
Big day in Sydney!
Terrigal, Australia, Australia
Today was a very productive day in Sydney even though, yet again, there was no sun shining on the city. Krissy and I left Terigal at 7am and got into Sydney for about 8:15am. We grabbed some breakfast and she headed off to work as I headed up to the Opera House. I was bound and determined to get this tour today, and luckily I showed up at 9:15am and was able to get onto the 9:30am tour. This day was looking up already!
It was a very interesting tour that brought us into both of the main concert halls as well as a couple of the small theatres as well. We weren’t allowed to take many pictures inside, but I can assure you it is pretty spectacular. I’m not really one for theatres and shows, but the architecture alone was enough to astound me. There were a few videos we watched throughout the tour about the head architect Utzon and it was pretty amazing to see how the idea for this building took shape. It was also a shame to hear that he was kicked off the project after the budget and timeline had been blown out of the water, and he never actually got to see his building completed before he died in 2008.
I finished up the Opera House tour and walked through the Botanic Gardens heading for the Art Gallery of New South Wales. On the way there I saw all kinds of birds, bats, butterflies and massive spiders, but didn’t stop for long because I had a certain exhibit in my sights that I wasn’t going to miss. The Terracotta Warriors from Xi’an China are on exhibition here but only until Sunday and it is a very rare exhibit to come across. I am hoping to get to Xi’an when I am in China in September/October, but I thought this would be a good preview to that. I waited in line for 45 minutes to get a ticket and then another 30 minutes to get into the exhibit, but it was well worth it. Unfortunately, being a Saturday in the big city, it was jam packed with people, so it was a bit difficult to see all of the displays, but everything I got to see was amazing! It’s a heck of a story and unbelievable to think that all of this was done over 2000 years ago. It certainly got me excited to see the real display when I get to China.
I went from there to the Australian Museum to see another display of Wildlife Photographers of the Year. There was some unbelievable pictures and got me even more excited again to see more of the world. I also got to see a lot of examples of flora and fauna that are native to Australia, including a lot of bugs and spiders that I wouldn’t see anywhere else in the world.
I walked over to the Sydney Tower only to find out that it costs $25 to go up the tower, and that the visibility wasn’t great. I thought I’d be better off waiting until Tuesday when I’m back in the city and hope for better weather. I just went straight to Krissy’s work and we left Sydney at about 6:30pm. There is a massive Mardi Gras parade on tonight in the city so we made sure to get out of town before that all kicked off.
Krissy and I went to her parent’s house for dinner, which was great! Her parents are just as nice and funny as she is, and they have four dogs (Rocky, Tilly, Max and Tyson), so I was thrilled to be there. We also picked up the movie The Last Airbender to watch at Krissy’s house. Jackie met us at their house and we watched the movie in Damo’s “Man cave”. He has a full cinema with surround sound and a projector screen so we got to watch the movie on a screen about 120 inches across. The movie wasn’t great but it had some good special effects and it looked great on Damo’s screen. However, since the movie wasn’t all that gripping, I am now absolutely exhausted and am falling asleep while writing this. At least I can sleep in tomorrow, it’ll be a nice lazy day.