Friday, April 4, 2014

Australia...day two...

Our second day in Sydney: Kevin was off early in the morning to meet with the folks at a university an hour and a half south of Sydney. I was left to my own devices. My philosophy for this whole trip was, “soak it up”. I’d be alone for much of the time, as this was a work trip for Kevin, so on this first day, I hit the streets by 7:30 am. First order of business: caffeine. I headed west toward the downtown/harbour bridge/botanic gardens.

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This one’s for you, Kristen. The Queen Victoria Building in all its glory with its namesake presiding out front: a huge, supa elegant indoor mall, if you will, but of 1898 vision and construction. Quite impressive – takes up a city block and you can be sure this picture does NOT do it justice.

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On the other end of the spectrum, the ever-popular Sydney Tower Eye building. Somewhat confusingly, the building’s own website states the following: “Construction of Sydney Tower Centrepoint shopping centre began in the late 1970's with the first 52 shops opening in 1972.” Um, OK.

I was headed to the Harbour Bridge, which I was praying would have a pedestrian lane, for a taste of the view of the Opera House. I was not disappointed. There’s a strong emphasis on preventing silliness on the bridge, what with the concertina wire every which way, but it was no barrier to the view.

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I just went out to the halfway point.

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Sydney Harbour is quite a complex affair with many bays and coves – not at all what I was expecting. Well, not true – I’d read up on it – but still. I only ever ended up exploring two individual such coves.

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Behold the power of zoom. The neighborhood with our hotel is in the background somewhere.

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Spying on rooftops on the way back across the bridge.

By now it was only 10 am and I was already pooped. Onwards. I hung out taking in the whole cruise ship scene in the harbor, and then exposed myself to art at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

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Then it was back across town to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The place was flooded with school groups, rivers of kids of all ages, all in uniform. I enjoyed the A/C...and the free wifi. Oh, and the art.

Then it was time for the Royal Botanic Gardens, where I got up to my usual tricks.

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It is incredibly grounding to see day lilies, which we have all around our VT house, in a place that is in two different hemispheres (south / east).

Just as it is unbelievable to see this sort of thing happening.

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Gahhhhh...

At this time of year, we were heading into fall, so there wasn’t a great deal in bloom. I went apeshit over Banksia spinulosa, found in Eastern Australia from as far north as Cairns all the way down to Victoria in the south. Keep in mind – there hasn’t been a lot of photography in my world for months now. I was feeling a little rusty. Banksia was happy to pose for me.

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Still pretty green – just starting to get squirrelly.

 

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Nice!

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And then they warm up into pink and red!

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Yummaliciousness.

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When it’s all over, this is what it’ll look like. These must be from last year.

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Lord only knows what this is. I think it’s made of meth, because it was an instant high.

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This is what all that looked like on the ground. Add another bit for the part on the bridge.

Eventually I made my way back to the hotel, as did Kevin. We wandered the neighborhood for dinner and then I think we pretty much collapsed...and thus concludes day 2.

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