I Have Fallen in Love

So after a couple days of puttering around, I finally commenced Tourist Activities…. The Opera House, The Harbour Bridge, The Rocks, and Manly Beach.

If you have seen pictures of these places before, you have seen exactly what they look like in real life. So I don’t need to post anything here. But I think Grannie might not have, so for her sake, here’s my brief run-down on the Sydney sitch.

It’s GORGEOUS!!!!  Here's us at the Opera House with the Bridge in the background. 

Circular Quay (above) is the name of the harbour area.  It's got street performers, like this guy playing a Didgeridoo, which I would've found to be a whole lot more impressive had I never been to Santa Cruz and seen crazy college kids going to work on those things. All the same, this guy was pretty awesome. Plus, now I can say I've seen an abodigital. One trip to the Outback avoided! :P 

And remember that aeroplane post? Kinda like THIS guy!: 

The next day, we took the fast ferry over to Manly Beach because dammit! whenyouwakeupatnoon, youhaven'tgottimetotaketheslowferry or to take good pictures of you with the House in the background. This is all we got. The Opera House? It's that white thing, way back there. And those shadows in the foreground? Those are us. 

So naturally my reason for going to Manly Beach was... ummmm... manly men*. Of which I'm sure there were plenty; we just didn't happen to find any. We got there as the sun was setting (4:30pm --stupid winter) and caught a glimpse of the surfers before my stomach took hold and announced it was burger o'clock. I really think I'm making a habit of putting these things in my blog, but behold! The BenBry Burger!

I mean, look at this guy!!! For triple the price of In-n-Out, I got this colossal thing with good beef, cheese, bacon, tom-ah-to, special sauce, an egg, andddd BEETS! Yep. That's right. Aussies don't even flinch when it comes to ingredients.  Brekkie on a burger? Why not! A root veggie? Slam it on there!

Then we began drinking and playing pool at the local hotel/bar/restaurant/sports gambling room.  It was 6pm.  2 Jack and Cokes--$20. Ugh. We went to a wine bar down the street to kill some time. I was sorely underdressed, while the pitcher of sangria we ordered was sorely over-diluted.  They call sprite/7Up "lemonade" here, and there was plenty of it in that pitcher, as well as lychee berries which, apparently, I don't like. So after choking down some sangria-flavored soda, I had to spit this back out into the wine glass. 

Ewww. 

That ended our vino excursion and back to the bar/hotel/thing we went. Turns out, they have a rum room upstairs. By which I mean, somebody realized that nobody was occupying the top floor of the building, so they used it to house their Captain Morgan shrine. Pretty awesome actually. They had it fully stocked with C. Mo and complete decorations with barrels and rope and a Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine.  Here's me trying to be the Captain:

Eventually, Lauren and I decided that Manly was just not quite popping enough for our liking. So we headed back on the ferry to The Rocks.  Lauren found the only place that would take me dressed in flip flops--an Irish bar.  Irish bars are like what franchises could have been like if McDonald's had never been invented: they all look about the same (grungy but cozy, with hints of green everywhere), they serve the same stuff (Guinness), but they are each unique in an awesome way, and YOU ALWAYS LEAVE SATISFIED. Exhibit A: Lauren is needed to model for a buck's night (bachelor party) and both of us are required to prop up Elvis for one last pelvic thrust.

Ya, so this one had a live band, which I always love. Turns out the live band loved Lauren and not two minutes after we walked in,  I noticed the lead singer trying to make eye contact with her. After the song was over, he asked the crowd "Where's everybody from? Australia?" (loud cheers.) "Ireland?" (cheering and laughing) "The States???" He looks our direction and Lauren half raises her arm. I jump up and down, raise my arm, and yell "Us!!!!!!!!!" Obviously. Somebody's got to keep that obnoxious American stereotype going, so you're welcome.  It paid off too: after the set, he got us some drinks and told us about this awesome bar called Cheers. We went. It was exactly identical to the Cheers set (that TV show from, like, the 90s with Kristie Alley?).  I am cropped out for vanity purposes, but you can be absolutely sure I was really at Cheers because Lauren checked us in there on Facebook. 

It was there that Craig the Singer became Craig the Crazy (or probably just Drunk). "I am not a Taco Bell" he pronounced. With his accent, I at first thought he said "I am not a tinkerbell." Either way....For all of our probings, Lauren and I could not figure out what had prompted him to say this--we hadn't even been involved in a conversation when he said it--and so we proceeded to spend upwards of 45 minutes laughing. We cried off ALL of our makeup in the process.  

And it was there, completely sober and very tired, that I fell in love with Aussie Rules. I was watching 'regular' Union rugby on one TV when all of a sudden, these guys on the TV next door were running around like crazy people, playing monkey in the middle with a rugby ball. I had to know what this sport was. Craig the singer told me. Wowww. What a game. I can't explain it right now, but I'll try after I see it live (hopefully soon). Because I know you are just itching with curiosity, here is a video to tide you over: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqymJpIhpPY  It is not, in any way, a good representation of the sport in play--the best part of Rules is its fluidity and quick pace, whereas this clip is stop-and-go.  But it has AC/DC in the background so you do what you can.

*Turns out I was correct in my assumption of How Manly Got to Be Named 'Manly'.  Some white imperialist actually appreciated the manliness of the indigenous peoples whose homes he would soon destroy. So he named the beach after their "confidence and manly behavior" (Source: wikipedia. duhhh)