Sunday, June 9, 2019

Stylish Sydney

Will this be a long entry? Probably not. Sydney was great, though I spent a LOT of time in the State Library.

As mentioned, I made the right choice for once and took a daytime bus to Sydney. I finished a book (which book - Heart of Darkness, maybe?) and arrived in the evening. For the first time in the trip I had someone I'd previously met come through and offer to host - in this case it was Rebecca, who I'd met in Vancouver after the train trip across Canada.

There was a fair bit of relaxing, as I was feeling worn out.



Generally speaking, there was some ferry riding, some tour taking, and some pub visiting while staying with my friend. We won a pub quiz quite handily, then lost a different one quite badly. I'm not sure what all to write - I suppose I'll say the free walking tour in Sydney (and the one in Melbourne) were well worth going on.


After a few days my couch-time ran out and I had to move to a hostel. It was better than Melbourne, but still a little crummy. Luckily, people in the area were way better. I specifically chose the hostel because it was walking distance to the State Library, where I spent several hours nearly every day in my remaining time.

The State Library was great. The free tour there was pretty amazing and I was inspired by their "archive on display" (or something like that) system, where objects that wouldn't be damaged by light were shelved (medals, vases, etc.) behind glass so they could be viewed by the public. One of the funnier parts of the tour was that a donor had given a huge gift to the library with the request that they take his 1,100 volume Don Quixote collection (first editions in every language, interesting prints, rare prints, whatever). As that wasn't really in the library's collecting area, they ended up making it the decor for the "friends of the library" reading room.

The rest of the visit was to (free) museums and pubs. Oh, and I swung by the State Parliament to attend a session and I'm visible on the broadcast. I made several interesting friends at a (almost literal) hole-in-the-wall mezcal (?) joint that, had I not looked right at the exact time I did I would have never seen. I should include a special shout-out to the East Sydney Hotel and The Strand and the friendly staff at both institutions.
Someday I'll figure out how to write this blog, but it's not today. I checked out beaches, I walked in gardens, and I learned a bunch of history. It was great, but doesn't make for super exciting reading, I know.

My time in Sydney came to an end and I decided to gamble on another Workaway. My budget was hurting as I'd only been able to get one friend to host and no one on Couchsurfing was even answering my messages (I suppose I need to do a better job of being an attractive young woman if I want to use Couchsurfing). As such, and needing to just stay in one place for a week or two, I flew to Brisbane.

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