Sydney Day 2

We awoke after a sleep that was both broken and deeply satisfying at the same time, if that is possible, and after Skyping Eileen (wanting to reach into the screen and pull her over here) we got the bus to Sydney. The first thing we did in Sydney was buy Rob and Lisa wifi ! A muddled jet lag purchase which they should warn you about in the airport. We then headed to the National museum while Niall consistently claimed "there's a really cool coffee shop here" only to disappointedly say "oh it's gone".

The museum was a perfect way to start a trip in Australia as it had an exhibition on Aboriginals (both harrowingly sad and fascinating) and an introduction to the deadly creatures that live in Australia. It is shocking that one of the most interesting part of Australia is something that will actually put you quite off it and if they had offered me a plane out of the country after the exhibition I would have taken it. The fact that the National museum lists off a number of creatures that can kill you in every garden and even more that can kill you if you go in the sea, seems like an unwise thing to make an exhibition for tourists on but it is very much in the vain of: look this is the way things are and you might as well get an adventurous buzz out of it than fret too much about it. The museum also housed one of the best geological collections in the world, multi coloured geometrical wonderments of nature that seriously "rocked".

After the museum we went to Mother Choo's, a vegetarian Asian restaurant that had the most choice of vegetarian dishes I've ever been offered with every form of tofu and soya imaginable. Each dish was full of wonderfully unique tastes and textures that worked so well together. Mother Choo meanwhile sat in the corner looking like a wise prophet or some sort of gang lord and when we were finished we were politely asked to pay up so that she could have a meeting with someone I couldn't even imagine what about.

Next was the art gallery which had some really great paintings of old Australia and Syndey along with some European classics.



After a while we had a short break for expensive coffee and cake which we had to protect from an array of colourful parrots that frequented the the cafe garden. Niall negotiates with one below.



The rest of the gallery consisted of some really awe inspiring modern art such as a life like model of a clown clapped out on the ground in a vest in a room with a broken mirror filled with a sound recording of a couple arguing!

So far Sydney and Australia comes across as a great mix of all sorts of influences and cultures with a resulting one that is uniquely it's own. The people have a great unshy and honest chirpiness about them that in first impressions really sells the place as a great place to live (once you get over the killer creatures thing).