Last of Seven
Trip Start
Dec 01, 2007
1
8
22
Trip End
Ongoing
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Sydney,
Australia
Monday, December 31, 2007
Having lived in Sydney for many years i realized i hadn't taken the time to explore the "touristy things" so i spent today with Nathan playing tourist. we begun at Hyde park. Hyde Park isn't a place i'd given much attention to previously. i've passed it a million times before but never taken the time to walk through and appreciate the park, which is essentially the city's central open space.
I learnt that Hyde park was originally, sometime ago, Sydney's first racecourse , trying to picture it so is almost impossible but this tidbit i found rather fascinating
Centrepoint Tower (or Sydney Tower)
.The Archibald fountain is the most popular point in the park and an obvious photo opportunity for tourists and locals alike. from where i was standing, staring down the main pathway where trees from each side form a tunnel archway - couples could be seen walking hand in hand , students studying on the grass to my right , tourists fumbling around with their digital camera's , people jogging , people on lunch breaks from work, i realized Hyde park is actually quite a beautiful park and until now i was mostly dismissive of it. however at night Hyde park isn't a place anyone wants to be as undesirables roam about.
We then headed across the road to St. Mary's Cathedral . i must confess i hadn't stepped foot into a church previously so i was really keen to do so. the fact the cathedral remains incomplete only adds to it's gothic exterior. Interestingly enough the cathedral was destroyed by a fire back in 1865 (don't quote me on that lol) and 3 years after, the foundation stone of the present cathedral was laid.
I felt significantly smaller inside i'm not sure if that was due to the vastness of the cathedral of something else....maybe the silence played it's part.
Outside on the other side of the cathedral i saw a horrific que of people lined up for blocks and blocks who were trying to get prime spots in the Royal Botanical Gardens for the nights NYE fireworks display. i was thankful i wasn't in that line.
Due to numerous road closures for the NYE celebrations it proved extremely difficult to navigate our way (on foot mind you) to Circular Quay
Centrepoint Tower1
. why we were headed in that direction simply seemed to be a natural progression from Hyde park and St. Mary's Cathedral. along the way we stopped off at Sydney library, massive yet uninteresting we wandered our way through a random art exhibit which took place upstairs and quickly left soon after.Circular Quay was manic. people seemingly walking aimlessly served only to frustrate me. Heading towards the Opera house my bag was inspected for alcohol at the check points that had been erected, which was all rather elaborate and OTT. once being cleared we wandered towards the Opera house amongst a mass of people situated all over the place and who were somewhat disorderly. People who refused to moved for passers by in the event their prized position would be lost. Increasingly, my patience wore thin and i decided we needed to be on the other side of Circular Quay and that's the direction we headed in.
The MCA (museum of contemporary art) provided to be a much needed hideout from the ever increasing crowds. a bonus that neither of us had been before and the fact entry is free delighted us.
There was one exhibit that stuck with me, difficult as it is to explain. It was situated in a very dark room with sexless mannequins which lay on each side of a rasied platform that was in the middle of the room. above it was a projector that projected a image of a naked woman or alternatively a naked man who rolled from one end to the other and upon it's return trip morphed into the opposite sex. the process was fascinating to say the least and the effect made it appear as though it was an actual person rolling about naked. It amused me to watch people enter the room and hear gasps of shock upon thinking they had walked into a room with a naked woman or man in it
City
. a mother and her son walked in , seconds later the mother mortified took her son by the hand and left. I couldnt help but laugh.After the MCA we strolled through the rocks and ended up at the Harbour Bridge. There were stairs which i assumed led to the bridge and you could walk across so after getting an old school choc top we proceeded up the flight of stairs and found ourselves on the pedestarian walkway of the Harbour Bridge. I hadn't walked across before and i remember reading that "no visit to Sydney can be considered complete without walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge". Well that theory was now going to be put to the test. the views were.....it's stunning for a lack of a better word. It doesn't look like it but the walk isn't a quick one (but then again we were constantly stopping for photos and soaking in the views) and with the cars zooming pass and looking down from the bridge it was....well....interesting "vertigo" springs to mind amongst others lol.
When we crossed the bridge i was like "thank god" as my feet were starting to hurt. it was then i realized that we had walked all the way from Town Hall to Milson's Point on the other side of the harbour. how that happened as it wasn't planned was almost laughable but with the train station in sight i wasn't about to add further to our "walking tour".
With the city swelling with masses of people in anticipation of the nights fireworks i was glad we were heading out of the city...the fireworks just quietly weren't anthing special and alot of people complained and moaned about them the following morning.
