To the beaches!
Feb 20th
Just sleep for four hours -- from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and then I woke up, mainly because Grandpa came. "I may bring you to the Manly Coast if you wish -- interest?" I could not say no, although I can hardly open my eyes. They said that Manly Coast is one of the most famous beaches in Sydney region. Uncle John drove grandpa and I to the garden next to the Opera House and then went to work. Grandpa and I had a long walk to the Sydney Central Habour, extraodinary view of the Opera House and Sydney Grand Bridge!
Then we board the ship to Manly, it took us half an hour. Beautiful beaches and clean sea there, I'll write of it in detail later. Then we had a 2-hour long walk and explored the North Head territory. Grandpa is eighty but he keeps a good health, he just look excited about the beautiful scenery during the walk and told me that he moved out for travel nearly every week. Then we board the ship which back to Sydney Central, another extraodinary view of Sydney Habour, nice photo later when I back to China. By the way, I was hit by the bird waste at Manly Beach which is quoted by my grandpa as the "bigest prize".
The next day, or Feburary 20th, it was Uncle Bob who drove me around, we visited several very famous beaches on the south (of Sydney) -- Watson, Lady's Bay, Bondi and so that forth, it's said that Bondi Beach is the most famous one. We visited the University of New South Wales and the bigest park of Sydney downtown (I'll check the name later) too. Lady's Bay is the one which you can get completely naked and swim, you may expect the people there will get shy but -- not them, that's me who get shy, because I look like an alien there -- with all the cloths, shoes, hat, sunglasses on, to protect that poisonense sunlight. If you are not at the "naked bay", you will still find the females on other beaches still prefer to take their bras off, however I've get used to it now. Anyway, the Australian beaches are very beautiful and interesting -- stay tuned for photoes and details.
The overland tour (3)
Feb 20th
I passed the best wishes to the Mattiazzo couple (they would be married soon and have their honey moon in China at August) and then left Castlemaine by train at 12:01 p.m. Around 1:30 p.m. I arrived the Southern Cross Station -- the second time in 24 hours.
Okay, I arrived. Now the first thing is to look for an information center. In Australia, the towns and cities would have information center to provide free maps, information of places of interest, and other services for tourists. Quite convenient, but this time I took about an hour to reach one. A friendly lady (seems called "City Embassy"?) of there gave me maps and a lot of instructions that I have no places to put them in. According to the map, I complete nearly the whole Bourke Street and arrived the Parliament House on east.
Ashley had mentioned that there is a free tram service of Melbourne, called the "City Circle", which is operate for the tourists. After I arrived the Parliament House, I walk down-right to the Federation Square and caught a City Circle, and thus I visit nearly all the places of interest in the downtown area, include Treasury Gardens, Calton Gardens, Melbourne Library, Central, Flagstaff Gardens, Victoria Habour, and so on, but still too early to go to the railway station, so I walked for about an hour to reach a Tourist Shuttle stop (free as well) and visit the Southbank, old Melbourne Observatory, Park, Goverment, and MCG (a famous and large stadium). The shuttle terminated the Victoria Art Museum and I wish to have a rest (it was clear and the temperature went up to 35C that day and I carried ~15kg baggage you know), so I went inside and had a brief look.
Then I felt much better, so I went mad again and travel by tram to look at the University of Melbourne (a few kilometers north from downtown) and walk in the campus for about one hour. Still one hour from the Sydney train departure so I travel back to the downtown and visit the Observation Deck -- little bit similar to the Sydney Tower which offer you a nice bird view from 250 meters above the ground -- then time was up and I walk to the Southern Cross Station.
Train departed on time, many people there, included a very naughty boy, he kept walking around the cars and made his mother very annoyed and tired. I turned on my laptop and started writing something, but soon found I'm not fit at the moment. Sleep? No, that was too noisy outside and you cannot sleep. So I closed my eyes and thought about some dull things. At last I was too tired and lied my head on my bag.
Around 1 a.m. I woke up and found the train arrived somewhere. I look out of the window -- it was Wagga Wagga. The sign reminded me the moment when Ashley was on platform and shaking hands and saying goodbye to me, although I'm too tired to think about anything. The train started again in no time and I stared at the street lights and saw them off. Mobile phone rang and it was Ashley, "Just heard the train passed, are you in it? ..." Sorrow feeling flooded. Dunno when would we meet again. A face-to-face chat can never ever been completely replaced by Internet chats.
Junee, Gilbone, Cambelltown, and finally Strathfield at twilight. The overland tour ended here, I tidied my bag and walk towards Uncle John's car.
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