Day 24: Touring Sydney
June 13th, 2009 by Dylan
On April 22nd, I woke up really early and caught up on some work. Today was my primary day for seeing some of the more touristy sights of Sydney. In walking around town, I did something I almost never do: shop. And I don’t mean the Apple Store with the longest Genius Bar in the world:
No, I mean the arcades of Sydney including the Strand and the Queen Victoria Building:
The stores here were not particularly large due to the narrowness of the buildings, so they carried a much smaller range of inventory. For example, clothing retailers that might also carry things like boxer shorts in the USA would not do so in the arcade shops.
It’s often difficult to find non-touristy souvenirs. Oddly enough, there were two stores side-by-side that offered a shockingly useful selection of souvenirs for Ireland and Italy, much easier and of the same quality as you would find in Ireland. So yes, if you need to purchase souvenirs for Ireland or Italy, just make a quick side trip to Sydney!
I also took some time to reflect, eating at one of the cafes, doing some writing, watching the tourists walk by.
Finally, I had dinner with a few of the guys from Adobe that I met at Web’09 in Auckland the week before. We had a great conversation, starting with drinks near the Opera House, and then dinner on Darling Harbour at reasonably good steakhouse. I avoided the kangaroo, which I am told tastes like a fishy steak.