Friday has been my day-off for a while. Even though technically I should really stop bumming around and work (or get around to applying for my masters course next year...), it feels great to get a day off, stop, relax, go to places and act like a tourist. Sometimes, when you've lived in a country for too long, you fail to see the attraction of the place... which is why exploring is so fun. Going to new places, trying new food, seeing new things, and not just treat Sydney like the hole that I initially thought it was.
So today, tt's day off too, so we went to.. the zoo!
It was actually quite random, even though we decided to go about a week ago. Shocking it may be, but I've never been to Taronga Zoo before. Ever. And I've never seen a koala (except once, when one climbed high up into a tree at Koala Park and I could see it from outside) and never a live kangaroo. Actually, we missed the kangaroo today, so I still haven't seen a live one... but I've seen many dead ones along the roads. The thing is, when we came to Australia, first thing we did was to look for a house, and second, to enrol into school, so we had no chance to explore Australia at all. What a sad kid right? =( Still, with the amount of exploring tt and I do, we pass off easily as tourists and everyone's exceptionally nice and patient when we ask tourist-like questions... such as "where's the closest bus stop to get to Auburn from Tarongo Zoo?" =P
Anyway! Zoo!!!
Near the entrance were the reptiles and amphibians... never a big fan of them, but I suppose some could be considered cute... or just plain weird.
What I do like are the turtles. Or tortoise. Wait, this one is... a tortoise? ._. Which ones are the ones with stumpy legs and which are the one with fins?? I forgot again, but anyway, this one seems a little desperate to get out...
Moving on to mammals... giraffes! They are seriously so elegant, with their slender legs and tall necks... supermodels of the animal kingdom?
Trick question: How many zebras are there in the photo?
(if you say two, look again =P or count the legs)
Goats. I don't know why, but goats always appear evil. It's their eyes... how it's slanted horizontally instead of vertically...
^^'' Open to interpretation. What do you think this is? =P
We arrived at the elephant area just at the end of their playtime and managed to see them spraying water... one particularly playful elephant sprayed its trainer/feeder and wrapped its trunk around his arm so he couldn't go, it was the cutest thing ever.
Usually, pelicans look evil. They have this fake, painted on eyes and sharp beak... but this one... this one... is actually quite cute. Its feathers are so kempt and pretty.
Though not as pretty as swans because swans have frilly feathers, I felt like petting this one... but its beak is quite scary =|
Penguins! This one is called a flying penguin =_= for obvious reason. It's tiny and literally flies through the water, it's so fast! Took forever trying to get a good shot of it, and I still failed. Tt took this one.
On to Latti's distant relative. This lion was sitting right in front of the window, as though he's showing off how majestic and cool he is. I wonder.. do lions eat cats....
THIS tiger. Poor lonely sumatran tiger, it was the only one there and it just wouldn't stop pacing. Whether it was just hungry, or doing it to annoy the people who are trying to take a good photo of him (me included), I don't know, but all my shots turned out blurry and this one was the best I could do after following its pacing from one end to the other a couple of dozen times.
These things... I forgot what they are ._. They look prickly in the photo, but I'm sure they're actually soft...
Cutest things ever. These are the red pandas- mother and son. If only they weren't so rare, wouldn't mind having one of these as a pet =P They look like racoons more than pandas. Oh hey... talking about pandas... we never saw any today... hm....
There were other animals, like the rhino, seals, lizards, birds, fish etc, but these are the main attractions and my camera is dodgy anyway, so I didn't actually take that many photos (maybe like a hundred? haha, but many were badly taken shots of... blurred animals).
Took a ferry back to circular quay and decided to do the most touristy thing one can ever do in Sydney- take a shot of the Opera House...
random buildings... and I took one of the bridge too, but shakey hands+ rocky motion from ferry= crappy photo.
It was around 2:30, 3pm by then, and, having completely missed breakfast and lunch, we bought some wedges from somewhere around the station to curb some of the hunger before taking a train to Auburn.
