Monday, June 05, 2006
Sydney Trip: Day 7
First attraction for today was the Taronga Zoo. The cable car service at the zoo hadn't started yet so we had to take a bus up to the top of the steep hill which the zoo is situated on. The Lonely Planet guidebook had stated the adult admission price as $16. Although it's a bit outdated, we didn't expect the price to double to $30. Tried to tell the person that we were students, but none of us had thought to bring along our student passes, and we weren't sure if they would have been accepted. At least the free guidebook we picked up from the airport had discount coupons.
Well, this zoo is just like any other I suppose. The animals are in very natural looking enclosures, but most were still asleep when we were there. Here's a picture of some kangaroos. They weren't very active when we were there, but we saw a couple of them bounding around. They're really fast.
The picnic corner gave us a great view of the harbour. I got one of my best panoramas here.
After we reached the lower entrance, we took the cable car up to the top and down again. This caused us to miss the 12 o'clock ferry back to Circular Quay. Actually, we wanted to have lunch at the fish market, but as it was quite far we decided to try going there for dinner.
We watched a busker perform some daring stunts at the quay. He juggled flaming sticks while riding a bicycle, not the usual way, but with his feet on the seat and handlebars. As if that wasn't enough, he did it again while juggling a chainsaw and 2 flaming sticks. Finally, he put the whole bike onto a metal pole, climbed onto it and juggled a knife, an apple and a flaming stick. He even managed to eat the apple while juggling it. During his performance, he made many jokes and managed to draw quite a large crowd. Most gave him a tip at the end too. Here's a picture of him perched up on the bicycle while a member of the audience tosses the knife to him.
We went shopping after that. I don't like aimless shopping, although I don't mind going through shopping districts to see what they are like. Chris and zq slowly browsed through clothes at Myers while the rest of us followed along and tried not to look too bored. They have a pretty good books section though. We walked on to the fish market, stopping now and then to browse through shops. We got there to find everything closed, so we walked back and had dinner at the same place as last night.
Well, this zoo is just like any other I suppose. The animals are in very natural looking enclosures, but most were still asleep when we were there. Here's a picture of some kangaroos. They weren't very active when we were there, but we saw a couple of them bounding around. They're really fast.
The picnic corner gave us a great view of the harbour. I got one of my best panoramas here.
After we reached the lower entrance, we took the cable car up to the top and down again. This caused us to miss the 12 o'clock ferry back to Circular Quay. Actually, we wanted to have lunch at the fish market, but as it was quite far we decided to try going there for dinner.
We watched a busker perform some daring stunts at the quay. He juggled flaming sticks while riding a bicycle, not the usual way, but with his feet on the seat and handlebars. As if that wasn't enough, he did it again while juggling a chainsaw and 2 flaming sticks. Finally, he put the whole bike onto a metal pole, climbed onto it and juggled a knife, an apple and a flaming stick. He even managed to eat the apple while juggling it. During his performance, he made many jokes and managed to draw quite a large crowd. Most gave him a tip at the end too. Here's a picture of him perched up on the bicycle while a member of the audience tosses the knife to him.We went shopping after that. I don't like aimless shopping, although I don't mind going through shopping districts to see what they are like. Chris and zq slowly browsed through clothes at Myers while the rest of us followed along and tried not to look too bored. They have a pretty good books section though. We walked on to the fish market, stopping now and then to browse through shops. We got there to find everything closed, so we walked back and had dinner at the same place as last night.
posted by cosine @ 6:59 PM 
