My Battle with the Seagulls

I am not the most adventurous person when I am by myself, and I am definitely directionally challenged, so I was rather proud of myself when I set out to find the Darling Harbor area on day 5 in Sydney. I was braver then I typically am and I was determined to have an adventurous day. And that I did.

Darling Harbor is adjacent to the central area of Sydney. It is a very popular tourist area with many things to see and do, such as the Sea Life Aquarium, Chinese Garden of Friendship, and the Australian National Maritime Museum. The shopping was great and all the restaurants had a picturesque view of the boats cruising up and down the waterway. I hadn’t eaten yet so I decided I would start with lunch.

So many options, but I wanted something casual and I found a great little cafe with an outdoor eating area. I told the host that I wanted to sit outside, closest to the water. The harbor was beautiful and bustling with activity with ferries passing by, seagulls flying in the air, people walking up and down the walkway. This was such a perfect day! When the waiter served my chicken sandwich, he gave me what I thought was the most unusual warning. He said, “don’t leave your food on the table unattended or the seagulls will eat your food.” I paused, not knowing exactly what he meant, but there were a lot of people eating at this restaurant, and the seagulls didn’t seem to be bothering anyone, so I just decided to ignore it and enjoy my sandwich. I probably ate two bites of the sandwich, when all the sudden two seagulls land on my table, squawking very loudly! I quickly realized what the waiter was talking about! I took my napkin and tried to shoo the birds away and as I’m doing that three more land on the table and they’re screaming at me too. With 5 birds on the table within arms distance, I jumped out of my chair, started screaming back at the birds and continued to fan the napkin across the table. As I am yelling and flailing my napkin back-and-forth, one of the seagulls stole my sandwich and flew away. I looked up and everyone in the restaurant was staring at me. I must have been quite the site. The waiters come racing down to my aid. It was too late. The sandwich was gone. The Seagulls won the battle.

Seagulls 1 – Kate 0

Well, they gave me a new lunch and I definitely chose to eat inside. Three other groups of people followed me into the restaurant carrying their plates of food. I just had to laugh, before I moved here, everybody warned me of the snakes and spiders. Nobody ever warned me about seagulls and no one mentioned that the locals’ nickname for seagulls are “winged rats.”

An adventure I was seeking and an adventure I got…