ANZAC Memorial, St. Mary's, and a Ferry ride

Photos:

• Top left: ANZAC Memorial statue
• Top right: outside ANZAC Memorial
  
• Middle left: inside St. Mary's Cathedral
• Middle right: outside St. Mary's Cathedral
• Bottom left: Harbour Bridge w/ Opera House in background, taken from ferry
• Bottom right: Boats in Sydney Harbour

Yesterday Carla and I started out at the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park...by accident. Our intent was to go to the Australian Museum (which, incidentally, we decided not to go to after we did find it), and we weren't sure which building it was. We picked the most "museum-looking" building and went inside only to find that it was something entirely different than expected, yet still interesting. The museum contained memorabilia from every major conflict that Australia and New Zealand have participated in. The statue in the photo shows the dead body of a soldier being supported by three women: his mother, his wife, and his sister. The statue was created to honor the war time sacrifices made by women, though they may have never fought in combat. In the arms of his wife is a baby, representing the impact the sacrifice would have on future generations.

Next, we walked further down the street where we saw St. Mary's Cathedral. If you look really closely at the picture, you can see a bride and groom on the front steps. This was an incredibly beautiful cathedral. I felt (almost) like I was back in Italy again. Right down to the Italian family in the gift shop that was arguing feverishly in their mother tongue over which rosary they were going to take home for their mother. No joke. If I have enough time, this is another one of the places I have added to my list of things worth seeing twice. Maybe I'll get better pictures next time. (P.S. I have no idea why my camera makes the windows look like they're on fire. For the record, they weren't.)

After the cathedral we walked down to Circular Quay where we caught a ferry to Darling Harbour (see my first post from Sydney). Didn't expect to get such a long ride--about 40 min.--but that was one of the best parts. The ferry took us all over the harbour and provided an opportunity to take some great pictures. Best viewpoint of the city I've had so far.

More downtown Sydney

Photos:

• Top left: Aboriginals performing at Circular Quay
• Top right: George Street
• Bottom left: Hyde Park
• Bottom right: St. Mary's Cathedral from Hyde Park

Started off the day on Sunday at a place called Paddy's Market. It's a huge open-air market (much larger than the one I'd seen at The Rocks the day before) that's open Th.-Su. Lots of cheap knock-offs, etc. but it was very interesting nonetheless. After that we made an attempt at visiting another market over in Paddington, but found that it is only open on Saturdays, so we'll have to try again next weekend.

Split up after that: Carla was ready to go home and I wanted to look around a bit more. I was ready to attempt navigating my way around the city on my own. I walked the couple of miles back into downtown and got some lunch, which I took to some benches near the Opera House to eat. Made my way back towards George Street where I did some general exploring and also a little more fiddling with my camera, then walked back to Elizabeth Street where I caught the bus back to Carla's apartment.

After dinner, we made a quick trip into Randwick for ice cream bars--the highlight of the evening. Carla's computer has a virus, so she'd spent most of the afternoon and into the evening trying to figure out how to get rid of it, which also means I'll be writing from internet cafes until further notice...

A Saturday in Sydney

Photos:

• Left: The Rocks Market
• Right: Prince St., about a block from Carla's apartment

Not really a busy day today...

Slept in. (I think I'm finally starting to adjust to the time zone, now that I'm able to stay asleep past 6am.) Then Carla and I went to "The Rocks Market" around noon, on the opposite side of the Quay from the Opera House. It's an open-air market that runs on the weekends; really popular place for both native Australians and tourists, it seems, though there's probably more of the latter. Found tons of stuff that I want to take home with me, but I don't think I'll buy until it's closer to when I go home.

Followed up the market with a walk further into downtown Sydney. Carla wanted to go to Myer, a Nordstrom-like department store, to check out the huge sales they're having. Unfortunately, we both left empty-handed. We returned home so that Carla would have time to talk to her boyfriend in the States before he went to bed. I took a walk through the neighborhood for about an hour or so and then ended up at Coles, the grocery store. Still getting used to the labels, but found a few things. Got bored on the way home and decided to play around with the black and white feature on my digital camera, the results of which you can view at the top of this post.

