Chris in Australia 3
12/05/06 07:31 Filed in: Australia
I am in Alice Springs now - it is 1.5 hours behind
Sydney, the 0.5 threw me completely, until a kind
soul in the RFDS museum (can you guess what RFDS
means?) informed me. Tomorrow. I am going on a day
tour to visit the native Arrente people, and then for
the next two days I am visiting the local rock
formations, Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and the Olga's (or
the Olga Maitlands as I call them).
I only have half an hour before the cafe shuts, so I won't cover my whole trip to Sydney tonight (or this morning, where you are!).
Sydney, ah Sydney. It is the Paris of the southern hemisphere. Apart from Paris itself, its my favourite city, it is beautiful, high-tech, peaceful, brash, loud, cultural, ostentatious and audacious! The only grating things about this city are the car drivers who blow their horns at the slightest provocation; seem not to have discovered the muffler yet and think squealing wheels is the correct method of leaving traffic lights or going around corners.
You will note that I haven't mentioned flies yet. Sydney was mostly fly free. To my astonishment, Alice Springs, relative to Canberra at least, is low on the fly count too. The only time I was attacked this week was up in the Blue Mountains, north of Sydney. I was in a tour group, and they were swarming us, but only for a while.
So, Sydney. This drought-ridden city decided to end its drought on the night of my arrival. Cloudy skies and then rain rained (but not heavily) on Wednesday night. I couldn't hear anything from my hostel room though because I was on the eighth floor of a 'whizz-bang' building. I had a spectacular view of a high-rise office block across the street. The next morning, Thursday, I opened the curtains to grey skies threatening rain. It did indeed rain a heavy misty rain, but it cleared up beautifully in the afternoon.
I decided to do the Lonely Planet walk, which went from Hyde Park (much smaller, no resemblance) down Macquarie Street to the Opera House, around past the Rocks (think Regent Street on the water front), under, around then across the magnificent Sydney Harbour bridge. Although I set out about 0900, I didn't get to Milton Point (across the bridge) till 1800.
This tardiness was because after visiting the Catholic Cathedral and the Hyde Park Barracks (convict/immigration/labour law museum where I learnt that most of the British Empire, including Barbados also had a penal colonies), I popped in to look at the NSW parliament building. I was scornful of going inside a provincial parliament, and when I got inside, past the security scan, I saw that there was indeed nothing to see. In a fit of sarcasm, I decided to ask the receptionists if there was anything to see in there. I was in for a treat, because that day was the final Question Time before the NSW general elections in a few weeks (or months?) time.
I only have half an hour before the cafe shuts, so I won't cover my whole trip to Sydney tonight (or this morning, where you are!).
Sydney, ah Sydney. It is the Paris of the southern hemisphere. Apart from Paris itself, its my favourite city, it is beautiful, high-tech, peaceful, brash, loud, cultural, ostentatious and audacious! The only grating things about this city are the car drivers who blow their horns at the slightest provocation; seem not to have discovered the muffler yet and think squealing wheels is the correct method of leaving traffic lights or going around corners.
You will note that I haven't mentioned flies yet. Sydney was mostly fly free. To my astonishment, Alice Springs, relative to Canberra at least, is low on the fly count too. The only time I was attacked this week was up in the Blue Mountains, north of Sydney. I was in a tour group, and they were swarming us, but only for a while.
So, Sydney. This drought-ridden city decided to end its drought on the night of my arrival. Cloudy skies and then rain rained (but not heavily) on Wednesday night. I couldn't hear anything from my hostel room though because I was on the eighth floor of a 'whizz-bang' building. I had a spectacular view of a high-rise office block across the street. The next morning, Thursday, I opened the curtains to grey skies threatening rain. It did indeed rain a heavy misty rain, but it cleared up beautifully in the afternoon.
I decided to do the Lonely Planet walk, which went from Hyde Park (much smaller, no resemblance) down Macquarie Street to the Opera House, around past the Rocks (think Regent Street on the water front), under, around then across the magnificent Sydney Harbour bridge. Although I set out about 0900, I didn't get to Milton Point (across the bridge) till 1800.
This tardiness was because after visiting the Catholic Cathedral and the Hyde Park Barracks (convict/immigration/labour law museum where I learnt that most of the British Empire, including Barbados also had a penal colonies), I popped in to look at the NSW parliament building. I was scornful of going inside a provincial parliament, and when I got inside, past the security scan, I saw that there was indeed nothing to see. In a fit of sarcasm, I decided to ask the receptionists if there was anything to see in there. I was in for a treat, because that day was the final Question Time before the NSW general elections in a few weeks (or months?) time.