I managed to get an early start without any help from my roomies. By which I mean there wasn’t one snorer or shouter amongst them for the first time in ages. I got a restful night and rose around 8am to start ploughing through the road atlas I got from Dymocks.
Argh. Now I really am starting to realise what a neckache this is going to be! The number of motorway-class roads I can’t walk down and so on is bewildering. I think I’ll have to do a rough plan and then measure how far I’ve gone day to day and add/remove miles ad-hoc to keep the total near 1000.
After lunch (beans on toast with free bread from the “left behind” food area at the hostel), we walked up to the Australian Museum where I’d arranged to meet Michaela – you may remember her from the Alice Springs trip all those months ago. The museum’s $10 to get in but offers a $2 discount to YHA members… though doesn’t mention this anywhere. I forgot to ask and paid the full whack. Ah well.
As with most of the Aussie museums I’ve been in, it’s very modern and well laid out with plenty to see. It also has a “discovery centre” with loads of hands-on exhibits to tinker with. Great stuff for kids and Belgians… We had to tear Sophie and Jerome away from one of the microscopes!
We – well, I – kind of lost Michaela somewhere around the Wildlife Photography exhibit. Sorry! If you read this, Michi, I hope you have a safe trip home next week!
Back at the hostel we split up. Delphine and I went to KFC. Me to eat far too much food, her to watch me and pinch the occasional chip so I didn’t feel too bad about myself. Then we walked down to the Opera House so we could get some snaps of it and the bridge in the darkness. The city skyline’s pretty neat once the sun goes down and all the office lights are bright.
On our return, Sophie and Jerome had been cooking so out of politeness (and greed) I wolfed down a couple of helpings of pasta as well. Nice stuff.
Then on to packing. I have a bus to catch at 9am tomorrow back to Canberra. Hopefully I’ll get around to seeing the Parliament House and Museum by Thursday!
