We got back to the hotel from our Blue Mountains tour, and relaxed a little in our rooms.
Then, I had arranged to meet Neb again, together with his 10-year old daughter, Alice. They were waiting for me in the hotel lobby when I came down from my room, and they whisked me off to The Australian Heritage Hotel in The Rocks area of Sydney.
The Rocks is a neighbourhood of historic laneways in the shadow of Sydney Harbour Bridge. Locals and tourists mingle at the open-air Rocks Markets, purchasing street food and handmade fashions. The area has some of Sydney’s oldest pubs and many of the upscale restaurants have harbour views.
Alice had come up with an interesting experience for me: a Coat of Arms Pizza.
Here’s the Australian coat of arms:
So, perhaps you can imagine what they put on a Coat of Arms pizza…
Kangaroo meat and Emu meat!
I thought it was pretty good, and went well with a local craft IPA.
Here’s Alice and me partaking of it (Neb’s taking the photo, but he also partook):
Alice is a very impressive 10 year old. She has a great sense of humour, and a surprisingly good sense of irony. I know enough about Neb to realize that he has influenced that. His sense of humour and irony is unique, and he actively practices them with Alice, as I observed several times. I suspected that Alice’s mother, Cristin, is also a similar influence, but I had yet to meet her.
Alice is also very well-informed. I would often ask her about things, and she continually surprised me with her knowledge of lots of topics. For example, New South Wales, the Australian state of which Sydney is its capital, was having an election, and Neb and Alice had been studying the details, including the issues, and what each political party stood for. She knew and understood a lot about the whole thing. I was very impressed!
After pizza, Neb and Alice drove me to a pharmacy, where I picked up some cold medicine, and then dropped me off back at the hotel, and we made plans for Neb to pick me up the next day, after the group’s planned Sydney Harbour Cruise.
