Aline's travel blog: October 12, Friday

October 12, Friday

Need to return the car to the airport today, so I got up early enough to be on the road just before 9 am. Luckily the heavy traffic was going in the opposite direction. Not bad driving, retracing the last part of my drive into the city one week ago and easier than doing it in the dark. It was an easy drive and I arrived at the domestic terminal within ½ an hour. Located the Hertz Rental area and dropped off the car; as easy as that. I was planning on taking the train back into the city, but the lady at the airport information counter explained that it would cost me about $15; if I took the bus, just outside the doors where I was standing, and rode to the next stop “Mascot Station” using my multi-pass, I could get on the train from there again using my multi-pass. Before I took the bus however I needed to locate the Virgin Australia Airline counter to get some information about “extra luggage”. I needed to switch terminal buildings, but it was quite close by. I went over, got the information I needed and returned to the bus stop. I rode to the next stop and walked over to the train station. It was a quick ride downtown to the Museum Station where I got off. It sounds simple, but I had no luggage. For those of you planning to travel here, with a backpack it might have been OK, but not with regular luggage, since there were lots of stairs. I had not eaten breakfast yet so as I exited the Museum Station, I spotted a bakery (OF COURSE !) where I could go in out of the cold and rain for a good cup of coffee, a ham & cheese croissant and a muffin.

Ordering coffee in Australia: I take my coffee with milk(well actually cream, but they don’t do cream here), so I’ve been ordering a “flat white” which I learned while I was in Darwin. This morning I simply said “regular coffee with milk”. The gentleman serving me at the counter informed me that I should be asking for a “long black”. He was a gorgeous, tall black man….. I had to bite my tongue so I would not say “a nice tall black” instead of a nice “long black”.

After breakfast I simply had to cross Hyde Park to get to the Australian Museum. They had a special display on the Oceans as well as a superb display of Aboriginal Art, which I enjoyed; a huge section on animals, birds, insects and dinosaurs; a section on minerals and an entire educational wing which absolutely blew me away.

Aboriginal art

A great blue whale baloon

Dinosaurs

Comparing sizes

Starfish in a small aquarium

Hey, those are the little balls I saw on the beach in Bali! They are crab sand balls.

And here are the teeny tiny crabs that create them. They could have their own Smurff show.

I turned a corner and almost jumped out of my skin. This dingo looks so real, but he's stuffed. So are all the other animals, but they are posed so naturally.

Fairy Penguins, the smallest of the species (the Blue Penguins are next in size, and then the Adelie Penguins)

Now this Tasmanian Devil looks scary

and I'm very glad I didn't meet any of the huge red kangaroos on the Australian roads.

This is the Educational Centre I was so impressed with.

A wombat and another dingo

A platipus

Did I tell you already that boomerangs aren’t all designed to come back? They were designed as a hunting tool.

Toss it and knock your prey out with one hit.

The bird section was also quite educational. Check out this display on the aerodynamics of a birds wing.

Australia's lyrebird. This is the only one I saw through my travels. No live ones anywhere.

I took the time to stop and chat with the gentleman at the desk in the Educational Centre to let him know that of all the museums I had visited around the world, theirs was the most impressive educational section I had seen. He was quite pleased that I had taken the time to mention it.

Opals in the mineral section

A beautiful mineral collection that was privately collected and donated to the museum.

This next section on skeletons was really interesting (Perla, I remembered seeing your photos)

Man in his natural habitat, with a pet dog as well as a bird in the cage. At the back of the chair was a skeleton of a cat chasing the skeleton of a mouse. TOO FUNNY

Hi Oh Silver..... Away !

Juxtaposition of a giraffe skeleton and an ostrich skeleton. Eerie, isn't it !

It was windy and pouring rain when I came out, but I decided to walk to the Museum of Sydney, about a 10 minute walk away. I almost got blown away. This did not help my asthma and I coughed the entire way there.

Hyde park in the pouring rain

It was so windy that the water from the fountain was all blowing out of it.

The Museum of Sydney is in a modern building located on the site of the first Government House built in 1788 by Governor Arthur Phillip. Some of the footings have been preserved and can be seen under the glass floor of the museum lobby. “It was home, office and seat of authority for the first 9 governors until 1845.”

This museum provided a history of Sydney and was quite informative. Once section had films of “characters” who had lived in Sydney and provided “story lines” of what it was like to live here during various periods of time. It included the Aboriginal people’s point of view as well. Again, in many areas I was not allowed to take photos, but in others I was. Sydney’s Arts and Sports history was beautifully displayed and showed how it evolved in the 20^th century.