Day 1 consisted of me walking around downtown Sydney for a bit of exploration. Unfortunately for me, it was overcast and ridiculously hot & humid. The shot from the previous post was taken from the Royal Botanic Gardens. On my way to the Gardens from the train station that I disembarked at, I walked through the Domain where many people were playing soccer on the big fields (I even saw some people playing Aussie Rules football with umbrellas as the goalposts). The Botanic Garden was pretty big and I spent quite some time in there walking from place to place and looking at some of the sights in that area.
A view of downtown Sydney looking across Sydney Harbour from Mrs. Macquarie's Point in the Gardens.
The famous Sydney Opera House beside the Sydney Harbour Bridge also viewed from Mrs. Macquarie's Point.
The Main Pond in the Gardens. It was so hot and humid, I really wished I had my boardshorts so I could've jumped in to cool down. You'll also notice a bit of blue sky in the background. Unfortunately, it didn't last...
The pyramidal Tropical Centre at the southern end of the Gardens, the inside of this greenhouse structure houses an interactive display of exotic plants from tropical ecosystems around the world. On another unfortunate note, there was an admission fee so this is as much as you'll see...
Nothing terribly interesting, but I found this Hibiscus plant in the Gardens not far from the Tropical Centre. I don't know if it's all that legible in the picture, but the origin of this plant is Hawaii.
Following my trip to the Gardens, I decided to walk through downtown and visit Darling Harbour. While I was in the middle of downtown, I was stuck at a crosswalk because the signal didn't change for an inexplicably long period of time. The explanation came after a couple minutes worth of waiting as a large caravan of police motorcycles, cars and even one of those SWAT team vans drove by surrounding 2 buses full of journalists/support personnel and a handful of fancy cars. While I can't confirm this because I didn't actually see her, I believe I witnessed the passing (in the sense of movement rather than death) of Condoleezza Rice. She was in town for some sort of government function (that I can't seem to recall). At that time, she was probably going from a public appearance on a US Naval Vessel docked in the Harbour (which I later saw on TV) to some other event. It's sorta cool to see some fellow Yanks (not that I'm a full-blooded Yank anyways). Go America!
Anyways, I digress... I made it to Darling Harbour and just strolled around looking at some of the sights over there. This included walking by the Sydney Aquarium, Imax theatre, some shops/eateries and the Chinese Garden of Friendship. You had to pay at all these things too so I just ended up admiring them from the outside. The downtown stroll ended after I grabbed smoothie at one of the malls and took the train back to my Uncle's house.
Day 2, which also happened to be St. Patrick's Day, was probably the best all around day. I actually got to walk around and see some cool things (from the inside as well as the outside). Here we go:
The day started with a trip back to Darling Harbour. You'll notice that it was really sunny and nary a cloud in the sky. It was also cooler because the oppressive humidity was gone as well. The shot above is the view across Darling Harbour back towards the city centre.
Next was a trip to the Sydney Maritime Museum to look at cool ship/sea related goodies. The above is an Aussie jet/rocket propelled boat which holds the speed record for travel on water (or something like that).
This little model here is of a ship that is very dear to my heart (sorta). It is a model of Captain Cook's Endeavour which was not only responsible for exploring Australia (the reason why it's probably in this museum in the first place), but also for exploring Hawaii and New Zealand (two places undoubtedly dear to my heart). You can say what you will about Cook and all the bad things that came along with him, but I have an affinity towards historic ships and this ship in particular. And c'mon, it's on the 50c coin in NZ!!!
This was the original lens & light whatchamacallit from the Tasman Lighthouse. It used to be on the rocky shores of Tasmania flashing a light that would appear to pulse 3 or 5 times a minute (due to the rotational speed of the contraption).
This Australian Navy helicopter was dangling in the museum. 'Nuff said.
Also in the military section of the museum was a sonar quiz. It would play a sound that you might hear through a ship's sonar and you had to identify the source of the sound given a number of options. I correctly
While in the submarine section, I also took a moment to take a picture of myself sleeping in one of the tiny bunks. It sure sucks to be a crewman in one of these things...
There was a section of the museum devoted to the Vikings and I'm befuddled as to why I didn't have any pics from there. Anyways, after finishing up the inside of the museum I walked outside to look at some of the ships they had docked in the harbour. The above shot is of downtown (getting sick of seeing it yet?) across the harbour from the maritime museum. Again, I'd like to point out the beautiful weather.
Here we have a picture of one of the old Aussie Navy's cruisers. I didn't board it so I don't know its name unfortunately [After consulting the website, I have learned that the ship is the HMAS Vampire and it is a destroyer.]. Docked behind it was an Aussie submarine [HMAS Onslow] as well. You might ask where did Australia get such impressive ships in its fleet? By taking old hand-me-downs from Britain of course! [In the background, that's downtown again.]
