Just a quick hello. Life is pretty normal these days. Of course, that is if you consider my work hours normal, and I don't.
We've been planning our next trip, which will be in July. We'll fly to Broome, and then jump on an adventure tour through the Kimberleys to Darwin, and will then spend 7 days around Darwin, Kakadu, Arnhemland and Katherine. This is supposed to be "real" Australia. Promises to be great fun.
The weather seems to conspire against me. When I work it is sunny and beautiful. When I'm off, it's grey. Sigh. But, it is a bit warmer these days. There is always a wind off of the ocean, and usually it is cool, but it has been warmer in the last week.
Hopefully there will be something more interesting to write in the next couple of weeks. Miss you all at home!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Ferries and Opera Houses
We came for the city and stayed for the parks! Paul and I both loved Sydney, and both remarked on how we traveled expecting a tour of buildings, and spent most of our time in amongst trees and nature.
Our trip began with check-in to our hotel in King's Cross, called the Diamont. It was a nice little boutique hotel. The hallways had freaky lighting that made them look like depth through mirrors. The bed was comfy and it was relatively quiet with a very convenient location, so overall we would recommend it.
Our first night consisted of a search for supper. First we walked up Darlinghurst Road, but quickly realized that it was the red light district. Oops. We then wandered around Victoria Road and finally found a cool little place called Roys in backpacker central. I've never seen so many backpacker hostels in one little area. The red light region is cheap.
On our first full day, we started with breakfast at a little place on Victoria called Joe's. It's been there for ages and is now run by a very cool guy from Israel. We spent most of the day wandering the city. First, we discovered the Botanic Gardens. We LOVED the botanic gardens.
They offered a view of the opera house, lots of birds, and a veritable tropical paradise in the middle of the city. Somehow, we managed to find our way back to the gardens every day that we were in Sydney. 
They are the kind of oasis that makes you feel a sense of wonder and peace. The joggers clearly love the place, and since we were there over the lunch hour we saw a ton of them. We also met the bats. 
There is a section of the park where fruit bats make their home. For nocturnal creatures, they sure are noisy in the day. I was surprised at how cute they were - all fuzzy and cuddly looking. 
Almost everywhere you go in the city gives a beautiful view of the Opera House. It is a magnificent structure. We walked all around it in several directions, and were surprised that the tiling was both white and light yellow. Well, more beige.
Next stop was a neighborhood called The Rocks. This was the original settlement in
Sydney, and spent much of its history as a run down back-alley kind of port of call for drunken sailors. Now it has a quaint market, some nice art stores and cute buildings of stone. We headed up to the Sydney Harbour bridge next. Since the official Bridge Walk cost a whopping $189 per person to go up (walk up on your own steam, nonetheless). So, we headed up the free pillar and had a pretty good view for about 1/20 the cost. The city is huge. The harbour stretches for kilometers and kilometers inland, and weaves in and out of the land making the city and its suburbs look like a waterworld.
That night we went to the Symphony. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra did a night of French Composers, starting with Bizet, the Saint Saens and finally, the best part, Debussy. The inside of the concert hall was beautiful, and there was not a bad seat in the house.We were close enough to see the strain on the faces of the violinists during their crazy runs, and a good view of the flute and oboe players, who featured prominently. Paul seemed particularly, um, impressed (?) at the male harpist (Guys don't play the harp, do they? That's a girl's instrument - was the exact comment, I think).
The next day we decided to hear to the beach - Bondi beach specifically. It's famous, mainly in Australia, because it is so big. They have a reality TV show here called Bondi Rescue following the day-in/out lives of the lifeguards. So, we thought we'd take a peak. We started out with breakfast at a popular little cafe, but the coffee wasn't very good so ended up going back to Joe's, who told us we had to walk the first part of the way. So, we took his advice and headed through
Paddington and their very nice market. The hand-made clothing was very impressive. This was certainly one of the nicest markets we have seen so far in Australia, and we seem to have been to many. 
Bondi was big, and busy, and covered with menacing clouds.
We had time to see the Lifeguard tower, and be suitably impressed by the excellent graffiti art and unimpressed by the many children not wearing helmets on the skateboard/rollerblade park. 
Then it started to rain. We watched the rain come in across the water and start to hit the surfers, and then found shelter. Back on the bus into town - no sense standing around in the rain. 
Back in town we headed to the art gallery. Paul ran around to see a bit of everything, and I stayed in the Australian rooms to get a sense of the paintings from the 19th century. Mainly I was interested in the pioneer history that they told. Australia seems young even by North American standards. The art gallery is a beautiful Greek-style building in the middle of the park surrounding the Botanical Gardens. All very pretty.
Dinner that night was in Wooloomooloo. I love that name. It's just a little neighborhood with a small harbour and a pier. Home was back up many stairs. Sydney is much hillier than Melbourne, another trait that gave the city some character.
