Sydney Fish Market

Sydney Fish Market is the largest market of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the world's second largest seafood market in terms of variety. Over 14,500 tonnes of seafood is traded annually from both national and international suppliers with up to a hundred species of sustainable Australian seafood traded every day.

Decided I should try some abalone after recommendation, this is what they looked like before I had one 'sashimied'  (cleaned and thinly sliced) glad I didn't take that task on myself, there would have been injuries!

I didn't get these but look at how beautiful they were!

The spoils of my fish market journey! I have to say the abalone was not delicious raw, tasted like the ocean (which was fine) but had a very tough texture (something I couldn't get over). I coated the pieces in some breadcrumbs and fried them up and then enjoyed the scrumptious flavour I had heard about. The king prawns were very very tasty and I felt like a true Aussie as I chowed down.

ICE Hockey

When I got wind of the fact that there was going to be an exhibition hockey match between Canada and the United States IN SYDNEY while I was living here I knew I had to make it happen and that a Canada jersey would be packed in my suitcase. Last night the long awaited game took place at Allphones Arena in front of 21,000 wild hockey fans!

Seeing all of the Canadian and NHL jerseys really was awesome, people were super excited about this rare display of winter sport in the land of footy. I have to admit it was a lot different than watching a game at home. Despite their highlight reels featuring Don and his jackets, the woman didn't get our anthem quite right and the buzzer to end the periods was feeble. The sounds of the skates on the ice and the boards were comfortingly familiar but the songs played at the stoppages and goals were not. The most entertaining thing was listening to the Australians around us talking about how many 'quarters' there were and making comments about the 'ball'. There were quick 101 videos of the rules of the game displayed on the big screens and throughout the night we kept hearing it called ICE hockey, an important distinction as field hockey is the preferred version of the game in this country that very rarely sees snow! 

Our trumping of the United States 9-6 was not surprising given our 'amazing-ness' at the sport ;) and I left with a maple leaf shaped heart, a ton of Canadian pride and a definite excitement about returning to such an amazing country.

The Red Centre

A trip to Australia wouldn't be complete without a true outback experience. Hot on the heels of my return from Melbourne I hopped onto another plane heading to the heart of the continent for part of my study break (the week in between the end of classes and the start of the exam period) lets face it, I wasn't going to study that whole time anyway!

Once again I chose to fly out super early in the morning to save myself a few bucks, 4:45am always comes earlier than you would ever want it to! After some cab drama I made it to the airport and met up with my friend Sara (Sweden, you guessed it) who I would be spending the next few days with.

It was dreary when we arrived in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory but that didn't stop us from exploring around town. It took us only a few hours to see the whole of Alice, as we were warned there really wasn't a lot going on in this hub for outback tour takeoffs. The one thing that struck me was the abundance of indigenous Australians that we encountered, far more than you see around Sydney, we knew we were in for some pretty cool cultural insights over the next few days.

We got to bed early as our three day 'Rock Tour' picked us up at 6 15 on Friday morning (thank goodness for free hostel breakfasts!).

Our tour guide Fitzy drove the 16 of us (from all over the world as per the usual backpacker tour) the 4ish hours to Kings Canyon (or Watarrka, everything that we encountered had two names, the European name and the traditional indigenous name). This was spectacular despite the cloudy day, I don't think I'll ever get over how red the rock and land is here (quite a bit like PEI). We had a great 3.5 hour hike with some spectacular views and some interesting lessons on the nature and also the culture of the region.

Fitzy informed us that contrary to popular belief we were not actually in a desert, the Northern Territory gets too much rain to be classified as a desert, it is instead considered a semi-arid region. You can see plenty of plants when driving along and even more when we were sent out to gather our firewood for the trip.

After a quick stop for some Toohey's New beer we headed straight off the highway to our bush camp for the evening. It was exactly as it sounded, right in the middle of nowhere, no lights, no water. A fire was built up quickly and soon we had a pot of veggies, some chili and some rice cooking up on the coals. Everything tasted great after a long day of driving and trekking and because it was cooked over the fire. We curled up in our swags in a circle around the fire and slept under the night sky.

Day two started at 5:30am with some toast over the fire and instant coffee. We made our way to Kata Tjuta and the valley of the winds 348m above sea level. This was a harder trek on some loose conglomerate rock but the things we saw were well worth some of the steep climbs. Fitzy taught us about the geology behind how it was formed and showed us some of the plants that were used by indigenous people in their everyday lives.

