SYDNEY!

Today we went into downtown Sydney, and I was very impressed. The city is absolutely gorgeous, for the most part clean, and pretty easy to get around. Jaimie lives a short train ride away, so we saved on petrol(gas) and parking by hopping on a mid-morning train. The train was pretty peaceful, I threw on my iPod and zoned out, although I did want to kill the guy on the other side of the train having a cell phone conversation. I'm sorry sir, but the rest of the car doesn't need to hear you doing business, that is what offices, cubicles, and phone booths are for.

Our first stop in the city was Darling Harbor. Darling is the smaller of Sydney's two main harbors, the other one being home to the bridge and Sydney Opera House. It reminds me a lot of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, very family oriented. They have an aquarium, a museum, some rides and arcades and a Chinese Garden. We spent a few minutes in the National Maritime Museum, I got bored pretty quickly. They have a photography/journal entry exhibit on the travels of a young American from NY to Fremantle, but there no danger or excitement to his trip. Just some rough seas and catching an Albatross. They also had the Endeavor on display here. It is the ship that Captain Cook sailed on to discover Australia hundreds of years ago. You could take tours of it for $15, I was fine just looking from the outside. The ship itself is beautiful, they don't make 'em like they used to. Everything from the rigging lines to port windows has been incredibly well cared for and restored by the government here. Imagine what it would be like to board one of Christopher Columbus' ships that he sailed on in 1492. The Endeavor doesn't hold quite the promise because I'm not Australian, but it is still a hugely important piece of history and art.


I also ate my first ever Meat Pie in Darling Harbor. Its much like Beef Stew inside a pie crust. Not bad, but pretty close to one of the most unhealthy foods ever. At least they bake and don't deep fry the crust.

From there we walked down George St, one of Sydney's main roads. It is full of office buildings, shops, and the sorts of things you would except from a city street. We stopped in a small cafe for lunch and some other smaller stores. One of the coolest ones was an Aboriginal art gallery. They had paintings, jewelry, boomerangs and even didgeridoos. One of the employees at the store played the didg a little- its a pretty cool instrument. Jon was looking at a pair of clap sticks for his Jazz band at home in Rhode Island, something to add a little flavor in the rhythm section.

We also stopped at another location of Jaimie's store to shop around a bit. I picked out a nice pair of black boots and a pair of jeans. We planned to stop by another location elsewhere in Sydney later that day so I put the clothes on hold.

From there we walked down to The Rocks, one of Sydney's cooler neighborhoods. It borders the harbor and is anchor to one end of the Sydney Harbor bridge. On Sunday nights there is an open air market that we may visit if we go back in to Sydney again. I bought a long sleeve shirt at Jaimie's store here.

By now we were only a few blocks from the Harbor Bridge, so we decided to visit that. It is absolutely massive. While the bridge is only the third largest steel span, because of its combination of width and weigh capacity it is often considered the world's largest steel bridge. As you walk out across it, the safety railing changes from tall stone walls to razor-wire topped chain-link. Its sad that they have to ruin the views and feeling of the bridge with intense safety measures. Partway across the bridge we arrived at the first pylon. I climbed the stairs here up to an observation deck on the top. The views of Sydney and the surrounding areas are absolutely incredible. Luckily the weather was dry and the sky was clear at this point, so you could see for miles.

At this point it was nearly 5PM and all the shops in Sydney close at 6 so we had to hurry back to the first R.M. Williams for me to pick up the boots and jeans I wanted to buy. I tried the shoes on again and decided I liked Chestnut more than Black. Jaimie got me a some leather conditioner and polish for me to take care of the boots with. If it sounds like I'm making a big deal about these boots, you should hear Jaimie and Jon talk about them. Jaimie is borderline obsessed and was pretty excited that I got a pair. I'm looking forward to wearing them around more, I needed some new work shoes.

With my boot purchase out of the way, we started walking down towards the Opera House. The most scenic way to get there is through Sydney's Botanic Garden. Much much larger than Brisbane's, we spent a few hours in here and only saw a tiny portion. I really wish Boston had a garden like this, its a great place to relax and just enjoy nature. We saw a small family of ducks just walking around, the three children in front followed by two parents at the rear. There was also this gorgeous tree with huge drooping flowers. The flowers were large, at least five or six inches long and hung down like bells.

The edge of the Botanic Gardens runs right along the Sydney Opera House. I'll say right up front that this is officially one of my favorite building ever. I'm pretty sure I could sit in front of it for hours, just looking at all the small details and watching the people walk by. I took probably 20 or 30 pictures of the building. I would hate to get home only to realize I didn't have any good shots of it. I really would have liked to take a tour of the building or see a show, but that wasn't really in the budget for this trip. The best view of the Harbor Bridge comes from the Opera House as well. I was pretty pumped when I noticed a building with a huge "Cisco Systems" logo visible just underneath the roadway of the bridge.


It was getting late now so we picked a restaurant on the harbor for dinner. Unfortunately they messed up my order pretty badly, but the food was still tasty. They brought wrong bottle of wine to start, that is the only item I have ever sent back at a restaurant. Then, I ordered the catch of the day which the waitress described as a "prawn fillet with gazpacho and asparagus". I had been wanting to try prawns since I arrive and this was a perfect opportunity. Even though Jon and I wondered what a prawn fillet was, this sounded good. Something was mixed up along the way because I ended up with kingfish fillet instead. I was a little cranky not to have gotten my taste of prawns yet. We got some coffee and hot chocolate for me to finish off the meal and then bought ice cream for dessert from a little stand down the road.

The trip home was pretty painful, we walked back across the city in the rain to the train city. The streets were full of drunk people, mostly dressed up Asians with cigarettes burning. Secondhand smoke is Gross. The train wasn't much better. An express back to Penrith wasn't coming for 45 minutes so we hopped on a slower train that we only had to wait 7 minutes for. Instead of taking 50 minutes to get home, it took almost an hour and a half- it probably would have been faster to wait. The urban assault on my nose continued from cigarettes on the street to awful BO on the train. I won't make any comments about a specific group's cleanliness, just to say that some have lower standards than others. I don't think just one person was responsible, I'm pretty sure that several people were responsible. I was looking at a customs page earlier in the week and found a whole essay on the "Great American Nose" that was pretty funny.

In all, I really like Sydney as a city. There are plenty of things to do- I could easily spend a whole week just visiting all the attractions. The people there are friendly and the entire place has a nice laid back vibe to it. Things are very expensive here, but that is a general trend among goods in Australia. Electronics especially have a 100%-200% markup over American prices. Add on the "city premium" to that and you get the idea. The only consolation is that despite its current weakness, one US dollar is still worth 1.12 Australian dollars. Thats almost a 10% discount on everything I buy. My favorite part of Sydney was definitely the Opera House. I really liked the Botanic Gardens too. Time and weather permitting we will hopefully get back down there on Sunday for one last look before I leave.