On our last full day, we decided to do ferry rides. Sydney is most famous for its harbour, so what better way to see it than on a ferry? We took the advice of Joe yet again and took a ride to Manly. He had said that there were some good walks. The ferry was wonderful - breeze in your hair, great view of the bridge and opera house, hundreds (yes hundreds) of sailboats out all around the boat (it was a beautiful Sunday). Manly left a little to be desired. There was a nice beach, but the town seemed like a washed up beach community. 
We walked through a couple of their parks, which had seen better days. So, we decided not to do much more walking and to head instead to the Zoo! "We're going' to the zoo, zoo, zoo! How about you, you, you?" (That went around in my head many times)
We had to take a ferry back to Circular Quay and get on to a different one, even though Manly and the Tarronga Zoo are on the same shore. More views of the Opera House! The zoo was a Sydney highlight. The animals were animals. I love the Australian ones, mainly because they are so different than the animals in North America. There are countless nocturnal critters, and I love Koalas. They are sooo cute!, even if they are cranky. 
I also have discovered a latent love of birds. I hadn't really known this about myself before, but I could stand and watch the pretty birds for hours. Unfortunately, we didn't have hours as we got there in the afternoon. So, after a few parrots and Rainbow Lorikeets, we went hunting for the elusive echidna and platypus. An echidna is kind of like the Aussie version of a porcupine. Very cute and shuffly and snuffly. And we saw one in the zoo. You would think that you are heavily weighing the odds in your favour when you go to the zoo to see animals. And still, the platypus remains an unseen for Paul and I. It is the mascot for countless organizations here in Oz, and yet we can not seem to catch even the faintest glimpse of the animal. It's becoming something of a mission.
The best part of the zoo, honestly, is the layout. It isn't really open, but leafy and green and hilly.
It is built on a side of a very large craggy hill, and the animal groups are well separated by foliage. 
It is really beautiful. The crowning glory is the view of the city across the harbour in the background. Paul was very ernest in his desire to see the giraffes and zebras. As always, the chimps and orangutans make me a little sad. It seems kind of like having our children on display, though recently reading "The Life of Pi" certainly gave a different perspective of a zoo, and I highly recommend it.
We finished the day with a very nice supper that included fish and kangaroo at a cafe in The Rocks, and dragged our weary feet home. Our last morning we headed out to Darling Harbour. On the way we stopped at the Queen Victoria mall, which is a beautiful old Victorian era building with colorful tiles on the floor, brass railings, crown molding on all the walls, and stained glass windows. The bug ugly statue of Queen Victoria in the front took away a bit of the fragile beauty, but certainly let you know in whose honour it was built.
Darling harbour is fairly new, developed by the city to turn ugly warehouse-strewn harbour into something useful. There are parks, and fountains, and expensive real estate. It has clearly been embraced, as everyone seemed to be out eating their lunches or having their run around the harbour.
We headed back to the hotel with one last detour to the Botanical Gardens to stroll through and giggle at the cockatoos, and then caught our cab to the airport. Until the next trip!!
Our trip began with check-in to our hotel in King's Cross, called the Diamont. It was a nice little boutique hotel. The hallways had freaky lighting that made them look like depth through mirrors. The bed was comfy and it was relatively quiet with a very convenient location, so overall we would recommend it.
Our first night consisted of a search for supper. First we walked up Darlinghurst Road, but quickly realized that it was the red light district. Oops. We then wandered around Victoria Road and finally found a cool little place called Roys in backpacker central. I've never seen so many backpacker hostels in one little area. The red light region is cheap.On our first full day, we started with breakfast at a little place on Victoria called Joe's. It's been there for ages and is now run by a very cool guy from Israel. We spent most of the day wandering the city. First, we discovered the Botanic Gardens. We LOVED the botanic gardens.
They offered a view of the opera house, lots of birds, and a veritable tropical paradise in the middle of the city. Somehow, we managed to find our way back to the gardens every day that we were in Sydney. 
They are the kind of oasis that makes you feel a sense of wonder and peace. The joggers clearly love the place, and since we were there over the lunch hour we saw a ton of them. We also met the bats. 
There is a section of the park where fruit bats make their home. For nocturnal creatures, they sure are noisy in the day. I was surprised at how cute they were - all fuzzy and cuddly looking. 
Almost everywhere you go in the city gives a beautiful view of the Opera House. It is a magnificent structure. We walked all around it in several directions, and were surprised that the tiling was both white and light yellow. Well, more beige.
Next stop was a neighborhood called The Rocks. This was the original settlement in
Sydney, and spent much of its history as a run down back-alley kind of port of call for drunken sailors. Now it has a quaint market, some nice art stores and cute buildings of stone. We headed up to the Sydney Harbour bridge next. Since the official Bridge Walk cost a whopping $189 per person to go up (walk up on your own steam, nonetheless). So, we headed up the free pillar and had a pretty good view for about 1/20 the cost. The city is huge. The harbour stretches for kilometers and kilometers inland, and weaves in and out of the land making the city and its suburbs look like a waterworld. That night we went to the Symphony. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra did a night of French Composers, starting with Bizet, the Saint Saens and finally, the best part, Debussy. The inside of the concert hall was beautiful, and there was not a bad seat in the house.We were close enough to see the strain on the faces of the violinists during their crazy runs, and a good view of the flute and oboe players, who featured prominently. Paul seemed particularly, um, impressed (?) at the male harpist (Guys don't play the harp, do they? That's a girl's instrument - was the exact comment, I think).
