The plan was check out the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), the Rocks, and if I had time the Art Gallery or Bondi Beach. Now everybody knows Sydney by the Opera House. And I have to admit it is a beautiful bu idling, especially up close. Although the structure itself looks like a series of sails from a boat that's on the harbour, it was actually conceived to be parts of a sphere. And what looks to be one large white panel that cover the 'sails' are actually small 4x4 inch beige tiles. Not white. It really is great architecture and I coulda done the tour but I passed.
The Royal Botanical Gardens are very expansive and popular with the local runners. Goodness, from 10:00 to 12:00 there were runners everywhere! Zipping past me, coming towards me, doing sit ups and push ups on the grass, and few folks had some personal trainers with them. Overall, the gardens were lovely and I enjoyed just relaxing while I watched everybody work their butts off.
I then headed over to the MCA which is free, like most museums in Australia. And I was impressed. I especially loved the Yinka Shonibare exhibit. He is an African/English artist that uses Dutch fabric on mannequins, film, traditional paintings, and portraits to do his art (http://www.mca.com.au/default.asp?page_id=10&content_id=4251). I loved it!! He truly is fantastic and his art is so visually stimulating. I spent a long time there without even realizing it...probably 2 1/2 hours! The other exhibits were fantastic as well but not as fun as Shonibare's. If you ever hear of his work coming anywhere near your town....GO.
After being immersed in culture, I headed out to the Rocks. A touristy area with retail shops, restaurants, and art galleries. And roamed. I spent most of my time walking around this portion of the city and further south. So many people everywhere. I found myself a pub and had a beer and people watched. Sydney is such a diverse city and I saw every ethnicity you can think of really. And fortunately, these folks brought their food with them. Each block had numerous ethnic restaurants tucked into the building in tiny spaces...sushi stops, fish-n-chips, delis...and on and on. For dinner I decided on Japanese and got a delicious Bento Box...
The Royal Botanical Gardens are very expansive and popular with the local runners. Goodness, from 10:00 to 12:00 there were runners everywhere! Zipping past me, coming towards me, doing sit ups and push ups on the grass, and few folks had some personal trainers with them. Overall, the gardens were lovely and I enjoyed just relaxing while I watched everybody work their butts off.
I then headed over to the MCA which is free, like most museums in Australia. And I was impressed. I especially loved the Yinka Shonibare exhibit. He is an African/English artist that uses Dutch fabric on mannequins, film, traditional paintings, and portraits to do his art (http://www.mca.com.au/default.asp?page_id=10&content_id=4251). I loved it!! He truly is fantastic and his art is so visually stimulating. I spent a long time there without even realizing it...probably 2 1/2 hours! The other exhibits were fantastic as well but not as fun as Shonibare's. If you ever hear of his work coming anywhere near your town....GO.
After being immersed in culture, I headed out to the Rocks. A touristy area with retail shops, restaurants, and art galleries. And roamed. I spent most of my time walking around this portion of the city and further south. So many people everywhere. I found myself a pub and had a beer and people watched. Sydney is such a diverse city and I saw every ethnicity you can think of really. And fortunately, these folks brought their food with them. Each block had numerous ethnic restaurants tucked into the building in tiny spaces...sushi stops, fish-n-chips, delis...and on and on. For dinner I decided on Japanese and got a delicious Bento Box...
After that I continued to roam the city and headed out back to Circular Quay to check out the bridge and opera house at night. Really cool. I'm really sad that I have to go back. Realizing that this is my last full day in Australia...(I'm not counting the 8 hours I spent at the Sydney Airport on the following day) and I sat for a while along the Quay and tried to remember everything. I took the bus all the way back to the hostel to get one last look of the city from a bus and it was still bustling...When I got off the bus I had one last stop...and that was grabbing chocolate at the chocolateria San Churro, Miss Lisa Wagner Crawford told me about....and I had hot chocolate and grabbed a tin of buttermints....One last hoorah. Thanks Australia!!
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