Oueen Victoria Building – Ritva Sillanmäki Photography

Please note that paragraphs and spacing is all messed up, I have redone this several times, in the edit mode it looks good. After publish, not. WP is the problem this time at least.

We took a taxi from the airport to Yehs Hotel for obvious reasons. Naturally we couldn’t check in at
9 am. So, we left our luggage and headed to gorgeous Queen Victoria Building (QVB) which was just
next door. I headed to nearest medical clinic recommended by our travel insurance provider. The
first one refused me because they only took Japanese tourists. The receptionist at the next clinic had
a fit when she heard I had a flu. She handed me a mask and told me to get out and buy a influenza
test from a pharmacy and then call them back. Going to the doctor’s office while sick seemed to be
forbidden in Australia.

Eventually I got the test for Covid, RSV, influenza A and B and took it, I had influenza A, Ritva didn’t.
The medical clinic had already closed, and it was closed the next day, Saturday, as well. I called my
travel insurance helpline, and they told me that getting a doctor’s appointment in Australia is next to
impossible and I would have to go to hospital and wait in line. I called a hospital and luckily, they
recommended me to an online doctor, Medmate.

Medmate doctor called me back and said there was nothing they could do to save.., no, to help me,
besides rest, drink lots of fluids and eat painkillers. However, he wrote Ritva a prescription for
Tamiflu to hopefully prevent her from getting the A-word. The prescription probably helped because
Ritva didn’t get the influenza, just common flu. But we had to cancel a dinner for the next evening
with our local mates, Kylie and Damian.

For some reason, Yehs Hotel had upgraded us to a larger room, which was nice. Big room next door
to QVB. Can’t go wrong with that.

I must admit we didn’t stay in our room after the diagnosis, but I was wearing a mask. Hopefully I
wasn’t a super spreader, and I would like to say I’m sorry. We had saved our Opal cards for the
public transport from our last visit to Sydney 6 years ago and we had nearly 20 AUD left in them. You
could travel by tapping your credit card at the tram stops. It made us wonder why we can’t make
that method of payment to work in Finland. We are supposed to be very advanced nation in
technology. As it turns out, in few days I read online that city of Helsinki, Finland, was introducing
this method of payment. Oh, happy day!

So off we went to Circle Quay and to the Rocks. We had dinner at Italian restaurant at the Rocks. At
the table next to us was an American couple from the state of Georgia. They were not your typical
American middle-aged couple because they had travelled extensively around the world, and they
knew other countries existed and mattered. Let’s just say they were not MAGA.

After a pleasant dinner, Manly Pale Ale and good conversation with the Yanks, or is it just convo
Down Under, we walked slowly to the Opera House for few snapshots. I even managed to climb the
stairs and take some artistic pictures. The place was packed. No surprise there it being Friday.

I nearly forgot, Ritva bought a lovely hat from a “salesperson” who wasn’t interested in doing his job.
However, she was able to complete the transaction only to leave the hat into our hotel lobby after
the checkout.

Saturday afternoon we finally had to go and eat again. We found something online, called the Rook.
We chose the place close by and it promised to have Aussie bar food. It was a roof top place and
when we got of the elevator, I was ready to leave right away. The music volume from the restaurant was deafening. Not willing to walk further we decided to give it a shot anyway. We talked to the
server, and she told us that they have a drag show every Saturday afternoon and the drag queens
would take a break soon and turn down the volume.

Staying was a great choice. The restaurant was packed with exuberant birthday party, hen party and
coming out party people. Other people obviously knew that there would drags shows at 2 and 3 pm.
We had so much fun just enjoying the shows and the happy people around us. Drag queens had
dance competitions, etc. for the patrons. Luckily, they didn’t pick us from the crowd. Instead, they
chose birthday queens, brides to be and the guy who was celebrating his coming out of the closet. I
must say Aussie people are much less reserved compared to us Finns. I can’t imagine having an
afternoon show like that in Finland without having people falling over drunk. How does a Finn
recognize another Finn abroad. The other Finn is staring at your shoes.

For food we had chicken burger, prawn rolls and we split donut fries for dessert. Delish!

After the meal I went to pharmacy the get the meds. The street corners next to QVB and Town Hall
were really lively with buskers, winos and people praising some guy called Jesus. I wish I’d had the
strength to stay longer to enjoy the big city vibes.

On Sunday we pulled ourselves together and headed to Circle Quay again and plan was to take the
fast ferry to Manly Beach and observe manly men doing manly things at the Manly Beach. Fast ferry
took only 20 minutes to reach the destination, and it was only a 500 meter walk to the beach. On the
way the beach we saw a couple with a sign – Free discussions, about anything for free. The sign
didn’t say JW.org so probably they were not Jehova’s Witnesses, but I was afraid to ask anyway.
They didn’t have any clients at the moment, but I didn’t have the courage find out what the deal
was.

Manly Beach is an old and beautiful beach with people just walking, jogging, surfing, suntanning,
barbecuing and sitting in shade leisurely. We just sat in the shade and enjoyed peoplewatching.
Lunch we had in a Mexican restaurant. We both had nachos, with beef and prawns. On they way
back to the ferry we walked along Market Street that had a lively Sunday Market going on. To my
great surprise and horror, Ritva was not able to walk through the market without buying anything.
Scarf it was.

The scenery from the Manly ferry is just georgeous: Sydney Harbor Bridge from a different angle, the
Opera House, navy ships, Darling Point, Bradleys Head, Syndey Harbor National Park, Hornby
Lighthouse, etc. On the way back we saw coast guard with flashing lights, and we thought that there
might have been an accident. Luckily, it was only the catamarans competing in SailGP and coast
guard directing traffic. There were many big motorboats in the harbor with spectators on board to
follow the race. Later on, we saw those catamarans racing underneath the Harbor Bridge.

From the ferry, we went to a café in Circle Quay to rest some. Quay was filled with people because
Caribbean Cruiseline’s Ovation of the Seas was docked in the harbor. What a huge ship. While sitting
in the café we saw indigenous people playing, jugglers and a guru floating in the air.