It’s kind of like a burrito. It’s chicken or beef (or both) with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, & Tabouli (chopped up cilantro & sesame seeds & tomato, I believe) wrapped in a type of thing similar to a cross between a pita & a tortilla with either barbeque, chili, or tomato sauce (ketchup), or any combination of the three. That shit was so fucking good.
Finished up our kebabs & got a taxi back to the house & crashed. Not the taxi, but us. When we got to the house. And went to sleep. We crashed. The end.
Today we’re hopefully going to do…well, everything we didn’t manage to do yesterday.
9:09 am
Yeseterday definitely started out to be less than ideal. The morning was fine. We woke up, had breakfast, watched a lot of Simpsons. It’s been raining a lot in Sydney & Uncle James’s backyard is fucking awesome, so the combination of the two made for some sweet photographs. Especially when I found the spider the size of your palm…ish. Yayyy photography’s fun.
We didn’t quite get out of the house by the time we had hoped to. We were aiming for 10 or 11. Didn’t get out til 12. The plan WAS to go to the Sydney Harbour, take a ferry around the Harbour to Taronga & go to the zoo, then maybe go to the beach at Bondi, then end up back in the city to do the Sydney Harbour bridge climb. Well, Suave thought it a good idea to drive into the city even knowing that it’s typical big city and there are cars up the ass. Sydney, however, really has no structure whatsoever to its layout and is a bitch to get around.
Got into the city and found a parking garage - $35 for the day. To park. Insane. Said “fuck it” and found another garage. $13 for an hour, $25 for 2, $37 for 3, etc. etc…yea, fuck that. Decided it’d be best to go back to the $35 garage because at least that was a flat rate for the day. Found our way back there, but the lot was full. It was about 2:00 now & we were still driving around just looking to park, so then we decided to drive to Sydney Uni to park at Vanessa’s place, but the longest we could park for was 2 hours & we needed an all-day parking.
Soooo we drove back to Uncle’s James’s in Summer Hill to park the car at 2:30 and just take the train into the city. Got into the city at 3:00, had lunch at an awesome HEALTHY fast food place called Well-being, then just started walking towards what Suave THOUGHT was the right way towards the Opera House & the Sydney Harbour bridge (the Circular Quay area). Walked for a good mile or more towards & on the Darling Harbour when Suave realized it was the Circular Quay harbour we were meant to be on to see the House & Bridge, not the Darling Harbour, which, of course, was on the opposite side of the city from where we needed to be. So we walked…and walked…and a bit more…until we finally got to Circular Quay. Photographed the Bridge & Opera house, did the touristy thing and walked around there for a bit exploring. Had a really good muffin & danish at a café and by that time, it was time to head to the BridgeClimb headquarters.
The BridgeClimb was fucking sweet. We signed up for a night climb so that we could start climbing hopefully when the sun was setting & be at the peak of the bridge by the time it was dark. A day or night climb was $160 while a sunrise or twilight climb was $230, so we planned it so that we could get a bit of both for the price of the cheaper one. The system of how the whole thing worked was really, really neat and all the employees running the show were great as well. We got briefed, signed liability forms, got breathalized, got suited up in cool skydiving-type jumpsuits, supplied with handkerchief, beanie, rain jacket, headlamp, headset (as to hear the climb leader while out on the bridge), & harness belt. Climbed a small sample element on the inside of the BridgeClimb center to understand how it all works, then headed out towards the bridge. Every element of the climb was awesome. We were told it takes about an hour to reach the peak from the start of the climb, but not because it was far so much as because we had plenty of opportunities to stop and look around and take in the sights. The stops were even more pleasant cause we had the opportunity to talk with a really cute English girl, Ella, and her mate Lily while atop the bridge. We’re gonna give them a call when we’re out tonight and they’ll hopefully come meet up with us for a few drinks. The whole climb experience took about 3 - 3 ½ hours total and well worth the money. Our climb leader Tim was very personable and had lots of good information to throw at us while climbing the bridge.
Once we were finally done and had bought two pictures they had taken of us on the bridge for $15 per picture and the most expensive socks ever purchased ($12.95…cause I forgot to bring socks), it was 9:30 or so and we headed back into the city to grab a bite to eat. Passed by a pub just around the corner from the Climb place & Tim was there having a cigarette by himself, so we gave him some company while he & Suave shared a few beers. Kind of a disappointment because he was super personable and upbeat on the bridge, but off the job was really quiet and seemed to not give a shit about the world. Was actually kind of a douche. Didn’t even thank Suave for treating him to a drink. Oh well.
Started walking again towards the center of the city/the train station in the pouring rain to find something to eat. Tried going to the top of the Shangri-La Hotel to take pictures of the city at night, but we couldn’t do it at the top floor restaurant, and the next 5 floors down that had the bars & views to do it, you needed a card-key to get to. So that didn’t work. Tried going to the top of Australia Square (which wasn’t a square building at all, so much as it was circular) to the Summit Orbit restaurant up there. We were greeted by a hostess immediately after stepping off the elevator who told us the restaurant wasn’t tourist friendly & we had to be eating there if we wanted to be there, plus there was a strict dress code. She let us slide with our shorts & t-shirts, but I had to change out of flip-flops into my shoes if we wanted to be up there. Did that, then we decided that no matter what, even if we got food there, we wouldn’t be able to get any pictures, so we left, though it was sick while we were up there cause the entire restaurant was on a turning floor, so while you’re sitting at your table eating, you can see the full 360˚ view of the city from the top.
Kept walking and walking and found no food places open where we could eat. Walked through the train station and back out and finally found what we were looking for - a tiny side-of-the-street Kebab place just outside the station. Perfect. A kebab here isn’t a bunch of meat on a stick like back home. It’s kind of like a burrito. It’s chicken or beef (or both) with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese, & Tabouli (chopped up cilantro & sesame seeds & tomato, I believe) wrapped in a type of thing similar to a cross between a pita & a tortilla with either barbeque, chili, or tomato sauce (ketchup), or any combination of the three. That shit was so fucking good.
Finished up our kebabs & got a taxi back to the house & crashed. Not the taxi, but us. When we got to the house. And went to sleep. We crashed. The end.
Today we’re hopefully going to do…well, everything we didn’t manage to do yesterday.