And why Auburn? =D
Look and be jealous! hahaha~
Mado- located on 64 Auburn Street (not too sure actually, but it's somewhere there), is a Turkish cafe, known for its "chewy ice cream". With salep and some other ingredient mixed into it, not only is it kind of chewy, it doesn't melt as quickly as normal ice cream. It was kind of surprising that we didn't get lost trying to find it, since it's the first time we got off at Auburn station and weren't familiar with that area. We passed by a lot of kebab shops and many others selling Turkish sweets and biscuits.... and managed to find Mado with no problem at all (thanks to my great sense of direction, if I may say so myself =P )
Interior is interesting, with... are those boots I see hanging on the wall?? o O various Turkish ceramic wares and tapestries on the other side.
We ordered a cup maras (but they ran out of some flavours, so I think the waitor recommended strawberry, raspberry, maras, pistachio and [insert unknown orange-coloured flavor here]), a kesme maras (chewy ice cream original flavor and eaten with a knife and fork), kazandibi- charred pudding with a sprinkle of cinnamon, and Turkish lemonade, which tasted almost exactly like ramune (the glass bottle with the marble that you pop? Yea, that one).
This... this kazandibi.. was amazing. Hard to describe, but it was kind of chewy too, and seriously, I could just keep eating this... and keep eating... the charred part (top) was obviously the best part =D
Kesme maras~ interesting texture for ice cream. Tt claims that if one bought an ice cream machine and made ice cream by adding glutinous rice flour to it (the main ingredient used to make mochi and rice cakes, the really chewy stuff), the end product will be a chewy ice cream. I'm highly skeptical about that idea, but if someone *cough tt* wants to try, be my guest and I hope you survive to tell me about it =)
It may look a little disgusting, but seriously, it's awesome. It's chewy ice cream, of course it's awesome!
We finished everything with no problem at all, because there's always room for dessert right? Even after eating dessert, there's always room for more. We looked around and found many people ordered this little cup of red... something, and being a little curious, we asked a waitress what it was and she said it's Turkish tea. No harm trying ^^
Turns out to be almost exactly like black tea... but look! A block of sugar! They're hardly around anymore- people just use those boring sticks of granulated sugar nowadays... Otherwise, there's nothing special about this tea, other than the cute cup it's in.
Now I can say I've tried chewy ice cream! =D And I've been to Taronga Zoo! Next stop... contemporary museum?
So today, tt's day off too, so we went to.. the zoo!
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| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
It was actually quite random, even though we decided to go about a week ago. Shocking it may be, but I've never been to Taronga Zoo before. Ever. And I've never seen a koala (except once, when one climbed high up into a tree at Koala Park and I could see it from outside) and never a live kangaroo. Actually, we missed the kangaroo today, so I still haven't seen a live one... but I've seen many dead ones along the roads. The thing is, when we came to Australia, first thing we did was to look for a house, and second, to enrol into school, so we had no chance to explore Australia at all. What a sad kid right? =( Still, with the amount of exploring tt and I do, we pass off easily as tourists and everyone's exceptionally nice and patient when we ask tourist-like questions... such as "where's the closest bus stop to get to Auburn from Tarongo Zoo?" =P
Anyway! Zoo!!!
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Near the entrance were the reptiles and amphibians... never a big fan of them, but I suppose some could be considered cute... or just plain weird.
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
What I do like are the turtles. Or tortoise. Wait, this one is... a tortoise? ._. Which ones are the ones with stumpy legs and which are the one with fins?? I forgot again, but anyway, this one seems a little desperate to get out...
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Moving on to mammals... giraffes! They are seriously so elegant, with their slender legs and tall necks... supermodels of the animal kingdom?
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Trick question: How many zebras are there in the photo?
(if you say two, look again =P or count the legs)
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Goats. I don't know why, but goats always appear evil. It's their eyes... how it's slanted horizontally instead of vertically...
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
^^'' Open to interpretation. What do you think this is? =P
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
We arrived at the elephant area just at the end of their playtime and managed to see them spraying water... one particularly playful elephant sprayed its trainer/feeder and wrapped its trunk around his arm so he couldn't go, it was the cutest thing ever.
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Usually, pelicans look evil. They have this fake, painted on eyes and sharp beak... but this one... this one... is actually quite cute. Its feathers are so kempt and pretty.
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Though not as pretty as swans because swans have frilly feathers, I felt like petting this one... but its beak is quite scary =|
.jpg) |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Penguins! This one is called a flying penguin =_= for obvious reason. It's tiny and literally flies through the water, it's so fast! Took forever trying to get a good shot of it, and I still failed. Tt took this one.