After I got back we made a light dinner and now here I am at the computer. The Brady Bunch Movie is on TV here tonight, so I may go join Carla in a few minutes.

Hope everyone is well back in the States. Don't hesitate to send an e-mail or leave me a comment--I'd really love to hear from folks at home. Let me know what you think of the pics and tell me if the links are working. I PROMISE to e-mail you back. :)

Pirates, Pancakes, and Vending Machines

Photos:

• Top left: Sydney Harbour Bridge at night
• Top right: Sydney Opera House at night
• Bottom: Dinner at "Pancakes on The Rocks"

Started off yesterday morning with a trip down the street to get some documents printed for work. I didn't think getting a work Visa for Japan could be so complicated... But at least it's in the mail and on its way to SanFran now, and hopefully I will never have to think about it again for a very long time.

Went to the grocery store by myself, as well as a couple of other shops not far from my friend's apartment. It took a lot longer than I'd planned because I keep forgetting that I don't recognize any of the brands, packaging, or sometimes even the products here. I feel like everything takes me forever because I'm spending so much time reading labels.

Started off the afternoon meeting up with Carla at the Uni again. She took me on a tour this time. One of the highlights was, drumroll please, the largest vending machine in the Southern Hemisphere! (I'll have to go back sometime and take pics.)

Next we went to do something that I've been waiting to do since February: we found a movie theater and watched the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which I will now take the opportunity (without trying to spoil too much) to highly recommend. If you liked the first one, you need to watch this one. I also fully support the Scottish accent they've given Davy Jones... Just one bit of advice, though. If you have a hard time understanding heavily-accented English, you may want to wait until the movie comes out on DVD so you can watch it with subtitles--I felt like some of the dialogue in this movie was substantially harder to follow that in the first film.

After the movie, we went back to Carla's apartment and got ready for an evening out. We went back to Circular Quay and took some photos of the harbour at night and then went for a late dinner at this place called Pancakes on The Rocks, a 24/7 pancake joint that proved to be quite the experience. I may try to go back again before leaving. Great food.

Finished up the evening with a walk back to the bus stop and a trip home.

Sydney Coastal Walk

Photos:

• Top left: View of Coogee Beach from hillside
  
• Top right: Clovelly Beach
• Middle left: Waverly Cemetery overlooking the Tasman Sea
• Middle right: Bronte Beach
• Bottom left: Icebergs Club at Bondi Beach
• Bottom right: Target at Bondi Junction

Yesterday I saw some of the most beautiful beaches in my life! Once again, I met up with Carla at the end of her shift and we headed to the coast, which is only a mile or so from her University. We did the Coastal Walk, a 6km (a little less than 4mi) walk along the coast that extends from Coogee Beach towards the famous Bondi Beach (pronounced BOND-eye). The walk took about two hours, and included some of the most incredible scenery I have seen since arriving. I'm definitely going to make a point of going back.

The Waverly Cemetery was established in 1877 and is absolutely huge. It takes up an entire hillside and is bordered by one of the most amazing views of the Tasman Sea. Looking out, you can see nothing but the ocean and open sky.

At Bronte Beach we saw a lot of surfers, as well as families with children enjoying a day at the beach during the school holiday. For those of you who care, this is also the best location for sightings of old men in speedos. (I had to be careful with my timing when I was taking pictures at this beach...)

Farther down the coast, we arrived at Bondi Beach. (I'll take more pics of the beach the next time I go there.) This is a huge, touristy place that I'm told is nearly always completely packed. Even now when it's winter here, there are still pretty big numbers of people that go there. Carla said that in the summers it's so full that you can hardly see any sand.

Next we took the bus to Bondi Junction. Lots of shopping there including a 5-story mall where we found the Target store which, incidentally, is completely different than in the states. Almost resembles more of a department store than the version Americans are used to. I also got another taste of just how costly it is to live here: a regular bath towel can cost as much as $40 AUD, which is still about $30 USD.

After shopping, we took the bus back towards Coogee to check out some potential plans for the evening which ended up not working out...but we'll be able to do it this afternoon so I guess you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to hear about it. We finished up the evening at Carla's apartment. We made dinner and had a little bit of the root beer that I brought with me, then watched a little television. Nothing too exciting...but a lot more to come in the next few days.

