Parents you would be so proud..... we went to a Museum!

We have been in Sydney a few days now and have had a great time staying at Kiera and Dave's amazing house....complete with real guest room and all! We have even already had the chance to take in some of the great things Sydney had to offer; Dinner and a pub crawl along King St. wharf, Cockle Bay wharf and Darling Harbour, Celebrating St. Patrick's day checking out the spots in Newtown, venturing up to the Northern Beaches, shopping along George St. and Pitt St. in the city centre, and even make a quick stop in Bondi beach to hit a Canadian themed bar to fill Jonny's poutine craving (Although the poutine and Frickles, aka fried pickles, were quite delicious the rest of the place did not at all resemble Canada, there was not 1 single maple leaf, the rest of the menu consisted of mostly Mexican food, and there was not a single Canadian beer on the menu). It had been a great start to our time here in Sydney. 

Having a drink at Opera Bar

View of Harbour Bridge and Opera house from the ferry

Opera house close up 

When Jonny and I travel to a new city we typically try and stay away from the big touristy things to do. You know things like; Aquariums/Zoo's, Ripley's Believe It or Not type things, large structures or towers that you pay a lot of money to go up, that sort of thing. We like to look in local magazines or city newspapers to find things that local people would do. In his research, Jonny found that one of the city's biggest museums, the Australia Museum, sets up a sort of concert/games/bar/entertainment night every Tuesday night from 5:30 - 9:30. Sounds like a true hipster event ...so of course we had to check it out. 


The entrance was a very reasonable $15 dollars which included access to the entire museum, all the activities for the night and a free drink. It was a really eclectic set of events going out spread out through the museum. Nestled right among the exhibits were 3 bars (bonus, you could also drinks anywhere in the museum), arts & crafts, Dance Dance Revolution contest, Board games, silent disco (a big dance party where everyone is wearing headphones playing individual music so it sounds silent), '90s trivia, live artists, hula hoop show and lessons, live reptile show (much to my despair it included a live snake so Jonny had to be on the look out all night so I always knew where to avoid the snake) and local indie bands. The crowd covered everyone from yuppies coming right from the office to full on hippies, they even accepted us in shorts and flip-flops - unlike many other Sydney establishments. 

Live artist at work

Checking out some exhibits

The Florence-esk lead singer

Checking out the Camera's perform

It was such a cool space, a wicked concept for an event and a really great way to get the 20 and 30 something's into the museum. Jonny and I spent a hour or so wandering through the exhibits and the events spread out through the museum and then caught the second band, The Cameras, playing their set. The band was ok, not great, but worth a listen. They kind of had a folk rock sound and a very Florence Welsh - wannabe female lead singer. After catching most of the bands second set we headed the Darlinghurst 'hood, which is supposed to have some great restaurants and also is home to Sydney's "gaybourhood", to grab some food. We ended up a great little BYOB (bring your own booze) place called the Pink Peppercorn that specializes in Burma and Laos food. We hit the local bottleshop next door for a cheap bottle of Australian Red and dined on pork dumplings and a traditional Lamb dish that came highly recommended by the waiter and the couple seated at the table next to us. After we were stuffed and tipsy from the bottle of red we grabbed to train back to Kiera and Dave's to hit the hay, but not before hiking the hill of death that you need to climb to get from the station to their place - luckily it helped us work off our dinner!


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