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Winter in Sydney
Click on the pictures to enlarge
After spending a few days almost atop the equator in Singapore, getting aboard the Sydney subway at the airport and seeing people in winter coats was a bit of a shock. It's a good thing Sydney isn't as cold in winter as Chicago is. I got to the hotel at 8AM having slept maybe an hour or two on the overnight flight from Singapore, but they let me check-in anyway, and I got a great harbor-view room to boot. After a few hours' sleep I woke at noon not sure whether it felt like 8AM or 8PM.
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I only had a day and a half in Sydney, so I got the obligatory Opera House & Harbor Bridge picture. There were a number of friendly American students in the area on a scavenger hunt, a few of whom were from close to Penn. I guess I should have turned on the flash, since Sydney is pretty dark even in the early afternoon. |
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The beauty of the Opera House and Bridge contrasts with the sky's angry clouds. |
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For a mere US$75, one can walk across the Harbor Bridge. Everyone is dressed in gray, given a breathalyzer test, removed of everything that could possibly fall (including cameras), and led up the bridge in groups of a dozen or so. |
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Mrs. Macquarie, the wife of Sydney's first governor, seems to have outshone her hubby in Sydney, as everything seems to be named for her. The place now named Mrs. Macquarie Point was one of Mrs. Macquarie's fave spots to sit and look out over the harbor, so here a group of convicts (who did EVERYTHING in colonial Sydney) carved a chair out of the stone for her. |
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The little sign down below reads "Sydney Sexual Health Center". The building in the background is the old New South Wales Parliament. How appropriate to have a sex clinic next to the Congress! |
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Every city seems to have a St. Andrew's Cathedral, and so does Sydney. This isn't it though, even though I had it labeled as such for two years. Fortunately a fellow from Sydney wrote to say that this is St. Mary's. |
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Part of Sydney's public art projects, these concrete nodules are parts of old buildings stuck into the ground. |
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The view from the hotel over the Harbor. The Opera house is just beyond the picture in the far left. Just to the right is the Botanical Gardens, which feature a sign saying "please walk on the grass." |
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The Sydney Barracks Museum is in the site of an old building that housed a jail, a settlement house for fresh-off-the-boat unmarried women, a loony bin, and an old folks home. Today it is a rather academic museum showcasing the extreme difficulties and simple pleasures of life in the Barracks. |
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Sydney is not too friendly to the Keebler Elves. (Click the picture if you don't see why...) |
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More folks walking the Harbor Bridge... they'll climb up on top shortly. This is not far from Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art, which featured a number of paintings made by elephants and chimpanzees. |
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Sunset was the only time the Sydney sun made itself visible. This is taken in The Rocks, Sydney's historic neighborhood featuring many small hotels, pubs, and shops. |
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