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Today is our anniversary! :)
Yesterday began our spending spree at one of the many markets in Sydney - all of them are fantastic, but not so kind on our wallets. We first went to Paddy's market, which many Aussies consider to be more 'chinese' than Australian, and they wouldn't be too far off. Slap bang in the middle of Chinatown, this warehouse full of stalls (over 400 apparently) sells everything from Aussie AFL memorabilia to jewellery to socks to digeridos, and we managed to pretty much get our entire souvenir shopping done over the space of a couple of hours in this giant place. We got an emotional reminder of how much we'd loved China (this place was the SAME, just less in-you-face), we even found Ajisen Ramen, a noodle bar we'd eaten at in Shanghai - so naturally we had lunch there. With incredibly achey legs from our trek around the market we headed back to the hostel, via Gleebooks, a really quirky little second hand bookshop in Glebe.
And so today the rain persisted, meaning another indoor day. We'd bought a combination ticket to Sydney Aquarium and The Observation Tower in the middle of the city, so to save the views for a nicer day we plumped for the aquarium. Right in the middle of Darling Harbour (again on a cloudy day), this place was excellent, with four shark/dugong tunnels and an entire section on the Great Barrier Reef. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the exhibitions were aimed at kids, particularly the Finding Nemo part, but overall it was fascinating, especially the dugongs! They reminded us of a cross between sealions and whales, very bizarre.
After we'd mooched around there for long enough, we walked around Cockle Bay Wharf and booked a table for tonight at the famous contemporary Indian restaurant Zaafraan. We were in the mood for a curry, basically. At half 6 we shed a day's budget on Salmon, and 'Prawn, Scallop and BUG MEAT' curry, which was ACTUALLY a grub in orange sauce (see photos). Claire ate one without much fuss, but then Liam started dissecting the thing, legs and all, so we left the rest. While we were in there, the rain started hammering again, but the intended firework display was no less spectacular. Huddled under a brolly along to escape the weather, we watched Sydney celebrate the harbour's 21st birthday, and my gosh do they celebrate in style! We could only dream of how amazing New Year would be, if this spectacle was anything to go by. See the video for a true depiction of how brilliant the show was.
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