More animals (and dancing!)

Today it was raining. So we spent most of the days inside at the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife Center. The aquarium had a couple of interesting spaces in which you walked into a tube with water surrounding you on 3 sides. So basically you had various species and sizes of shark and stinger ray just floating above you giving a wonderful view of their 4 rows of teeth (sharks) and faces on their belly (rays). From that angle it seems like the rays were constantly smiling (despite being in the same tank as the sharks?!). From another angle, but looking down into the pool from above, it looked like they were flying, with their side 'fins' acting as 'wings'.

We also saw the duck-billed platypus, another animal unique to Australia. What a bizarre invention of nature! No wonder people originally thought that the platypus was a hoax. It has a duck's beak, an otters tail, fishes webbed 'feet'. Its such a strange combination of mammal and reptile: it can regulate its own body temperature (like mammals) but lays eggs (like reptiles). Weird!

Another completely unexpected animal we saw today was the dugong. In case you're wondering what that is, its also known as a sea cow. If that doesn't help, think of a cross between a seal, sea lion and a whale and then add a flat large nose like a pig. Apparently this thing eats 120 kg of lettuce a day! How does it get so big on just lettuce?

and then there was a giant aquarium, imitating the Great Barrier Reef, which was completely hypnotizing. Me & Harri just sat there for 20 minutes just watching the fish. The conversation went like this: "oooh look at that blue fish. Hey, there goes another yellow fish. And over there on the left is a black & white fish. And there are two pink fish chasing each other." Not a particularly riveting conversation, but give us a break - we are on holiday after all!

(ps we also saw the worlds most venomous snake and most dangerous spider. Behind a glass. Phew!)

I also dragged poor Harri to a ceroc event. Ceroc is a style of dancing related to rock'n'roll which I used to dance in the UK, doesn't exist in the Netherlands, but luckily for me is also really popular in Australia. I found a venue with beginners and intermediate classes, and plenty of freestyling (where everyone dances with everyone). It was FANTASTIC! Especially when I had 3 consecutive dances with the teacher. FABULOUS! I even got compliments for the fact that I was dancing in flip flops rather than proper dance shoes (they didn't fit in my suitcase...)