"Hindi excuse ang bago kang dating para hindi ka mamasyal."

-
I knew Sherry Lou, my classmate in Microbiology courses, has emigrated to Australia some time ago. So when I got back to Marion and Patrice's house in Newtown (an Inner West suburb) after school, I contacted her intending to ask about what I could see in Sydney. Since it was my first day in the city, I was fully expecting a quiet night after eight hours of traveling and then school. Also, it was already dark when I got back from school... I didn't want to venture into a new city at night, without a map, without a plan.

However, Sherry Lou said that being new in a city is certainly not an excuse to not see it on my first night. So I just dropped off my school bag and then caught a bus to somewhere in the middle of Sydney, following her instructions. To my surprise, the area where she directed me to meet her and her friend was still bustling with people! 

 

 

We went to Circular Quay to see the touristy lay of the land. 

We saw the Sydney Opera House. Unfortunately, I was not able to see what's inside the venue; but thanks to this trip, I intend to watch a show there at some point. It looks really pretty at night.

And then there's the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It's beautiful! I've heard that people could take a climbing tour of the bridge but it's way too expensive for me. Probably next time. For this trip, I'll try to walk across it, at sidewalk level. That's enough for me.

At a different view point, still in Circular Quay, we had a stunning view of the night lights of Sydney's Central Business District. If I hadn't been to San Francisco last year, this view would have made me gasp because there are so many buildings out here! However, San Francisco looks (to me at least) like it's about to burst, with so many skyscrapers in such a tiny area. There's still a lot of sky over Sydney, I thought. Of course, it must just be the view; right in the middle of the CBD, it must be crowded even more.

We parted ways at the Central Railway Station. This has got to be the biggest train station I've ever been to! I mean, it even has restaurants in it! In the Philippines, you're lucky to find kiosks and places where you can grab food to go in the bigger train stations. And the banner above, and the inscriptions on the floor about the Da Vinci Code movie reminded me that this is a movie I was not about to miss. Hopefully I get some free time to see it in the cinema while here.

So many things to see and to do in Sydney! Let's see how much of my check list I can tick off. Adventure down under has begun!! Thank you so much, Sherry Lou and Sherry Lou's friend, for showing me around!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in...
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma...
Read more