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
On to Latti's distant relative. This lion was sitting right in front of the window, as though he's showing off how majestic and cool he is. I wonder.. do lions eat cats....
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
THIS tiger. Poor lonely sumatran tiger, it was the only one there and it just wouldn't stop pacing. Whether it was just hungry, or doing it to annoy the people who are trying to take a good photo of him (me included), I don't know, but all my shots turned out blurry and this one was the best I could do after following its pacing from one end to the other a couple of dozen times.
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
These things... I forgot what they are ._. They look prickly in the photo, but I'm sure they're actually soft...
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Cutest things ever. These are the red pandas- mother and son. If only they weren't so rare, wouldn't mind having one of these as a pet =P They look like racoons more than pandas. Oh hey... talking about pandas... we never saw any today... hm....
There were other animals, like the rhino, seals, lizards, birds, fish etc, but these are the main attractions and my camera is dodgy anyway, so I didn't actually take that many photos (maybe like a hundred? haha, but many were badly taken shots of... blurred animals).
Took a ferry back to circular quay and decided to do the most touristy thing one can ever do in Sydney- take a shot of the Opera House...
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
random buildings... and I took one of the bridge too, but shakey hands+ rocky motion from ferry= crappy photo.
It was around 2:30, 3pm by then, and, having completely missed breakfast and lunch, we bought some wedges from somewhere around the station to curb some of the hunger before taking a train to Auburn.
And why Auburn? =D
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Look and be jealous! hahaha~
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Mado- located on 64 Auburn Street (not too sure actually, but it's somewhere there), is a Turkish cafe, known for its "chewy ice cream". With salep and some other ingredient mixed into it, not only is it kind of chewy, it doesn't melt as quickly as normal ice cream. It was kind of surprising that we didn't get lost trying to find it, since it's the first time we got off at Auburn station and weren't familiar with that area. We passed by a lot of kebab shops and many others selling Turkish sweets and biscuits.... and managed to find Mado with no problem at all (thanks to my great sense of direction, if I may say so myself =P )
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Interior is interesting, with... are those boots I see hanging on the wall?? o O various Turkish ceramic wares and tapestries on the other side.
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
We ordered a cup maras (but they ran out of some flavours, so I think the waitor recommended strawberry, raspberry, maras, pistachio and [insert unknown orange-coloured flavor here]), a kesme maras (chewy ice cream original flavor and eaten with a knife and fork), kazandibi- charred pudding with a sprinkle of cinnamon, and Turkish lemonade, which tasted almost exactly like ramune (the glass bottle with the marble that you pop? Yea, that one).
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
This... this kazandibi.. was amazing. Hard to describe, but it was kind of chewy too, and seriously, I could just keep eating this... and keep eating... the charred part (top) was obviously the best part =D
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Kesme maras~ interesting texture for ice cream. Tt claims that if one bought an ice cream machine and made ice cream by adding glutinous rice flour to it (the main ingredient used to make mochi and rice cakes, the really chewy stuff), the end product will be a chewy ice cream. I'm highly skeptical about that idea, but if someone *cough tt* wants to try, be my guest and I hope you survive to tell me about it =)
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
It may look a little disgusting, but seriously, it's awesome. It's chewy ice cream, of course it's awesome!
We finished everything with no problem at all, because there's always room for dessert right? Even after eating dessert, there's always room for more. We looked around and found many people ordered this little cup of red... something, and being a little curious, we asked a waitress what it was and she said it's Turkish tea. No harm trying ^^
 |
| From 2009-08-10-1115-24 |
Turns out to be almost exactly like black tea... but look! A block of sugar! They're hardly around anymore- people just use those boring sticks of granulated sugar nowadays... Otherwise, there's nothing special about this tea, other than the cute cup it's in.
Now I can say I've tried chewy ice cream! =D And I've been to Taronga Zoo! Next stop... contemporary museum?
3 comments:
*drools* chewy ice-creams~~ I've got to try that one of these days
yea, I think you seriously need some cheering up and ice cream sure helps. Get donna to go with you too! I'm sure she'll love it!
dear mei..... they have block sugar here in spore as well.... u can munch on them all you want when u get here...
i am so going to drag u out to go cycling when u are here considering the amount of food you have been (and will be) eating...
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