After a mash up lunch we headed to Uluru (Ayers Rock) where we spent an hour at the cultural centre learning more about the indigenous people (which reminded of aboriginal Canadians) and watched some of the women create some artwork (all of which told a story). We then put places to some of the stories along the Mala Walk around part of the base of Uluru. This is the worlds biggest rock but it is so much more than that, it is a sacred place to the indigenous Australians and must be respected in the same way that we respects churches or other places of worship.

The day ended with dinner overlooking the sunset on Uluru, we weren't totally able to see all of the amazing colour change that happens on clearer days but it was still a beautiful sight. After some bread made in a cast iron pot on the fire we curled up in our swags again, this time under a clear sky of millions of stars, for our second outdoor sleep.

5:30 was the wake up time again on Sunday, we were chasing the sunrise. We watched a black Uluru on a backdrop of changing sky as we enjoyed our breakfast. This was followed by a 10km walk around the base of this massive rock under a beautiful blue sky, we were really able to take in the character of the rock and see some of the other special sites along with some cave paintings!

After this last walk it was back to Alice Springs for a gather at the local 'Rock Bar' to say our final farewells, but not before a stop at a farm along the highway were we met these fellas...

What an amazing way to clear my head before exams! The outback is a must see for anyone wanting a true Australian experience!

Australian Rules Football

Australian Rules football was born as bred in Melbourne, it was therefore natural that Sofia and I catch a game while we were in the neighbourhood.

We found our way to Melbourne Cricket Grounds just outside the city centre and, armed with our meat pies and chips, we sat down to take in a Melbourne Demons game.

We thought we would give ourselves until half time to try to figure out the rules before resorting to the Internet on our phones, we didn't last nearly that long! AFL is a crazy game, very different from rugby (I was hoping some rugby knowledge would help me figure some things out but I was mistaken).

We eventually learned that it is a game of 18 men from each team on an oval shaped field. There are specific rules about how the ball can be handled, players can kick or 'handball' (punch) the ball and if they are running with the ball they have to intermittently touch it to the ground or bounce it. Players that catch a ball from a kick (Mark) are awarded possession of the ball but beyond this possession is always in dispute. The goal of the game is to get the ball through the uprights (of which there are 4) the middle two being the ones that will award the most points. As per usual Australian sport, there is a lot of full on contact.

Aussies love their sport, I have learned through watching all forms of footy just what this really means. The city of Sydney has 9 teams in the NRL and Melbourne has 9 in the AFL, how this is supported I don't fully understand but it is much different than what we are used to. The whole province  of Ontario only has two teams in the NHL! There is definitely a different, and very intense, culture surrounding sport in this country.

As it is such a huge huge part of Australian life I was really happy that I was able to take another game in!

Moseying around Melbourne

Let's talk about my trip to Melbourne, that other city that you've heard of in Australia!

How better to get the feel for a city in a very short time than to just wander around on foot and on the free city tram? Saturday and Sunday morning on our long weekend trip to the south involved a paper map, a guide book, a rain jacket and a camera. 

Here were some of our stops...

China town for dumplings.

This was the free tram with equipped with an awesome tour guide.

Street Art.

Federation Square.

Flinder' Street Station, meet me under the clocks!

Little Cafe alley.

Bubbled reindeer at the art gallery.

Sunny Sunday morning in St. Kilda.

Melbourne Skyline.

High atop the Shrine of Remembrance looking onto the city (and botanic gardens).

Happy to have visited this other well-known city which did have a more European feel, as I was warned.

I do have to say that I still prefer Sydney (despite Melbourne's easily navigable N-S E-W street set-up) although a day and a half of exploring probably wasn't enough to give me a true feel. I will just have to visit again!

Lamington Lover

I TAKE IT BACK!

In an earlier post I discussed my first impressions of the Lamington, the Australian baked delicacy. I have to admit that I wasn't all that impressed with the one from the local bakery and I believe that this came across in my post. It was through a discussion with a PhD student whom I am volunteering for that I found a renewed hope in this treat. She was appalled at my 'good-not-great' attitude towards them and quickly scrawled down the name of a place I had to try in Woolloomooloo. It has been on my to-do list for a couple of weeks but this Saturday while looking for a new place to study I trekked to Flour and Stone Bakery and boy was I impressed. 

These guys have definitely mastered not only the perfect lamington, but also heaps of  other baked wonders (I also enjoyed the salted caramel tart).

This moist and chocolate coated cube of joy was a far cry from the dry and tasteless lamington of George St. I may just have to go back for another!