Living in Australia - Day 5

Today was another free day but the morning was full of running around the town for me because I woke up with a swollen cheek and an infected gum. My dentist back home was willing to call in a prescription for me since I've had this problem before but the pharmacist, here called the chemist, won't accept prescriptions from overseas. I ended up going to the backpackers clinic to find out where I should go to see a dentist and they said to go to the one right down the road from the Bernly hotel where we were staying. The dentist there was very nice, I explained what was happening and he took me into the examination room for two minutes and wrote me a prescription for the infection. He charged me more than I expected but that was because I didn't have an acceptable insurance plan and I was just a walk-in. I did have student travelers insurance but that apparently only covers incidences that occur overseas. Not that I'm happy that this happened, but I'm happy that it happened when it did in Sydney and not when we were camping in the Outback, which we'll be doing in a couple of weeks.

After I got that all squared away, a bunch of us walked to the Botanical Gardens and saw some amazing flowers, plants, and a few animal creatures. I took many pictures of flowers for my mother because she's big on gardening and some of those flowers were so amazing I knew we didn't have them back in the United States. At one point we were walking under some trees and I saw a flying fox bat fly over my head causing me to look up and see hundreds of bats sleeping in the trees. I was very surprised to see what a huge wing span they have - about three feet, since back home they're a lot smaller.

The grass in the garden felt fake, almost as though it was plastic but I haven't felt grass anywhere else in Australia yet to know if that is just how all the grass is here in Australia - I'll have to check at other locations. There were a lot of people running in the areas surrounding the gardens which if I had the time I would love to do. When I see so many people outside in a laid back manner I wonder about their jobs and the hours that they work that allow them so much free time.

After we walked through the garden, we headed over to the Sydney Opera House and once we got to the stairs and realized we were actually there, we bought tickets to see a show when we go back to Sydney at the end of our trip. Everything in the building looked amazing. Even in the restroom, the front of all the stalls formed a wave shaped line to go along with the architecture of the building. The sinks weren't even true sinks, the water just ran onto the counter tops and dripped off the back edge. I didn't realize how excited I would be about the Opera House considering opera isn't my favorite genre of music but I really am after seeing it, I can't wait to go back.

From the Opera House we continued our walk to the Sydney Harbor where we walked kind of quickly through since we've already been there several times. One thing I haven't formed an opinion on yet are the live statues that are standing near the harbor. The first time I walked past the bronze statue I didn't realize it was a real person but the eyes started following me so I got confused and a little concerned at which point I finally realized it was a person. They're very unique and cool but at the same time they freak me out.

We then walked through the Rocks heading to the observatory. As we were walking down the street there were two men dressed as convicts and two dressed as guards. The convicts offered to carry our bags and the guards yelled at us for speaking to them. I was surprised to see them there and wasn't sure how to react because that performance isn't something we'd see randomly on the streets at home.

Observatory Hill was interesting, seeing huge telescopes and having amazing views of the whole city. Unfortunately some of the exhibits, especially the ones in the south tower weren't open to us without a tour guide so we didn't actually get to look through any of the telescopes. I was disappointed by it but I would have been even more so if it were dark out and we'd be looking at stars in the sky - something I'm really looking forward to doing. I've realized that since I've been here I'm more interested in things that I haven't been intrigued by before. I think this is just because I'm in a new place and want to get as much out of the entire trip as possible.

We then walked back to the Bernly, our feet ready to just stop walking, but the entire day was worth it. For dinner the entire group went to dinner at an Indian restaurant and I'd never had Indian food before. I wasn't a huge fan of it because I don't particularly like spicy foods but I felt like I had to try everything anyways. At one point I didn't finish all of a pastry they gave us and I felt really guilty about it because the server came over to take what was left so I'd have a clean plate for the rest of the food. I'm sure I wasn't the only one but I felt as though I was insulting their culture. They served so much food I was pretty fully just from the appetizers so I didn't eat much of the meal itself. It was a good experience even though I didn't enjoy the food itself - it's good to say I've tried it and the people there were very nice. I just wish they would have explained what they were actually serving us.