Today I walked around Sydney, went to art galleries to dodge the rain, and into the lovely Botanical Garden to get rained on. Sydney IS a beautiful city, it would have been far more amazing in the glaring sun, but I am happy with what I saw, I would be happy to come back! Sydney as the pics below show have this unique Victorian influence, this now passed attempt to put a little bit of England in a completely different environment and all up against the new glass and steel that the modern world demands.
Victorian shopping arcades live on:
Above is an art piece with old stone ramparts set against the new city, it has a catchy title which I forget, but it's something like "timeless is relative"
Walking over to the Botanical Gardens gives some of the most famous views of the bridge and Opera House.
North Sydney is behind and you can see all the rain !
Below is a Queensland Bottle Tree.
Lorrikeets! I love them! Such quiet little colourful birds, lots of lovely colours!
The the noisy cockatoo shows up!
In the lotus garden the rain pools - i love how the waxy leaves repel the water.
More spoonbills wandering around this lovely city park!
Palm flowers...
Victoriana:
Insect eaters!
An amazingly well kept city centre park.
Buildings you just don't imagine Sydney has...
below is the city centre hospital.
Matrix fans may remember this tower - famous Sydney landmark, but probably quite ugly in modern terms, like the Calgary Tower - some of them just don't age very well. Not worth going up since it is so overcast.
This is the main shopping street.
Steve Jobs fans and people who cannot use Android phones go here..
And old department store below...
And from Darling Harbour backa round to Old Sydney...
The old taverns are very Victorian, all tiled, the only change is the modern barriers on the outside.
And this was much of my taste of Sydney, the Art Museum doesn't allow pictures.
This evening I had a toodle around Waterloo and Surry Hills, went for dinner - since I am leaving tomorrow of course it is beginning to dry up, it was warm humid, all the cafes open on the street. Sydney is far bigger than I imagined. Lovely place to live I'll bet. But boy is it expensive! The hotel I used points for because the prices were insane - but for example the internet if you buy in the hotel - it is 27 bucks a day... sheesh! It's a Holiday Inn for Peter Ward's sake! No funnel web spiders and they have only spread as far north as Brisbane, and they are not in Melbourne, so now I won't be seeing any at all ! Works for me!
Oh well time to pack the bags... off to Vanuatu tomorrow and have to get up at 5am! I wish I could see more Sydney!
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