The Vacation Day 4 - Sydney meets the flaming croissant of death

Our last day in Sydney I decided at breakfast I needed a bit of a change. I thought I'd warm up my croissant by using the conveyor toaster that the hotel so conveniently provided. I learned a valuable life lesson. Croissants should not be warmed by conveyor toasters. Mid-toast part of the croissant caught fire, which I slyly tried to blow out while praying the staff and smoke detectors wouldn't notice.

It mostly turned out alright, I just had a very dry, and slightly black croissant.

After that terrific breakfast, we went out to the Circular Quay (the Aussies pronounce it 'key') to see the Sunday Market. Anything and everything you could possibly want was on a stand. And quite a few things that you probably wouldn't want after the heat of the moment died and you found yourself with a googly-eyed walnut complete with plaque saying "Welcome to Mooseport" painted on the bottom.

We ate lunch at the Lowenbrau Keller and I sampled Mango Beer. Not joking. Beer flavored with mango syrup. A bit odd, but I rather liked it. While we were eating the Oompa band came out and serenaded everyone eating in the restaurant. They were pretty good for a German Oompa band in Australia, although we could have sworn the trumpet playing came from New Orleans.

Next, off to Taronga Zoo. We spent the afternoon enjoying the animals and catching the tail ends of shows, such as the Seal Show and the Birds of Prey. We missed the penguin demonstration because the pamphlet said 2:30 and the sign at the exhibit said 2. Can I stress the importance of keeping your printed materials up to date?

It was a lovely zoo, and will have more than doubled in size in the next year or so, they were building a ton of new exhibits. You can stop and look out over Sydney as you walk from the elephants towards the tigers.

Thoroughly thrilled with our glut of animals, we headed back to the hotel to rest up and prep for the next day.