Here, we have the Akarana which was a gift to Australia from New Zealand to commemorate the country's bicentennial. The cutter (light, fast coastal boat) still looks great despite being built way back in the late 19th century. In the background, you'll notice that Navy ship and the Australian flag flying proudly.
Here's a quick pic of the actual museum as seen from their small quay (pier). It's quite a voluminous building!
On the flip side, here's a pic of the aforementioned quay, with all the docked ships of the museum's impressive fleet, from near the museum.
The final ship in this collection was this one. I can't remember precisely, but I believe this was a replica of the HMS Bounty (of mutiny fame).
Next stop on my St. Patty's Day fun spree was the Sydney Observatory. I can't help but marvel at the gorgeous weather. It really was a perfect day! In addition to having a thing for ships, I also have a side interest in astronomy. So here I am!
There were many astronomical instruments in this observatory including this telescope that they used to calculate time/dates (I think). It always fascinates me just how intelligent some of those old fellas were at figuring out so many crazy things about the universe.
Here we have a fancy diorama of the solar system which is geared to accurately depict the orbits of each respective planet. I bet this would've gotten a pretty good grade on that science project in elementary school...
In addition to sightseeing around Sydney, a major reason for my trip was to go see my family down here, which includes my Uncle, Aunty & 2 cousins. I am indebted to them for sharing their home with me for a few days, for feeding me and for giving me some pointers about how to get around and where I should go. Here are a couple of pictures of them:
My Aussie Cousins: Jorden & Ayden. Often times, they were far too energetic for me! I think I might be getting too old! I feel really sorry for them since they'll always have an Aussie accent...
Me & my Uncle Michael.
On this wondrous Spring Break, I was also fortunate & privileged to have the opportunity to see Bic Runga perform at the State Theatre. There's a little story to this as well... The show sold out a week in advance and I was pretty screwed since I didn't have the foresight to purchase tickets earlier. Each day that I was there, I called, visited and harassed Ticketmaster to see if they had any more tickets. Unfortunately, no luck there. Next I turned to eBay (Australia) to see if I could get some tickets through there. I unsuccessfully bid on 2 different auctions for tickets with the second auction failing as a result of my "sniping" software not being able to function due to a dropped internet connection. The battle looked lost and I was terribly afraid that I might return to LA without seeing this concert. Thankfully, it being St. Patrick's Day, I think I was fortunate enough to receive a bit of the "luck o' the Irish" and a limited number of tickets were released at the theatre box office minutes before the doors opened. It was an anxious wait but the gamble paid off and I managed to snatch a ticket (thankfully at face value) from a legitimate source rather than some damn scalper! Thank the Powers that Be!
Anyhow, the concert was phenomenal. I knew that Bic was an excellent live performer because I had seen her back in 2003 (in NZ) but this show was simply the best concert I've been to. By the end of the evening, I ran out of superlatives to describe the performance. She played two distinct sets plus an encore. The first set consisted of songs from her previous two albums that included hits such as Drive, Sway, Get Some Sleep and a French song called Ne Me Quitte Pas. After an intermission (and an outfit change) she came out for a second set to perform all (yes, ALL) the songs from her new album Birds. For me, this was the really special part of the evening. The album was recorded as "live" as possible with a studio band of well known NZ musicians/singers including Neil Finn (in bands such as Split Enz, Crowded House - they sang the song "Don't Dream it's Over"), Anika Moa (solo singer) and Anna Coddington (lead singer of a band called Duchess). Everyone in the studio band was there for the live show which kept things as similar to the album as possible. It turned out to be even better than the recordings! The vocals were stunning and, instrumentally, Neil Finn on the piano was particularly memorable. Just to top things off, Bic came out unaccompanied for the encore which was a fitting end to the evening. I would implore everyone out there to get a hold over her album (or at least listen to some of her older songs) because she really is an amazing singer.
Phew. That's a lot of text. I'd have more pics up there but I wasn't allowed to take pics during the show and I couldn't find any from other sources. Anyways, here are (literally) my final Australia pics. Continuing my streak of eating at foreign Krispy Kreme locations, here I am at the Sydney Airport's very own Krispy Kreme
This pic is more or less self explanatory.
And here I am, about to embark on the final leg of my Spring Break travels, with a strawberries & cream doughnut in hand. That is my most favourite flavour. It also happens to be the one I tried for the first time at the Krispy Kreme in Harrod's (London).
Well, there you have it folks. Lots of words, not as many pics. My apologies. I hope everyone had fun over their Spring break weeks (if you were working, hopefully that went well). In any case, my last semester here is quickly coming to a close and I have yet to truly make the most of it. Let's hope I can squeeze in some more fun without losing a handle on this challenging (yet surprisingly engaging) course load. Best of luck to everyone! Take care!
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1 comment:
HA. well all i can say is. phew!
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