The harbour front

25.08.2013

While Kelsey was working all week, I set off on my own adventures. I had a lot of time in the city, so I really wanted to get to know it well. I went on some crazy long walks and really took my time getting to know the place. It was the first time in a long time I can remember having this luxury.

I started out on Observatory Hill, where I got my first glimpse of this monstrously huge city. Then attempted to buy a drink at 9 a.m. at the oldest bar in town, it didn't work. The next stop was the ancient Garrison church, which was constructed with massive sandstone walls in the mid-1800s. I walked through the "Argyle Cut" and meandered around "the rocks", the oldest part of town. A really strange aspect of Sydney and Australia is the glorification of criminal gangs in the founding of their identity. I guess you gotta start nationalism somewhere. The Suez Canal was just one example of the creepiness of the olden days. It was a lane where gangsters would hide out, in between two buildings that tapers at the end.

Nearby is Cadman's cottage, the oldest house in the area, built in 1816.

Then, there was the Museum of Contemporary art, where I dodged hundreds of schoolchildren for a glimpse of yet some more otherworldly aboriginal art.

From there, I checked out the model Sydney in the floor at Customs House.

At the famous Circular Quay, I read all the quotes from the writer's walk. My favourite quote was this one by Christopher Brennan: "I know I am the wanderer of the ways of the worlds, to whom the sunshine and the rain are one and none to stay or hasten, because he knows no ending of the way, no home, no goal…" Kinda sounds like the last three years of my life, n'est pas?

Here's the original poem: http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/brennanc/poetry/wanderer.html As if this wasn't enough deep thinking for one day, I finally, came to the Sydney Opera House. A building I had dreamed about visiting ever since I was a kid. For some reason, my parents bought me this light up globe for Christmas. I don't think I even asked for it, but I loved it. You could look into it and see scenes from around the world. Thinking back on it, it was kind of a glorified fancy view master, which sounds lame now, but in the early nineties it was the coolest thing. Anyway, when you looked at Australia on the globe, you could see the opera house and Ayer's Rock. I had always wanted to visit these places but assumed it only happened to glamorous, exciting people, not me, who was destined to be stuck in Ontario forever. Australia is on the other side of the world! Whenever would I have time for that, what with building my awesome journalism career and whatnot? So coming here, on a whim and a prayer, while in between two exotic job placements was kind of blowing my mind. I was transformed into a geeky 12 year old, unable to tear my eyes away from this object of desire that I had been dreaming about for 20 years. Wow.

After all that, it was time for lunch and a rest in the Royal Botanic Gardens. The greenhouse was closed and so I waited around to try and glimpse the famous bats in the park. I waited for about a half hour and then decided I wasn't really that into it, so I went home. Kelsey was there again and we chatted for a bit and went to bed early, exhausted after eating a yummy pasta bake she concocted with tofu.

Observatory Hill