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Architectural delights of Sydney

Today was a day to explore more of the architectural aspects of the inner city. I started at town hall, saw Queen Victoria's talking dog, that asked you to put money into his fountain, some astounding 19th century building design at the Queen Victoria Building, which is now a posh mall, the extravagant State Theatre, The Mint, The Sydney Hospital, Parliament House, the State Library, St. Mary's Cathedral, the Hyde Park Barracks and St. James' Church, all of which were unbelievable, considering Australia had just about the same amount of time to build their civilization as Canada did.

I don't know why they take so much better care of their surroundings than we do, but anyone can see that it's worth it. I was beginning to discover that Sydney really deserves to be classified a world class city, unlike Toronto and all its misguided enthusiasm for such a title. Anywho, I also visited Hyde Park, which has an amazing art deco fountain and a WWI memorial with as many stars in the ceiling as Australians who served in the war (120,000), pretty sure that number didn't include women, which is annoying.

From there, it was time for some more modernist examples of architecture and a trip to the city museum, which was really engrossing for someone as fascinated by urban geography as I am. I think it would have been boring to anybody else.

I was still ready to go exploring, so I set off for Chinatown and Darling Harbour, squeezing two days into one and freeing me up to do whatever I missed out on on Friday. Yes. Travel powers to the max.

I wanted to stay as far away from Chinese-type activities but I couldn't resist the strange "Golden Water Mouth" fountain, which drips golden-hued water into a grate on the ground.

I walked through the centre of Chinatown and visited the tea garden. It didn't compare at ALL to the beauty of the one in San Francisco, I don't know why they even bother Everything was quite Disney-fied, with impeccably clean streets and fake bamboo all around, but it was interesting to see I suppose. Darling Harbour was also tacky, so I didn't stay there long at all. I guess it was the place to be in the 80s and 90s though, so there's that about it.

That night, I was really excited because I was going out to meet my Travelpodder friends Rani and Gerre! I had known them for at LEAST five years through our blogs and forum postings on the website and it was excitinggggg. They were exactly how I expected they would be, and are really nice open friendly people. Our food was bland, but of course that never matters, when you are in good company.

Town Hall

Town Hall


Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria


Queen Victoria Building

Queen Victoria Building


State Theatre

State Theatre


Sydney Tower???

Sydney Tower???


Hyde Park

Hyde Park


Anzac Memorial

Anzac Memorial


Anzac memorial

Anzac memorial


St Mary's Cathedral

St Mary's Cathedral


Hyde Park Barracks

Hyde Park Barracks


The Sydney Hospital courtyard

The Sydney Hospital courtyard


Parliament House

Parliament House


State Library

State Library


Modernist

Modernist


Sydney Museum

Sydney Museum


Australia Square

Australia Square


Australia Square

Australia Square


Some other square

Some other square


Me vs. train

Me vs. train


Sydney Library

Sydney Library


Golden Water Mouth

Golden Water Mouth


Paddy's Markets

Paddy's Markets


Chinatown

Chinatown


Friendship Tea Garden

Friendship Tea Garden


Friendship Tea Garden

Friendship Tea Garden


Friendship Tea Garden

Friendship Tea Garden


Friendship Tea Garden

Friendship Tea Garden


Friendship Tea Garden

Friendship Tea Garden


Friendship Tea Garden

Friendship Tea Garden


Friendship Tea Garden

Friendship Tea Garden


Darling Harbour

Darling Harbour


Me on the train again

Me on the train again


Rani Gerre and me

Rani Gerre and me

Posted by baixing 17:00 Archived in Australia

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