Day 7: Full Circles

7:00pm – This morning we woke up a bit late (9am!), got dressed, and headed out to brunch. Suny picked this place called Pancakes on the Rocks at Harbourside. On our way out as we were waiting for the elevator, my dad asked me for a make-up lesson/wanted to know what kind of make-up I use. I don’t know what that was about, but I wanted to mention it so I can read this later and laugh again. 

Our brunch restaurant was located on the other side of Harbourside, so we walked through the mall to get there. They took literally FOREVER to get us our food, and their restaurant wasn’t even that busy. My parents and Suny got a bit of everything – eggs, sausages, pancakes, grilled pineapple, and grilled banana. I ordered pancakes with strawberries and ice cream and some other weird cream that tasted like cardboard. All together, my meal wasn’t too terrible, but then again, I’m not really a breakfast person to begin with. Everyone else really enjoyed their food at least!

We got a day-long pass for the monorail which was $9.80 each. With it, we could get on the monorail and get off wherever and whenever we wanted. The single fare pass is $5.00, and since we were planning on going to a bunch of different places along the monorail today, it made sense to get the day-long pass. Our first stop was the Powerhouse Museum for the Harry Potter Exhibition, but unfortunately by the time we got there around 11am, we saw that all the showings for today except the last one at 4pm were all sold out, meaning we would have to come back at 4pm. The line was really long, so we weren’t even guaranteed those 4pm tickets. While we stood in line and waited, I nearly had a meltdown considering this is the last day we’re in Sydney and I’ve been wanting to see the Exhibition for so long and never got a chance when it was in New York City. We eventually made it to the front of the queue and scored tickets! But that also meant we had to come back at 4pm. There are other things in the Powerhouse museum too, since it is a museum of science and design after all, so we decided to come back a little early before the exhibition to check out the rest of the exhibits.

After securing our tickets, we walked back to the monorail and hopped on to go to Galeries Victoria so we could check out the Australian Opal Cutters/Pearl Divers shop. For a place that has been advertised in literally even single pamphlet at nearly every single attraction, it didn’t really live up to its hype. Since they offered free lessons about opals and pearls, we went to at least learn something. When we showed up to the third floor of a small mall area, we found a tiny shop covered in metal fence kind of stuff to prevent robberies I guess, but the place looked mad sketchy.

We got our pearl and opal lessons from Uday, a man from Hyderabad who has lived in Australia for 11 years. He told us all about the pearls and opals, and how you can tell if they’re real by rubbing them against your teeth. I don’t really know who would want to do that, in case they ended up ruining the stone, but I guess that’s just me? My parents got me a set of dangling opal earrings and since we spent a certain amount, I also got a pair of free pearl earrings! I loooove earrings. They’re probably my favorite kind of jewelry, just because I feel like there are SO many different kinds and you can really do so much with them AND it’s a lot easier to collect a lot of earrings than any other kind of jewelry, at least in my opinion? I also love watches now (thanks to Neetu) and now I feel naked without one. TMI? Moving on.

We finished up at the opal/pearl place and walked around Pitt St to check out some stores and see if we wanted to shop there. We wanted to dedicate a good chunk of today to shopping since today is our last day here and we still had a bunch of souvenir shopping to do. Unfortunately though, there weren’t a lot of souvenir places around there so we turned back around and got back on the monorail to head back to Chinatown/Paddy’s Markets which is at the same stop as the Powerhouse museum. Since the monorail only goes in one direction, we made a full circle! It was nice to see the city along the monorail and to rest of our feet. I don’t know if I’ve described the monorail compartments before, but in any case – there are probably like four or five cars on each train, and each car only has 8 seats, 4 on each side that face each other. It’s mad awkward since there are such few people, and if you don’t get a seat, you basically cram however many people into the space between the seats (about three feet wide).

We got back to Paddy’s Markets (which we visited at the beginning of our trip), but this time, luckily all the stores were open. I didn’t really have anything specific in mind when walking into the market, but before I knew it, I had already bought like three different shirts. My parents also picked up a few things and then we walked over to the Powerhouse museum around 3pm.

Turns out, the Powerhouse Museum wasn’t nearly as interesting as we thought it would be. There were a few cool exhibits about engines and computers and things – there was also a mad old Bugatti – but other than that, not too much worth mentioning. Granted, we were also all so exhausted, and walking all over the museum wasn’t high on our list of priorities. Harry Potter was high on mine though! After walking around for probably 30 minutes, we called a quits and just got in line for Harry Potter.

The Harry Potter Exhibition was phenomenal. While we waited for the group before us to pass through, one of the guides was testing our knowledge on Harry Potter, asking us questions to see who the true fans are. He asked what Dumbledore's scar above his knee is of (the London underground), what the seven horcruxes are (diary, ring, necklace, cup, diadem, snake, Harry), who the animagi are in the books (James, Sirius, Wormtail, Voldemort, McGonagall, Rita Skeeter, etc.). Whoever didn't know those simple answers really didn't deserve to be there.

In any case, it was such an incredibly cool experience! They had HUNDREDS of props from all the movies, like Hermione’s beaded bag, the horcruxes, the flying car, Bellatrix’s wand and knife (NICOLE!), the sorcerer’s stone, Hagrid’s hut, the Half-Blood Prince’s potions book, the Gryffindor common room bulletin board, mandrakes, and soooo many different outfits that were actually worn in the movies by characters including Lockhart, Umbridge, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Bellatrix, Voldemort, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Krum, Diggory, Cho Chang, Ginny, Luna, Neville, and SO many others. They even had this cool exhibit where you could throw quaffles into three hoops and see how well you could score. It was kind of like one-handed basketball. Different creatures were all over the place too like DOBBY, the centaurs, Buckbeak, those invisible creatures that drove the chariots, and a bunch of others. Basically whatever props we saw in the movies, they were there at the exhibition. Suny and I took like two hours to get through everything because we literally read every single card. I think my parents were done in 20 minutes haha. 

