Free Walking Tour

Today I went on the Free Walking Tour of Sydney, which was actually pretty excellent for being free. It was about three hours long and I got to see a lot of the sites, some of which I will have to go back and investigate further. The guy and his girlfriend started it, did all of their own research and then work on tips only, which I've found to be rather unusual in Sydney. The nice thing about Sydney is that no one has to tip, but that also means your service at restaurants can be a little sketch at best. At any rate, I took a few photos but I already had to refill my internet broadband card (I guess I reached my quota uploading those youtube videos) so I'm not going to post them at the moment to avoid losing the internet in the last few days I'm here. For further investigation of the tours if you're ever in Sydney, click here. I highly recommend it!

I think the highlight of the trip, for me, was a statue of a dog in front of the QVB (Queen Victoria Building, which hosts a ton of expensive clothing stores). The dog is meant to be Queen Victoria's dog Islay. He oversees a little fountain in which all donations go to the Royal Institute of Deaf and Blind Children. When you approach him, you get a special little treat! I'll quote what I ruthlessly stole from another internet site:

"Hello, my name is Islay," announces the dog in that trademark deep voice. "...Because of the many good deeds I've done for deaf and blind children, I have been given the power of speech." But only since 1998. Although the well was officially launched in 1987 as part of the QVB refurbishment, the dog was voiceless.  Laws agreed to help the Institute who thought the voice would attract more donations. Laws accepted the task, as well as agreeing to the pièce de résistance: two barks at the end of the routine as thanks.

Laws is the last name of an apparently famous radio voice here in Oz, although predictably I have no idea who he is. The funny part about those barks is that the guy actually did them pretty well! I could almost believe them to be real dog barks... I plan on returning sometime next week before I leave to get a video recording of it, although you can hear the pertinent part of it by clicking here on someone else's youtube account! 

There's also a pretty cool clock in the inside of the QVB that features scenes from English history on the hour between 9am and 9pm.

On to the other fun stories -- my two Aussie dates have vanished! I guess I counted the chicks before they hatched. The guy being forced into it by his dad just never texted me after making the vague Saturday plans with me (once it got to 5pm, I did text him today querying into the lack of plans but he never responded) and the bartender texted today to inform me that he's busy with work so he's not really available. Why'd he ask for my number then? The world may never know...