Sydney Aquarium, WildLife World, Tower, and Bondi! Oh my!

A few Fridays ago I had gone to both the Sydney Aquarium, in Darling Harbour, after work.  I was not thrilled with the aquarium at all. I have been to better and there just seemed to be too many people just standing in front of the different tanks for minutes, not letting anyone else take just a  peek. That was rather annoying. BUT I can at least say I went to the Sydney Aquarium if anyone should ever ask! :-)

The following morning I went to WildLife World which is right next to the aquarium in Darling Harbor. I got there early, just as it opened, and it seemed to be me and only a handful of other people. This place was great! There were a bunch of cool Aussie native animals to read about and see. I also almost let the butterflies out of the butterfly exhibit due to wearing a bright pink hoodie which they all were extremely attracted to, Who would have thought!

That afternoon I walked into the inner city of Sydney and went to the Sydney Tower. There I took an elevator up to the observation portion of the tower and was able to view all of Sydney from way up high. The day was extremely clear and I was able to see all the way to the Blue Mountains. I was even able to pick out where my building (Jack's Place) was among all of the other buildings in the city. This little trip almost didn't happen thought because it was an extremely windy day and they were worried about elevators going up and coming back down in the tower. Kinda scary, but I survived!

That Sunday I made my way by train and bus to Bondi Beach. I grabbed lunch there and some Swiss ice cream before I headed out om the coastal walk to Bronte. Bondi is a popular surfing area or so they say. There weren't that many surfers on the day that I went though. The walk itself was long and beautiful along  the cliff side. If I lived here it would definitely be something I would do every weekend especially with the dogs!

Botanical Gardens!

So I finally made it to the Royal Botanical Gardens on July 4th weekend. I was expecting it to be big because it looks big on the map, but this place was HUGE! It had different plant and tree sections including an endangered species section as well as a rain forest section (many more - those are just to name a couple!). I literally spent a few hours walking around and looking at different plants, flowers, and trees......AND flying foxes (aka HUGE fruit bats). It is actually quite amazing to see flowers in bloom since it is quite chilly here, but I guess the plants are either very hardy or just well adapted. Either way, it was nice to see some color among the grey tall city buildings. It also made you feel like you really couldn't be in a huge city.....until you look up and see the tall buildings.
Once I got there I was thinking how great it was going to be to walk around in a peaceful place. Away from all of the people rushing here and there. Away from all of the dirtiness of the area I live in/near. I was there for maybe 2 minutes and I was just about to take some pictures of hibiscus flowers when this weird crazy guy comes from out of no where all agitated. He proceeded to tell me about how he hates the government and how they had him locked up. How he rips up the checks that they send him in the mails and then he sends them to the navy because that's where the money goes anyway. I tried to politely walk away and pretend to be really interested in the info cards next to the plants, but of course he followed. He then explained to me that the US is a trillion dollars in debt because of all the government BS that goes on there. I guess my pretending was good because after that he realized that some other people where also in the gardens and he went over to  tell him his littler rant. After that I quickly pulled out the garden map and found a path to escape to in hopes that he would not even bother looking for me again. He didn't. :-)
Besides coming in contact with the crazy guy my day was great at the gardens. I got some pics of the bats, garden life, and even some pics of the wild cockatoos. This place is definitely a place for locals to go and walk around, kids to play int he grassy areas, and for picnics. If I lived in Sydney that's what I would do here!