The only downfall about the exhibition was that WE WEREN’T ALLOWED TO TAKE PICTURES. I really wanted to sneak some pictures in with the flash off on my camera, but they would throw us out if we got caught and I didn’t want to risk it. The Harry Potter Exhibition was definitely one of the highlights of this trip. It was so amazing to see the props and things up close, especially all the details in the books and pieces of parchment, like the list for Dumbledore’s Army or Harry’s endless stream of “I will not tell lies”  written with Umbridge’s “special” quill.

The exhibition was divided into different chambers/rooms and most of them had these 2-3 minute video montages of whatever was in the room. Like when they had a bunch of Hermione’s stuff, they also had a montage of her highlights throughout the series, like when she punched Malfoy, her “wingardium leviOOOsa” and “not in the restricted section” moments, when she walked down the stairs before the Yule Ball, her embracing Harry and Ron at various points, and so many others that brought a smile to my face as I recalled what movie each of the scenes was from. The way they make the trio’s relationships seem, in the back of my mind I’m always left wondering why Harry and Hermione never got together, especially given the way the movies portray the pair. I have separate mindsets towards the books and the movies, since they really are quite different, but this was definitely a nice way to conclude my impressions on the movie series.

When we finally made our way out of the exhibit, we stopped by the souvenir shops where I realized how much more expensive things were here than they were in Orlando. Whereas in Orlando you actually got a real 3D chocolate frog, here you could only get a flattened pancake of a chocolate flog and that was $5. Suny and I still got t-shirts and nearly spent all the money our parents had given us for the trip on them. (Just kidding.) Since I got mine in the kids’ section (hooray for being small!) at least I got to save $10! :)

Our feet were totally killing us by the time we got out of the museum, so rather than walk back the one-stop worth of monorailing in the other direction (the same distance we walked when we first visited Paddy’s Markets last week), and decided to hop back on the monorail and ride almost a full circle to get back to Harbourside. We got off a stop before our hotel to get us closer to the mall so we could shop around there. Suny and I each got a pair of authentic Uggs, made in Australia, so at least our feet will be warm when we land in DC on Saturday. There are SO many stores for Uggs around here –  literally one on every other street block. I was wondering why they were so popular here, especially given the warm weather and the unnecessary need for them, and then I realized that they’re actually made in Australia, which is why we got such great prices for them compared to in the states. When we were finally all shopped out, we walked back to the hotel and basically collapsed/I started writing this post while my brother watched the news.

Interesting observation about news in Australia – so much of it is for American news. I don’t know if that’s because they expect a lot of Americans in Sydney or something (which I haven’t actually seen a lot of) or because Australians are actually interested in American news? I have no idea but it’s weird because we as Americans don’t generally give two shits about what’s going on in Australia, yet it seems as though their news gives a lot of attention to what’s going on in our country.

In any case, that’s all for now! We’re heading out to dinner soon so I’ll update after and then post this tonight hopefully. I can’t believe this is our last night in Sydney! The vibe is so different here than from America. It might be because they’re all on summer vacation, but I’m really starting to see what people mean when they say Americans revolve their lives around their work, whereas the rest of the world leaves their work at the end of their shifts to begin their lives. I’m starting to fit into this lifestyle so well here (because I have no responsibilities whatsoever besides helping to make sure we’re productive every day), but I’m really going to miss this amazing, vibrant, and artistic city. :(

 

10:00pm – We just finished dinner at a Chinese restaurant along the harbour called Dragon Boat. Our last meal in Sydney! I’m so depressed. The food was delicious, the view was beautiful, the weather was perfect, but we all felt a little sad that our time in Australia will soon be coming to an end.

While at dinner, I went around the table and asked everyone what their favorite memories from our trip were. My dad went first and said he really enjoyed the harbour –  its restaurants, shopping, and views, and how convenient its location was to our hotel. My mom loved the way none of us were glued to our technology (as I sit here and write this..haha) but she liked how our phones weren’t constantly going off and how we were actually able to enjoy each others’ company. She also felt really happy when the kangaroo man let me in to take a picture with Seth – she thought that was a great moment. Suny had the most fun when he was eating, obviously, and he loved the kangaroo the most. Disgusting. 

No one asked me what my favorite part was because we got caught up in talking about something else, so I’ll just share on here. Although I was originally hesitant about how much time I would be spending with my family, that factor turned out to be my favorite about this whole trip. Yeah, you can put us in this amazing environment with the best food and places to visit, but it’s who you’re with that really makes the trip special and worth remembering. A week from now, there’s a one in a million chance that I could have a job lined up that would move me across the coast from my family. Sure, it’s a really small chance, and it’s a job that I’ve been dreaming to do for so long, but just the thought of moving so far away from these crazy but awesome people really makes me appreciate the time that we’ve had together. We’ve made memories to last a lifetime on this trip and I’m never going to forget them. My family, albeit completely insane at times, keeps me grounded and gives me the best joys of life. I don’t know what I’d do without these people. I guess I really have come full circle!

Tomorrow we head off to Coffs Harbour for a few days with my dad’s cousin’s family. I have no idea what to expect there, except even warmer temperatures and beautiful beaches, but I’m looking forward to moving on to our next big adventure. Sydney’s been amazing and I’m sad to leave but I know it’s not the last time we’ll meet.

Until later then,

Hoo roo mates. :)