So the trip down here went very smooth. No big issues, no plane problems, connection issues or what not. My cold wasn’t too bad either besides my ears not easily popping when they wanted to. I had some Orbits gum though which helped on the ascend and descend. I even slept, with some major help from Nyquil, for about 8 hours on the San Fran to Sydney flight. If I hadn’t of gotten that sleep, I would have been a zombie wondering around Sydney waiting for my hotel room.
So far getting around Sydney is a breeze. I hopped on a tram at the airport which dropped me off 1/2 a block from my hotel in Circular Quay (pronounced “circular key”). I then checked in with the hotel to see if my room was available at ~8:00 AM, which it wasn’t, no big surprise there. Left my bags with the front desk, grabbed my camera and headed out to explore.
Yesterday was fairly dreary and wet. Not the greatest weather/light conditions for shooting photos. But I did get a few good shots. First thing I did was head towards the Opera House. It’s a slow 10 minute walk from my hotel. Walking there, I was still half in shock that I was actually in Australia walking the streets of Sydney. At that early in the morning on a Sunday, pretty much the only people out and about were joggers. So I basically had the place to myself, which was great. Just on the other side of the Opera House there is this huge Botanical Garden which is actually very nice to walk around in on a early Sunday morning. So I headed further out through the gardens to where everyone gets their standard Opera House / Sydney Harbour Bridge combination shot.
As you can see, the light was blah and the skies were grey. At the hour this was taken, the Opera House should have been shining gold with the morning sun rising behind me. Still, it was a nice sight to see and shoot. Maybe I’ll get lucky today or tomorrow and the light will be better.
Exploring further into the gardens and up a small rise, I ran across this view of the Botanical Gardens below the city skyline which made for an interesting shot.
I don’t know if these photos actually look that good because the LCD on this laptop of mine is crap when it comes to correctly displaying contrast and color. I’m winging it for now, but saving all my photos to go back through when I get home.
Since the light was flat, I wondered around the gardens some more. It is very peaceful walking through a park in the middle of a huge city. Me, I’m not that big on cities, so getting out of the hustle n bustle is a big plus.
As I was saying, it was peaceful until I got to one part of the gardens. I heard this screeching from what I thought was birds up in the trees, until I looked up and saw these:
Yes, you are looking at huge, noisy bats. Serious, they are at least the same size as an average seagull on the Oregon coast. Big guys flying around, hanging upside down and doing whatever bats like to do.
It seems they are called Grey Headed Flying Fox and are causing some controversy here in Sydney. Some people want them to be driven of from the gardens while others say it’s cruel to do so. At first I was a little apprehensive about having all of these bats hanging from above, but it was actually pretty cool listening to them talking, flying around and all. Luckily there was no falling guano.
After stopping for a cup of coffee and muffin in the gardens, I headed towards The Rocks to explore some of the older part of Circular Quay. It’s the normal tourist trap. Lots of little shops, street vendors and what not. The main reason I headed that way was to walk Sydney Harbour Bridge.
There was some nice views up there of the Harbor and the Opera House, but when it started raining harder, I had to turn around and head back.
Anyways, I actually went and took some more photos this morning before I finished typing this up. So now it’s 9:20 AM, I haven’t had anything to eat and I've only had crappy freeze dried coffee from the minibar. There’s a Starbucks around the corner which I’m going to have to hit soon.
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