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La Traviata
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Hey everyone!
This morning we got up and headed to the Harbour Bridge/Opera House area in "The Rocks" and "Circular Quay". We went to the bridge first. We walked halfway across it, we didn't foot the $9 to go to the top of a pillar to view the harbour, or the $160 to walk even higher across the bridge, because we had amazing views from where we were, we were happy with. We took loads of pics. The bridge is unbelieveably big!! Pics won't even do it justice! We had a great view of the Opera House from the bridge. We realized that most of the pictures we'd previously seen of it are from the other side so the shot includes the O.H. and the bridge, but we saw it from the bridge side which was different. We stuck up the card with a Canada Flag on the bridge for Cargill to find when he comes. It was weird too, there were packs of police walking around (seriously at least 4 to a group, usually more), and lots of packs too! And there were two helicopters that were idling (hovering, not moving) above the harbour. It made Jess a little nervous that the opera house would be hit by terrorists when a couple army jets went overhead . . . we still don't know what all the security was for. They were everywhere. We honestly don't think Red Deer even has that many cops at all, let alone in a small area all at once. It was crazy. But we made it out fine parents, no need to worry, haha. We walked back from the bridge, towards the opera house, and there were some street performers. One guy was juggling a chain saw, then torches, but he kept dropping them (haha, the torches, not the chainsaw), which made him really nervous. We couldn't understand what he was saying in the mic, but he kept looking at us which was scary, because we didn't know if he was asking us to do something. We'd just stare blankly back at him. haha. He was so nervous he finally went over to some other street performers waiting to go after him, and asked what he should do to make the show better, and they told him to speak more slowly. Apparently he's from Japan and just starting to learn english, so that's why we had trouble understanding him. Poor guy, he was too nervous and kept dropping his stuff so people started walking away so he ended his show early. We felt really bad. He had knives and other stuff laid out to juggle, but the show didn't make it that long. TJ wanted to see the guy going after him (which was sadly, really the only reason we were one of the few people watching the first nervous guy). The second one was "Basketball Man" and of course, TJ wanted to see since he had something like 10 bballs in a bag, waiting to go on. He took a long time to set up, and then the wind kept blowing his balls out of place (whooops, TJ just burst out laughing, I guess that needs rephrasing). . . . the BASKETballs were set up on pylons and the wind kept blowing them off, so we never really got to see what he was going to do, but he was a really impressive ball-handler when he was goofing around, so TJ was disappointed to miss it. Ah well. Then we went and had supper . . . if you could call it that. We cheaped out (since we were on the pricy strip and the only fastfood was MacDonalds and we didn't feel like that) and each got a hotdog and a smoothie from a local vendor . . . lets just say it cost us $20, and the hotdog seriously 'mushed' in your mouth as you ate it. We both had 2 bites and while gagging, decided that we'd rather have wasted money, and go buy something better, than force down that crap. It was foul!!! The smoothies were good though, haha. After our "supper", we walked down to the Opera House to change into our nice clothes (it was too hot to wear them all day). Then we went into the Opera Bar and ordered a beer. After the guy popped the caps, we found out they were $8.50 each, OUCH! But it was a really nice lounge, we felt like we should have a drink with the ritzy dressed up folk. Then we went and found our seats in the opera house. The opera itself was amazing, Jess was in her glory. We went to "La Traviata" which was sung in italian with surtitles, so it was like a "real" full fledged opera. TJ was a trooper to come. If it wasn't for the surtitles, we would have had no idea what was going on. It was cool though. The opera hall was smaller than we expected, but beautiful. On both intermissions (yup, there were two!) we went outside and took some night shots of the harbour/city/bridge. It was raining hard during the first intermission (the first bit of rain they've had here in a long time) and there was a big lightning storm - didn't really hear the thunder - but hopefully that didn't start up any more fires in the area, they already have a lot. After the show, we took more night pictures before hopping on our bus to come home. Just now, in the internet cafe, TJ saw a poster on the wall advertizing Bone Thugs Concert that was tonight . . . haha . . . he'd have MUCH rather been at that than the opera, but we didn't know. He would have skipped Bone Thugs for Jess apparently . . . but it's after the fact now, maybe he's just going for brownie points. Jess thinks he would have ditched her in a second if he had known before hand, except maybe for the fact that he paid a lot for the opera tickets. haha. Anyway, it's late here and we can't think of the other things we wanted to mention. We'll post the pics tomorrow. We have a lot! And TJ even took some with Jess in them, so there you go Ma.
  
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