March 8 - Jewish Museum and Botanic Gardens

Today Lee and I went down to a pretty rocky area. The walk down really reminded me of Cinque Terre in Italy with the steep stairs and coast-lined houses. I love getting to see these little corners of town I typically wouldn't get to see on my own. Then he took me to Mahon pool which is a tide pool from the ocean and it was free to swim in! My first time in the water in Australia.

(Mahon Pool)

Very salty!! Afterwards Lee dropped me off at Matt’s. A quick stop at the bank to set up a bank account, then we headed off to the Sydney Jewish museum. It is a mixture of a Holocaust museum and a contemporary Jewish museum. I’m happy that we went and I’m excited to explore Jewish life in Australia.

Talking to the volunteers and front desk people at the museum was beneficial as we learned that the survivors themselves created the Jewish Museum with their family belongings and desire to tell the stories that were left behind.

After about 3 hours at the museum, we made a stop for thai food then we were off to the royal botanic gardens. It also had beautiful areas with fountains and ponds, and from a few places in the gardens you can see the city popping out (harbor bridge, etc). The craziest part was seeing all of the spiders and their webs on some of the older, taller plants. These spiders were massive, the biggest I’ve ever seen in my life. We strolled for a while and then I met up with my friend Samie who is also from Chicago.

She is just finishing her work visa here, and it was nice talking and catching up. I am a bit overwhelmed by how many people ended up being in Sydney at the same time I was, but I'm so happy I got to connect with them and explore. I couldn’t stay long though because I had to come back to grab my things and head to the airport for my flight to Melbourne. I have been waiting for this day!! So excited. Joel picked me up late from the airport (an old friend from camp chi) and we went to his place in the suburbs of Melbourne.