Sunday 19th October – Monday 20th October
Sydney, Australia
On Sunday and Monday we took a couple of ferries to discover some places outside central Sydney.
Exploring Manly
On Sunday we joined the Sydneysiders and hit the beach! Manly is a seaside suburb of Sydney, an attractive 30 minute ferry ride from Circular Quay, alongside the Opera House.
We spent an enjoyable day watching the volleyball players, browsing the surf shops and eating at Hugo’s, recently named as the best pizza restaurant in Sydney.
…and took the ferry back to Sydney at sundown.
Taronga Zoo, Sydney
Another beautiful ferry ride from Circular Quay on Monday took us to Taronga Zoo. The zoo is divided between Australian and African/Asian animals. We were most interested in seeing the various marsupials and, as the zoo was fairly quiet (on a wet Monday in early Spring), we were able to get some close-up views of animals who were not particularly concerned by our presence, for example this adorable Brush-Tailed Rock Wallaby.
The koalas and kangaroos were also fantastic…
Though some were more awake than others!
Apparently this sleeping koala is not an unusual sight. They sleep for 18 to 22 hours a day to conserve energy, as their diet of eucalyptus leaves requires so much energy to digest. Still, it’s quite impressive to be able to get comfortable in a tree like that!
Abbreviations of the day
Australians love to abbreviate words. For example:
“breaky” – breakfast
“sanger” – sandwich
“reggo” – car registration
“shrappers” – shrapnel, i.e. small change
“super” – superannuation fund, i.e. pension
“GFC” – global financial crisis
Striking Out 
I loved Manly and the Taronga Zoo when I was there. Sleepy Koala looks really cute. Did you see a Red Panda? I can see why Simon spent so long with his lens trained on the Beach Volleyball. X
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to continue this list:
arvo – afternoon
bevvie – beverage
barbie – BBQ
chewy – chewing gum
BYO – bring your own (alcohol, mostly wine) to restaurants
esky – icebox
muso – musician
your vocabulary magically increases in this country 🙂 ….
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Hi Conny, that’s an excellent list – far more comprehensive than we managed! Was lovely to meet you while we were in Sydney – just put a blog post up featuring you, too!
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