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Australia Day 2005 started with a bang. Well more like an incessant beeping from my alarm clock telling me to get up and out of bed and ready for the day. Although not an obscene hour, 7 am still felt early after being up late the night before for no particular reason. Christina Langer (Germany) is staying with us for a few nights before she heads home, and Jeff came by, so Lisa, Christina, Jeff and I headed down to Circular Quay where we headed over to the Gum Nut Café on Harrington Street. Andrew and Nat met us there shortly after we arrived and we ordered with gusto, eager to get the day started right. The favorite choice was the French Toast with Caramelized Bananas which was had by three of us (myself included) and was quite excellent. After eating and dallying a while we sauntered over towards Mrs. Macquaries Chair, picking up Yan on the way, where we settled in to watch the ferry race, along with the 100’s of other ships, small and large, that rode along with them.

A short nap followed the race for me while the rest enjoyed the bright sunny day, just relaxing on the lawn for a while. Eventually we made our way up towards the park, passing dozens of vintage cars, on our way to find lunch. After traversing Hyde Park and checking out all the stalls available, we agreed to split up, grab what we wanted and meet at one end of the park. Lunch for Jeff and myself was a Turkish Gozleme, which is like a crepe, although quite oily, and filled with spinach, feta and beef. Yummy as long as you don’t think about what you’re eating.

After lunch Jeff left us to head back home to get some work done, and Christina went to go meet with some other friends while we headed over to the NSW barracks, one of the many museums that was free to the public on Australia Day. We admired the artifacts dating back to when the building was used first to house convicts, and later as the post house along with a handful of other uses before being saved from destruction in the 1960’s and made into a museum in the early 90’s. Then it was more classic cars that we strolled through while watching the Royal Australian Air Force Roulettes do an aerial display over downtown.

After deciding against taking a ferry over to Darling Harbour, we ended up grabbing some ice cream at The Rocks and then walking around along the harbour for a while. Andrew and Nat left us and the three of us remaining made the short walk over to Darling Harbour. We grabbed a front row seat at just after 4 and settled in to watch the parade of ships that made their way across the harbour over the next few hours. At around 7, ostensibly in search of food, I decided to get up and see what else was going on around there. I wandered over to where some music was playing and caught the tail end of an Aussie rock band, which was followed up Fiddlers Festival. I ended up staying for their whole set, as they fiddled, banjoed and mandolined (along with various drums, accordions and a guitar) their way through a number of high energy delights that only a fiddle can bring to life. Afterwards I squirmed my way back through the crowds to find where everyone else was sitting (Christina and her friend had returned) and after a few short speeches on the jumbotron the fireworks show began. We had the perfect vantage point and they were just beautiful.

Afterwards, we slowly made our way out through the massive crowds, and headed towards the bus stop. When we made it there though, after watching a full bus drive by, we realized it might be a while till we managed to get on one, so just decided to share a cab instead, which ended up being not that much more than for the bus. All in all it was a wonderful Australia Day- quite long, but filled with lots of fun activities, good food and wonderful people.
11:52 PM