So Mardi Gras in the States is a giant festival/party thing in Louisiana. I don't know anything about it other than the streets are super crowed, everybody's drunk and wants beads. I honestly don't know what's going on the whole time. In Australia, Mardi Gras is a week long celebration/festival for the gays and lesbians... huh. At the end of the week there is a giant parade on Oxford Street in Sydney. Millions of people go and watch, and like in America, get totally drunk.
Of course we wanted to go. A group of us from Weerona got ready on Saturday morning and took the train into Sydney. Victoria, Ashley, Kaitlyn, Jackie, Keri, Allie, Anne and I all went to the train station and met up with Ashley's and my friend Mark (Netherlands). We got off the train in Sydney Central and started walking. We were looking for China Town. It wasn't supposed to be very far. We stopped at an intersection to try and decided which way we were supposed to go. I was standing on the curb waiting for someone to decide a direction when a bus shoots right behind me. It was literally inches away from my backpack. Just to give an idea of the closeness of this bus, it freaked out the girls who were standing IN FRONT of me... Needless to say, I was a little bit frightened by the experience. WELCOME TO SYDNEY!
Since Weerona doesn't give us lunch on the weekends we were getting pretty hungry. When we had found our way we thought, "Hey, we're going to China town, let's get some good Chinese food." Somehow, it's not actually as easy as it sounds. All the restaurants were overpriced and, to be honest, were kinda hard to find. We finally decided on one, that in order to enter, required walking up a narrow stairwell and turning a few times to get to the dining area. At the top of the stairs we were greeted by a giant fish tank of grey disgusting looking fish waiting to be eaten... wooo! Now I'm ready to eat.
In Australia minimum wage is pretty good. This means general employees like waiters and waitresses get paid pretty well. As a result, customers are not expected to tip, which is pretty cool. Except for the fact that since they aren't working for a tip, the service is a bit lacking. In the restaurant the water was always empty and they rarely came by to check if we needed anything. The food came out super slowly, and they forgot part of our order. The menu was wrong and the food wasn't very good. Our order did include chicken feet though... I guess that's just setting them up for failure. ANYway.
We left there feeling a little sick to our stomachs and headed down the road. We stopped again at Paddy's Market. This is just a giant, touristy flee market. There were heaps (<–Australian slang) of trinkets and weird shirts, cell phone covers and jewelry, scarfs and headbands, kangaroo pelts and kangaroo nuts... Also Keri and I found a little spot with just neck ties. More neck ties than I had ever seen in one place in every color and pattern possible. This included one with pigs in different sex positions... classy. A couple of the girls bought some random things and then we headed out.
With our stomachs still settling, memorabilia in hand, and a purple boa around my neck we headed out in search of Oxford Street. We could tell we were getting closer when peoples clothes got more and more outrageous. There were girls AND guys in butterfly wings, dresses, bright colors, and spandex... There were even a couple guys that were split in half. Their left side was in a men's black suit and their right was wearing a bright red, sequined dress.
Before we knew it, we were being herded around buildings, up and down streets, through alleys, and into random buildings with thousands of other people, equally as lost as we were. We ended up walking through some sort of mall before finding our way to the overcrowded Oxford Street. The sidewalk was packed all the way to the entry way of the building. We stood around a bit and waited since this was our second attempt at getting a good view. We figured this spot was as good as any. Then, all of a sudden, the crowd rushed forward about 15 feet. What is this a concert? Whatever, now we're at the edge of the sidewalk by a street sign with a bike rack at the bottom. This will work great as a perch to look over everyone in the street.
After standing around for about 45 minutes motorcycles started revving and driving through the streets. Mark pointed out one specifically. This is my thought process as I realized what I was looking at. "What? Where? Oh nice. Look at that old man, covered in tattoos, not wearing a shirt. How funny. Wait, what? That's not an old man... OMG it's an old woman! Oh no I'm scarred for life! Mark! Why did you point that out to me?!" An interesting sight that I can honestly say I am NOT glad to have seen.
These motorcycles rode by for a long enough time for us to get board with them. The day had already been long and some of the girls wanted to go home. The parade hadn't even started yet. At this point Anne, Keri, Kaitlyn, and Jackie went home. Most people had come to this event much more experience than us in the art of parade watching. They had brought milk crates and buckets to stand on. Gonna have to remember that for next time. Luckily there were vendors selling plastic stools to stand on. Victoria went and bought one. When she returned she promptly made friends with the people standing in front of us and joined them out in the street. Despite being a little difficult to stand on our bike rack perch worked quite well as a look out. Occasionally we were told to stop climbing on the sign which we would do. For a while.
The parade had started now and we had met this guy named Andy (Oslo, Norway). He was super friendly. And drunk. We all made friends with the people around us. The parade included a heaps of people holding signs about equal rights. They wanted to raise awareness for events they were holding and things like that. They wanted to be allowed to get married, adopt and be accepted. There were groups that were advising people on who to vote for and people who, I think, just wanted to dance... All in all pretty cool. My camera died though which wasn't cool.
