Olympic Park and the Sydney Habour with Queen Elizebeth II
Feb 23rd
Today the mission is visiting the Olympic Parks for Sydney 2000 Olympics, but Uncle Bob brought me to the Sydney Market and observed another side of the Australian life.
Then at night Uncle John and auntie brought me to the Sydney Habour again (the forth or fifth time I visit there), because the giant ship Queen Elizebeth II had just arrived. Take great many photos there, stay tuned for updates...
Tomorrow I'll go to Strathfield railway station before 10 a.m. and take the train to Gunnedah, Rob and Donna will pick me up from there and drive to Siding Spring Observatory, and I'll stay there until Feburary 26.
Kiama: place to see THE SEA
Feb 22nd
We plan to go to Kiama today but due to other occasions we made the departure at 5 p.m. Kiama is a seaside town about 100 kilometers south from Sydney, it's close to the big town Wollongong.
We arrived Kiama town at a few minutes past 6 p.m. but note that the sunset is due to around 8 p.m. at this season, so we have plenty of time. Uncle Bob drop me for good at the entry (the kids might have no interest and the place might be too dangrous for them), but I enjoy myself very much. I had expect to see a plain beach with (mostly) naked men and women, similar to the beaches I had just visit, however it proved me wrong. Kiama coast is rocky and there are nearly no place to swim there, the best and most fantastic thing there is high wave, which can went up to a height of six adults or above. After safety checks, I climb pass the "Warning" sign (yes, that's permitted if you have make sure it's safe) and tried to get to the sea as close as possible. After a quater's climbing I arrived at a small flat area, enough for a solo sofa, and about a few meters up from the terrified high wave, then I stood and observe the wave.
The wind was terrible as well, it blow and made the sea more crazy. Sometimes the wave went out to the sky, salt waters were blow overland and made my body very salty. Nothing other than the sea was rowing with a terrified sound, while sea birds seems were enjoying themselves, they just stood a few meters from me, up the rocks, went up and fly with the wind when they like. Several crosses down on the rocks which are very close to the sea, show that unfortunate accidents often happened even on this famous tourist site. I was terrified by the scene but did not want to leave, because I was deeply strike and move by the power of nature -- until the dusk came, then I went around and left that place.
Back to the beauty grassland and modern road, there is another kind of scene. Lovers sat on the grass and spoke quitely, children played around, it seems peace and safe, you can never link them to the horrible image describe above, if you do not go and see for your own.
Welcome to the capital city!
Feb 21st
Hi handsome, do you know which city is the capital of Australia? --No, that's not Sydney, and that's even not Melbourne (although it had been), the capital city is called Canbarra -- a small city with about 300,000 population, about 300 kilometers southwest of Sydney.
On Feburary 21th, Uncle Bob drove his family and me for three hours for Canberra. I visit the capital mainly because one of the top astronomical research schools -- the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA) of the Australian National University (ANU) is located there. And may you be familiar with Mount Stromlo Observatory, it had even been a top research facility but was burn down by bushfire in 2003.
After reach Canberra at 2 p.m. we drove for another half an hour to reach Mt.Stromlo. Thankfully I have able to contact some executives there and they arranged me to meet some professors and show me around. Mt.Stromlo was once covered by tall trees but now there are only grass on the hill, and there are no working telescopes for astronomical researches any more, however RSAA still locates there.
I stay at Mt.Stromlo for two hours, and then we drove back to Canberra and took a look of the Parliament House and the ANU campus. Unfortunately the city was hit by a heavy rain and hail in the afternoon and we couldn't enjoy ourselves so much, but the Parliament House and the ANU campus look nice. We spotted rainbows on the beautiful extending farmlands while driving back to Sydney, too.
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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