Tag Archives: Rocks

Two Evenings in Sydney

This will be the last post about Sydney (at least, for now): the next posts will be about Port Douglas, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rain Forest, and then the Great Ocean Road…

But first things first – in my last weeks that I was staying in Sydney, I went into town for two evenings. I wanted to do that much earlier, but either the weather (they’ve had a lot of rain when I was there) or work didn’t allow me to do so. In the end I decided to ignore both the weather and work, and go anyway. One evening I went to see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge illuminations and combined that with visiting the “Night Noodle Markets” in Hyde Park (and shopping for a road map of the Great Ocean Road). The other evening was because of my goodbye dinner from work.

Evening 1

I took the ferry in, so arrived at Circular Quay. To get to Hyde Park from there, I walked through the Botanic Gardens. Here are a few flowers that I didn’t see last time I was there:



The top left is an Aloe – not sure which sort. And amaryllises (top right) grow in people’s front (and presumably also back) gardens. I saw several houses with a row of amaryllises in their front gardens on my way to work, but never had a camera with me, so here is the evidence that they grow outside in Australia.

There is also a nice rose garden in the Botanic Gardens, however, I didn’t manage to see that last time I went. So here are some examples of the many varieties of roses they have there.

As I said, it was “Night Noodle Markets” in Hyde Park: an Asian street food festival. According to the website, Sydneysiders could “embark on a vibrant flavour journey through Asia”. As far as I could see, this was true. Less true, however, was the mention of “balmy nights” on that same website:

Look how everyone is huddling together under umbrellas as it was raining a little. Drizzle, I’d say, but I’ve learned that Sydneysiders don’t distinguish so much between the different types of rain – drizzle, downpour, mist, shower, … For them: it rains, or it does not.

I got myself a nice Japanese teppanyaki – a dish cooked on an iron griddle or plate:

After that lovely dinner, I walked back to Circular Quay to see the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in the dark. I went via George Street (to get my map of the Great Ocean Road), so caught city hall during sun set:

The photo on the top right shows palm trees on Circular Quay that were illuminated by some “foot lights” – doesn’t it look like fire works?

As I don’t have a tripod, and there was no suitable surface to put my camera on, I had to shoot all photos handheld. A flash isn’t going to help here, so the photos are shot with relatively long shutter times: 0.5 sec for the Harbour Bridge – not too bad, but 2.5 sec for the Opera House photo. This means that I had to keep the camera perfectly still for that amount of time. And when examining in particular the Opera House photo closely, it will become clear that I don’t have such a steady hand… as well that I’m not a surgeon… My apologies for this; a lightweight and small tripod has been put on my wish list.

Evening 2

The other evening in Sydney was with my colleagues – we had a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant in the Rocks to celebrate/lament my leaving. Together with one of my colleagues, I took the ferry to Circular Quay:

It still is my favourite way of travelling, by ferry.

Once in the city, we walked past some of the old houses in the Rocks:

Rocks, Sydney
  

to the place where we would all meet: the rooftop bar of the Palisade Hotel…

Palisade Hotel, Sydney
  

There was a pub on this site since 1880, but the current building dates from 1915. At the time it opened it doors to the many wharf workers and locals from the Millers Point area, it was the highest building in Sydney. This is by no means the case anymore, but from its rooftop bar it still has very nice views of Sydney, including the harbour:

The photo top left shows the view over Paramatta river to the west, top right is the view of the Observatory with the modern buildings of Sydney’s Central Business District (CBD) behind it, and the bottom photo is of course a view of Sydney Harbour Bridge… wonder how many photos I’ve so far taken of this iconic structure, and how many have made it into this blog…

Finally – a nice sunset over Paramatta river and Anzac bridge (yes, there are other bridges in Sydney…) from the restaurant:

Sunset over Paramatta River and Anzac Bridge
  

And that really concludes my weeks in Sydney!

Sydney – First Week

After 2 flights, totalling about 24 hours of travel, finally: arriving at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith airport. It felt like months ago that I left London Heathrow…

The first weekend I spent at my friends’ house. Where I saw my first spider… Very helpfully (and encouragingly?) I was told that it wasn’t that big. But surely: any spider I had seen so far was certainly smaller than that one! Judge for yourself:

My first spider in Australia…
 

The rest of the weekend was much better, I haste to add. My jetlag hasn’t been too severe, so could enjoy most of the church services. It is so nice to travel to the “ends of the earth” and meet fellow Christians, some of whom I knew already from when they lived in or visited the UK, but I also met many new friends.

House, Car, Phone…

On Monday I picked up my rental car, got myself an Ozzie SIM card and settled in my apartment where I would live in for the next 8 weeks. About that car… why are the wipers on the left handle (with which any normal car controls lights and signals), and the signals on the right one!? The number of times that I – completely unnecessarily – started wiping my windscreen instead of what I intended to do: communicate my intention to change direction to fellow road users…!

And people who know me well, know that I absolutely don’t like using a satnav. I must admit that I used it for the first few days to get to and from work and church, however, that didn’t last long (and I blame that short period of weakness on my jetlag…). Already on the third day to work I just forgot to put my destination into Google Maps before leaving. Upon realising, I decided I would just see how far I would get: and with having to turn around only once as I missed a left-turn, I got to the office. The route to church I’ve only done once with satnav – ever after I ignored it or didn’t even turn it on. So I’m happily back to my normal way of driving: look up beforehand where to go, and rather turn around once or twice than having to blindly follow a satnav and not knowing where I am…

First Visit To Sydney City Centre

My first visit to Sydney City Centre was on a cold, grey, drizzly Saturday, just over a week after I’d arrived. Actually, the weather had been like that for most of my first week – at least it made me feel very much at home: just like autumn in the UK or the Netherlands. The visit was rather short, partly because of the weather, but also because I needed to get myself an Opal card. For Londoners – that’s something like an Oyster card. The only trouble is that for some reason Opal cards are not usually sold at train stations…

So, once I had found out where to acquire this piece of plastic from, I travelled (in a nice, modern and comfortable train!) to the city centre to see the tourist hotspots:

Sydney Opera House
 
Sydney Harbour Bridge
 

Two important boxes ticked… although I may come back to take pictures in more Ozzie-like weather. I then walked round “The Rocks”: the place where the first British settlers – convicts and soldiers – step ashore in 1788, commemorated with a plaque near Circular Quay:

Plaque near Circular Quay, commemorating the arrival of the first British settlers in 1788
 

The initial buildings were made of very poor materials, and weren’t much more than huts. In heavy rain or wind they would collapse. The oldest building still standing is Cadman’s Cottage, built in 1816:

Cadman’s cottage, oldest surviving house in “The Rocks”, built in 1816
 

Sadly, many of the original buildings were demolished in the first half of the 20th century, and the main street, George Street, is now a large, very touristy, market. But after walking round somewhat further, there is still history to be found:

The Rocks, Sydney
 

Lachlan Macquarie, Sydney’s governor during 1810-1821, wanted to develop Sydney from a penal colony into a city, using the trading of wool and whaling and sealing to get wealth to the city. By the 1840s the convict transportation had stopped, and “The Rocks” became a fashionable area for merchants, of which the houses in the photo above are an example.

So far my impressions of the first week… there are a couple more things I wanted to share, but will do so another time.