The next day we decided to hear to the beach - Bondi beach specifically. It's famous, mainly in Australia, because it is so big. They have a reality TV show here called Bondi Rescue following the day-in/out lives of the lifeguards. So, we thought we'd take a peak. We started out with breakfast at a popular little cafe, but the coffee wasn't very good so ended up going back to Joe's, who told us we had to walk the first part of the way. So, we took his advice and headed through
Paddington and their very nice market. The hand-made clothing was very impressive. This was certainly one of the nicest markets we have seen so far in Australia, and we seem to have been to many. 
Bondi was big, and busy, and covered with menacing clouds.
We had time to see the Lifeguard tower, and be suitably impressed by the excellent graffiti art and unimpressed by the many children not wearing helmets on the skateboard/rollerblade park. 
Then it started to rain. We watched the rain come in across the water and start to hit the surfers, and then found shelter. Back on the bus into town - no sense standing around in the rain. 
Back in town we headed to the art gallery. Paul ran around to see a bit of everything, and I stayed in the Australian rooms to get a sense of the paintings from the 19th century. Mainly I was interested in the pioneer history that they told. Australia seems young even by North American standards. The art gallery is a beautiful Greek-style building in the middle of the park surrounding the Botanical Gardens. All very pretty.Dinner that night was in Wooloomooloo. I love that name. It's just a little neighborhood with a small harbour and a pier. Home was back up many stairs. Sydney is much hillier than Melbourne, another trait that gave the city some character.
On our last full day, we decided to do ferry rides. Sydney is most famous for its harbour, so what better way to see it than on a ferry? We took the advice of Joe yet again and took a ride to Manly. He had said that there were some good walks. The ferry was wonderful - breeze in your hair, great view of the bridge and opera house, hundreds (yes hundreds) of sailboats out all around the boat (it was a beautiful Sunday). Manly left a little to be desired. There was a nice beach, but the town seemed like a washed up beach community. 
We walked through a couple of their parks, which had seen better days. So, we decided not to do much more walking and to head instead to the Zoo! "We're going' to the zoo, zoo, zoo! How about you, you, you?" (That went around in my head many times)
We had to take a ferry back to Circular Quay and get on to a different one, even though Manly and the Tarronga Zoo are on the same shore. More views of the Opera House! The zoo was a Sydney highlight. The animals were animals. I love the Australian ones, mainly because they are so different than the animals in North America. There are countless nocturnal critters, and I love Koalas. They are sooo cute!, even if they are cranky. 
I also have discovered a latent love of birds. I hadn't really known this about myself before, but I could stand and watch the pretty birds for hours. Unfortunately, we didn't have hours as we got there in the afternoon. So, after a few parrots and Rainbow Lorikeets, we went hunting for the elusive echidna and platypus. An echidna is kind of like the Aussie version of a porcupine. Very cute and shuffly and snuffly. And we saw one in the zoo. You would think that you are heavily weighing the odds in your favour when you go to the zoo to see animals. And still, the platypus remains an unseen for Paul and I. It is the mascot for countless organizations here in Oz, and yet we can not seem to catch even the faintest glimpse of the animal. It's becoming something of a mission.The best part of the zoo, honestly, is the layout. It isn't really open, but leafy and green and hilly.
It is built on a side of a very large craggy hill, and the animal groups are well separated by foliage. 
It is really beautiful. The crowning glory is the view of the city across the harbour in the background. Paul was very ernest in his desire to see the giraffes and zebras. As always, the chimps and orangutans make me a little sad. It seems kind of like having our children on display, though recently reading "The Life of Pi" certainly gave a different perspective of a zoo, and I highly recommend it. We finished the day with a very nice supper that included fish and kangaroo at a cafe in The Rocks, and dragged our weary feet home. Our last morning we headed out to Darling Harbour. On the way we stopped at the Queen Victoria mall, which is a beautiful old Victorian era building with colorful tiles on the floor, brass railings, crown molding on all the walls, and stained glass windows. The bug ugly statue of Queen Victoria in the front took away a bit of the fragile beauty, but certainly let you know in whose honour it was built.
Darling harbour is fairly new, developed by the city to turn ugly warehouse-strewn harbour into something useful. There are parks, and fountains, and expensive real estate. It has clearly been embraced, as everyone seemed to be out eating their lunches or having their run around the harbour. We headed back to the hotel with one last detour to the Botanical Gardens to stroll through and giggle at the cockatoos, and then caught our cab to the airport. Until the next trip!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)