The parade lasted a few hours and then as soon as it ended, everyone was gone. People just seemed to disappear. We found our way to Kings Cross where we had a few adventures which include me being asked if I was looking to have a good time tonight... I can tell you about these adventures upon request, but this blog has gone on too long. Hasta pronto.
Of course we wanted to go. A group of us from Weerona got ready on Saturday morning and took the train into Sydney. Victoria, Ashley, Kaitlyn, Jackie, Keri, Allie, Anne and I all went to the train station and met up with Ashley's and my friend Mark (Netherlands). We got off the train in Sydney Central and started walking. We were looking for China Town. It wasn't supposed to be very far. We stopped at an intersection to try and decided which way we were supposed to go. I was standing on the curb waiting for someone to decide a direction when a bus shoots right behind me. It was literally inches away from my backpack. Just to give an idea of the closeness of this bus, it freaked out the girls who were standing IN FRONT of me... Needless to say, I was a little bit frightened by the experience. WELCOME TO SYDNEY!
Since Weerona doesn't give us lunch on the weekends we were getting pretty hungry. When we had found our way we thought, "Hey, we're going to China town, let's get some good Chinese food." Somehow, it's not actually as easy as it sounds. All the restaurants were overpriced and, to be honest, were kinda hard to find. We finally decided on one, that in order to enter, required walking up a narrow stairwell and turning a few times to get to the dining area. At the top of the stairs we were greeted by a giant fish tank of grey disgusting looking fish waiting to be eaten... wooo! Now I'm ready to eat.
In Australia minimum wage is pretty good. This means general employees like waiters and waitresses get paid pretty well. As a result, customers are not expected to tip, which is pretty cool. Except for the fact that since they aren't working for a tip, the service is a bit lacking. In the restaurant the water was always empty and they rarely came by to check if we needed anything. The food came out super slowly, and they forgot part of our order. The menu was wrong and the food wasn't very good. Our order did include chicken feet though... I guess that's just setting them up for failure. ANYway.
We left there feeling a little sick to our stomachs and headed down the road. We stopped again at Paddy's Market. This is just a giant, touristy flee market. There were heaps (<–Australian slang) of trinkets and weird shirts, cell phone covers and jewelry, scarfs and headbands, kangaroo pelts and kangaroo nuts... Also Keri and I found a little spot with just neck ties. More neck ties than I had ever seen in one place in every color and pattern possible. This included one with pigs in different sex positions... classy. A couple of the girls bought some random things and then we headed out.
With our stomachs still settling, memorabilia in hand, and a purple boa around my neck we headed out in search of Oxford Street. We could tell we were getting closer when peoples clothes got more and more outrageous. There were girls AND guys in butterfly wings, dresses, bright colors, and spandex... There were even a couple guys that were split in half. Their left side was in a men's black suit and their right was wearing a bright red, sequined dress.
Before we knew it, we were being herded around buildings, up and down streets, through alleys, and into random buildings with thousands of other people, equally as lost as we were. We ended up walking through some sort of mall before finding our way to the overcrowded Oxford Street. The sidewalk was packed all the way to the entry way of the building. We stood around a bit and waited since this was our second attempt at getting a good view. We figured this spot was as good as any. Then, all of a sudden, the crowd rushed forward about 15 feet. What is this a concert? Whatever, now we're at the edge of the sidewalk by a street sign with a bike rack at the bottom. This will work great as a perch to look over everyone in the street.
After standing around for about 45 minutes motorcycles started revving and driving through the streets. Mark pointed out one specifically. This is my thought process as I realized what I was looking at. "What? Where? Oh nice. Look at that old man, covered in tattoos, not wearing a shirt. How funny. Wait, what? That's not an old man... OMG it's an old woman! Oh no I'm scarred for life! Mark! Why did you point that out to me?!" An interesting sight that I can honestly say I am NOT glad to have seen.
These motorcycles rode by for a long enough time for us to get board with them. The day had already been long and some of the girls wanted to go home. The parade hadn't even started yet. At this point Anne, Keri, Kaitlyn, and Jackie went home. Most people had come to this event much more experience than us in the art of parade watching. They had brought milk crates and buckets to stand on. Gonna have to remember that for next time. Luckily there were vendors selling plastic stools to stand on. Victoria went and bought one. When she returned she promptly made friends with the people standing in front of us and joined them out in the street. Despite being a little difficult to stand on our bike rack perch worked quite well as a look out. Occasionally we were told to stop climbing on the sign which we would do. For a while.
The parade had started now and we had met this guy named Andy (Oslo, Norway). He was super friendly. And drunk. We all made friends with the people around us. The parade included a heaps of people holding signs about equal rights. They wanted to raise awareness for events they were holding and things like that. They wanted to be allowed to get married, adopt and be accepted. There were groups that were advising people on who to vote for and people who, I think, just wanted to dance... All in all pretty cool. My camera died though which wasn't cool.
The parade lasted a few hours and then as soon as it ended, everyone was gone. People just seemed to disappear. We found our way to Kings Cross where we had a few adventures which include me being asked if I was looking to have a good time tonight... I can tell you about these adventures upon request, but this blog has gone on too long. Hasta pronto.
nice experience...makes me want to get a tatoo.
ReplyDeletelol gross
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