First Few Days Continued

After leaving St. Mary’s church, I wandered through the botanical gardens which is not too far from the church. The botanical gardens are kind of like the Central Park of Sydney. In the middle of all the craziness of the city is this serene park where people can see different native plants as well as roses and other cool flowers. It also seems like a local place to eat lunch. There were a lot of different parts of the garden, like an area where all the plants seemed to be from the jungle and another area that had grassy fields that looked like they belonged in “The Sound of Music.” It was such a cool park and was in the middle of the city but allowed me to start to understand the wildlife of Australia.

The Bridge from the Gardens 

The Forest Part of the Gardens 

At the end of the park, I came across the Sydney Harbour and the Sydney Opera House. The Opera house is a must see when going to Sydney. It has tourists galore but it was fun to see anyway. It was a lot bigger in person than I expected and looks different from every angle you look at it.

Across from the Opera House is the Sydney Harbor Bridge. You can stand at the Circular Quay (The ferry docks) and you can see both the Opera House and the bridge at the same time. I also got the chance to hear some local music from some aboriginals who hang out at the Circular Quay.

I then had the fun adventure of getting home. I wasn’t quite sure how to use my opal card yet (my bus pass) and after asking several bus drivers, I ended up walking all the way home which is about 2 miles away. I now know, that there is a train that would have gotten me home in a few minutes, but at the time I was lost and didn’t have cell phone service yet. It’s alright, though, because I got to see the city again and now I have a great story to tell. I also have some nasty blisters so for anyone going to Australia make sure you understand the opal cards before getting lost in Sydney.

The Next Day, I ended up going to the Sea Life Aquarium in Darling Harbour. I love aquariums and was really excited to go. I ended up paying a little extra so I could feed the sharks and get a top view of the aquarium.

The aquarium had these adorable penguins called Little Penguins that are found right here in Sydney. These penguins only get about a foot tall and can still be found in the wild. They were very cute and I was sad to learn that pets like cats and dogs are killing these local birds. But good news, their populations are on the rise again and more wild Little Penguins can be found in Sydney.

Next, I got to see a Dugong which looks a lot like a Manatee but they are a little different and are only found near Australia. The Dugong’s tail looks more like a whale’s tail than the Manatee’s in the States and they only eat sea grass that is endangered off the coast of Australia. The Sea Life Aquarium has two of the only five Dugongs in captivity. Their names are Pig and Wuru but Wuru was the only one on display when I went. Because they can’t feed the Dugong’s the endangered sea grass, they feed them Romaine lettuce which is really expensive here due to shipping costs. They told me that the Dugongs have high-class taste

Wuru

I then found Nemo and Dory but I didn’t find them at a dentist office.

I got to feed the sharks and get a tour of the shark tank from a guild named Dakota. There are over 100 million sharks killed every day. Some people might be happy about this, but sharks are very important for a marine ecosystem. They remove any sick fish and rarely attack humans so it is catastrophic to the ocean that so many sharks are destroyed each day. It was neat getting to see these sharks up close and see them right below me through the glass bottom boat. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done.

This is Brian the guild told me that he is her favorite because he is really stupid and keeps running into the boat.

I ended up heading home after spending close to 5 hours in the aquarium. This time I managed to figure out the bus system and get home without a two-mile walk.