Soooo cold!!!

Photos:

• Top left: Newtown
• Top right: Sydney Harbour Bridge from Circular Quay
• Bottom left: Sydney Opera House
• Bottom right: view of Sydney
  

As I sit here typing this post, it is currently about 10:15 in the morning (Thursday the 6th) and absolutely freezing. The weather report says it's supposedly 18 degrees Celsius (which is something like 64 degrees Fahrenheit), but let me tell you--absolutely no one sees the value in central heating here and it feels very much colder than it actually is. I'm never far from my fleece blanket when I'm at my friend's apartment.

Yesterday was nice weather, though. I had prepared myself for the same wet and cold that I had experienced the day before and, much to my surprise, soon after leaving the apartment found that I was over-prepared. I have pictures of myself the day I arrived wearing multiple layers, a jacket, and a scarf at the Aquarium, but yesterday I felt like I was baking. Haven't gone outside yet today, but I'm hoping the temperature will end up more like yesterday than the day before.

I met up with Carla yesterday as soon as she got off work on campus at UNSW and from there we went to Newtown to look around and do some window-shopping, etc. We went to a grocery store and picked up a few things for lunch, got on a bus and headed over to the Circular Quay (pronounced "key") where we found a bench to eat on with an absolutely fantastic view. There we saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. I took the picture of the city from the top of the steps at the Opera House. The park you see on the left side of the photograph is part of the Royal Botanical Gardens, where I hope to go sometime next week.

From there, we took a quick walk through a section on the other side of the Quay called The Rocks. Lots of *really expensive* shopping, clubs and restaurants there. We'll go back there probably on a weekend to look around some more.

Next, we took the bus back to her apartment to make dinner and watch Australian soap operas and gameshows. Still taking it fairly easy in the evenings because I haven't fully adjusted to the time change yet. I keep waking up obscenely early in the mornings because it's actually early afternoon at home, and going to bed at 9pm here is actually like going to bed at 4 in the morning. It may take a while but as they say here, I'll "acclimatise" eventually. :)

I'm in Sydney!

Photos:

• Top left: Goodbye Portland!
• Top right: Darling Harbour
• Bottom left: Sharks at the Sydney Aquarium
• Bottom right: George Street, downtown Sydney

Here's a little recap of my trip so far...

Sunday July 2, 2006 7:40pm, PST
Took the first picture from the air as we were leaving PDX.

Sunday, July 2, 2006 9:00pm, PST
Since I'm officially out of the country on the 4th of July for the second time in my life (the first time was when I was studying abroad in Rome), I considered it rather thoughtful of the San Francisco residents who were lighting fireworks a little early this year; I got to see some of them from the air as I was approaching the San Francisco Airport.

Sunday, July 2, 2006 10:00pm, PST
Bought a pack of gum at SFO for a whopping $1.60, but felt a little better when I exchanged $80 USD for $90 AUD (Australian dollars).

Monday, July 3, 2006 1:30pm, PST -or- Tuesday, July 4, 2006 6:30am, AEST
Landed in Sydney a little over 14 hours after takeoff from SFO. I had looked forward to watching the sunrise in Sydney as I had literally spent the last 17 hours in darkness, but in the end it didn't happen exactly that way, mostly because it took over an hour to get through immigration and customs at the airport, but also partly because the sun was not really visible. The state of New South Wales deemed it appropriate to make me feel VERY at home here in Australia: it was raining so hard all morning that it felt like Oregon. Ironically, it was quite the contrast to the 100-degree weather I had been experiencing at home lately. Looks like I had to travel 7,400 miles to get a little taste of home...

Tuesday afternoon, July 4, 2006 (AEST)
As a quick survey of some areas of Sydney:
Carla and I went to Chinatown, Darling Harbor, and the Sydney Aquarium before having lunch and wandering through the downtown area. (The picture from the aquarium was taken in a tunnel that you can walk through where you are surrounded by water. The sharks in that picture were actually laying on the glass right above our heads.) Lots of fun, and now I definitely have more of an idea of how to get around here as well as some of the places I want to come back and visit when I get the chance.