Maritime Museum. It was already 2.30 pm and we decided to only go on the "Navy Tour" which consists of a pass into the museum itself (which is free actually), a tour of HMAS Vampire (destroyer) and also HMAS Onslow (which is the submarine). So we forgone the tour of Captain Cook's replica ship, HMB Endeavour. The tickets costs around $9 each for concession price.

We didn't really walk through the free part of the museum on the day itself as we took a quick glance around the place on the previous day (Yes, we are ships enthusiasts! NOT!!! LOL). We arrived too late on the day before, so we had to reschedule the tours to the next day.

Started off our journey through Vampire (Not decade, Kamen rider fans :P) at 3 pm following our tour guide. We were the only tourist on deck for the free tour at that time, so it's sort of like a private guide only for the 2 of us. The guide was a really old man with a heavy Australian accent and he mumbles a lot too! However, since it's free, we had no qualms about it. The guide was really sarcastic but all in all, quite a funny and friendly guy. He brought us up and down the ship showing us various things and taking us back through time to revisit the days when the destroyer was actually used. He introduced new terms to me such as "technical videos" and I naively asked him what are those -.-"...

Thanks to our guide, we had a few chances to look at the usually forbidden part of Vampire such as the control room where the Captain plans attacks and commands his crew. He also told us about the lifestyle of the Navy crew and the universal symbols of the Flags on the ship. Quite informative I would say.

After exploring Vampire for some time, it was time to enter the BLACK submarine (as opposed to the title of the post) Onslow. I guess they were hurrying to close up because the guide quickly finished the tour and shooed us into the submarine. The submarine was very different from the destroyer. Everything was crammed up into one small space and they had to use the same old space for multiple purposes. We didn't have a private guide this time as there was another couple who were in the sub with us. Our guide is a retired war submariner and he told us about life in the submarine from a first person perspective. Really cool. I found out they didn't take showers when they were down in the sea. Haha, talk about hygienic.

After getting out from the cramped space of the submarine, we took one last look around Vampire and finished up our tour of the day.

Continuing our day out, we decided to go to Star City for a look since it was really near by. Took a 10 minute walk following the signboard and we're there! Since we didn't have a membership, we just decided sign up and head back home as there was nothing much to do without being a member.

By the way, we caught the wrong bus back home and ended up somewhere in West Ryde if I'm not mistaken. Thankfully I noticed something amiss and quickly got down and took the next bus back to Circular Quay. Ended the day with cooking, cleaning and lots of sleep.

Maritime Museum. It was already 2.30 pm and we decided to only go on the "Navy Tour" which consists of a pass into the museum itself (which is free actually), a tour of HMAS Vampire (destroyer) and also HMAS Onslow (which is the submarine). So we forgone the tour of Captain Cook's replica ship, HMB Endeavour. The tickets costs around $9 each for concession price.

We didn't really walk through the free part of the museum on the day itself as we took a quick glance around the place on the previous day (Yes, we are ships enthusiasts! NOT!!! LOL). We arrived too late on the day before, so we had to reschedule the tours to the next day.

Started off our journey through Vampire (Not decade, Kamen rider fans :P) at 3 pm following our tour guide. We were the only tourist on deck for the free tour at that time, so it's sort of like a private guide only for the 2 of us. The guide was a really old man with a heavy Australian accent and he mumbles a lot too! However, since it's free, we had no qualms about it. The guide was really sarcastic but all in all, quite a funny and friendly guy. He brought us up and down the ship showing us various things and taking us back through time to revisit the days when the destroyer was actually used. He introduced new terms to me such as "technical videos" and I naively asked him what are those -.-"...

Thanks to our guide, we had a few chances to look at the usually forbidden part of Vampire such as the control room where the Captain plans attacks and commands his crew. He also told us about the lifestyle of the Navy crew and the universal symbols of the Flags on the ship. Quite informative I would say.

After exploring Vampire for some time, it was time to enter the BLACK submarine (as opposed to the title of the post) Onslow. I guess they were hurrying to close up because the guide quickly finished the tour and shooed us into the submarine. The submarine was very different from the destroyer. Everything was crammed up into one small space and they had to use the same old space for multiple purposes. We didn't have a private guide this time as there was another couple who were in the sub with us. Our guide is a retired war submariner and he told us about life in the submarine from a first person perspective. Really cool. I found out they didn't take showers when they were down in the sea. Haha, talk about hygienic.

After getting out from the cramped space of the submarine, we took one last look around Vampire and finished up our tour of the day.

Continuing our day out, we decided to go to Star City for a look since it was really near by. Took a 10 minute walk following the signboard and we're there! Since we didn't have a membership, we just decided sign up and head back home as there was nothing much to do without being a member.

By the way, we caught the wrong bus back home and ended up somewhere in West Ryde if I'm not mistaken. Thankfully I noticed something amiss and quickly got down and took the next bus back to Circular Quay. Ended the day with cooking, cleaning and lots of sleep.