sydney highlights

I think it's time to talk about Sydney. This is a city that I'd visited on a family vacation when I was 13, and while I remembered it fondly, I didn't have any particular desire to return. Thank goodness for the prompting of my husband to include it in our itinerary, because I quickly found that I'd been under-representing it to myself and others for the last 12 years. On the night that we arrived, we walked down to Circular Quay and were awestruck by the size and grandeur of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We were giddy with excitement, both because of these iconic Sydney landmarks and because of the inexpressibly magical quality about nighttime on the waterfront in a foreign city.

On the final day of our trip, we enjoyed a special lunch at the restaurant Waterfront, where I had what must be the best fish I've ever had in my life...and I'm no stranger to seafood. This was an excellent snapper, and Bryan shares the same sentiment about his swordfish. The view from our table roughly corresponds with the pictures above - bridge on the left, opera house on the right. Our only regret is that we didn't brush up on our dining etiquette before popping in at such a nice place. (Incidentally, I have since learned much from Wikipedia - apparently sushi is to be eaten in one bite, is not to be dipped in soy sauce, and should be eaten upside-down from the way that i've been used to enjoying it.)

Our second day in Sydney was devoted to Darling Harbour, a precinct on the west side of the city that is home to more interesting museums than can reasonably seen in a day. We devoted our limited time primarily to the Australian National Maritime Museum, where visitors can board a replica of Captain Cook's famous Endeavour and browse plenty of engrossing exhibits, including one about mythical creatures that seemed only loosely tied to the museum's nautical theme. My favorite was a series of photos and excerpts from the journal of a young American who joined a ship's crew for the 4-month voyage from New York to Sydney around 1905, part of a larger exhibition about the relationship between Australia and the US over the past 240 years. The above left picture is from our brief stop in the Chinese Gardens on the south end of Darling Harbour, where the surrounding walls keep out the construction sounds surprisingly well, though the skyline remains as a reminder of its urban setting.

And though this is most certainly not a highlight, I just can't conclude this blog without a reference to the hordes of bats that haunted our visit to Sydney. They live in the Royal Botanic Gardens (above), hanging from the trees during the day like heavy raindrops that seem likely to fall on passers-by walking underneath. We also had the pleasure of their swooping and screeches overhead at dusk as we passed through the Gardens on our way to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Yuck yuck yuck.

It's just occurred to me that I've left out two of my favorite places and will have to leave them for you to explore yourselves - the excellent Hyde Park Barracks Museum, where extensive archaeological probing has yielded evidence on the barracks' occupation by transported criminals, Irish girls orphaned by the potato famine, and a women's asylum, and the historic buildings of The Rocks neighborhood under the shadow of the bridge.

There's much to love about Sydney.

-rachel