It's finally hit summer in Minnesota, with sundresses and tanlines appearing with increasing frequency on campus, and picturing Australia, I was throwing shorts and tanks into my suitcase. Until I realized that Sydney is quite south of the Equator, and therefore, it is winter there! At home all the awkward temperature swings and rainy weeks finally broke into sun, and though I am heading to a continent with a large, uninhabitable chunk of desert, I'm sure our plane sitting here in Minnesota is more worried about the auxiliary power unit (takes care of the A/C and power while we're on the ground...) dying in the 86 degree humidity than in 60 degree Sydney... Back to the gate for repairs we go. For something that becomes irrelevant once we get in the air... Thankfully I'll have a nice cushy layover in LA of a couple hours, but while I can't contact who I'm meeting on the other side of my international journey, delays are slightly worrisome. So I guess strange calm was fleeting, but what can you do. 54 minute delay later, and we were in business.
Travel companions:
- Ricky, a soon to be college sophomore from St. Louis who gets to study healthcare and run around Australia for three weeks
- A kindly, spry elderly British woman with slightly darker eyeliner than you'd expect and the sweet disposition to call me "love" as I wrestled with our bags and the overhead compartments.
Albeit long, it was a fairly uneventful ride, and on a journey to the ends of the earth, what movie is more appropriate than the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader? And seeing those ends of the earth is truly something else. Sunrise over a misty Pacific, 14 hours of flying through obscurity and over an endless body of water, only to have it end! Green rugged cliffs simply drop off into the water, ending on the other side as we passed over islands and all of a sudden found our footing just across a groomed emerald expanse. 7:07am, and we are in Sydney.
Security was a breeze: everything was so neat and well-labeled, they let me bring my dried fruit into the country, a couple different security agents surprisingly commented about the Vikings (whom I know absolutely nothing about) when they asked which state I was from, and I figured out how to get on the train to the domestic terminal to find Julia! So far so good. My handwriting in my journal is still a bit sloppier than normal due to the fact that it is still quite numb from strange sleeping positions on the plane. But it serves its purpose enough to jot down funny observations like the Mates Brekkie Box. Thoughts on what that is? Aussie McDonalds' adult version of a Happy Meal for breakfast.
Another random question that came across my mind as I awaited Julia at her baggage claim: How did this country come to call their currency the Australian dollar when they were British till much later than us?
Julia finding me was miraculously easy, and it shook both of our worlds to see an elementary school friend in a foreign country, but we venture forth to explore Sydney together! Haven't met a brisk 55 degree day in a while, but that's how we waited for a dapper Australian businessman in his Audi.
Chris knows Julia's dad from college in England, and his family is graciously hosting us for the week. He first took us on a wonderful scenic drive with the end destination of downtown (which is on the south side, the family lives on the north side - the city spans 2 sides of a large river that turns much of the city into beautiful harbor-scapes).
One shot of the city, the tower in the middle is the Sydney Tower, one of the world's tallest!
Initial observations/conversations:
- The city is much greener than I expected, and not the sculpted, planted type of greenery I'm accustomed to seeing in US urban and suburban areas.
- There are no rundown cars that I can see. From what I can gather, 1) standard of living is higher and 2) public transportation is so well kept such that only those who can afford a good new car will buy and drive.
- $5.50 tolls exist! Apparently the country was modeled after Sweden so some taxes can get pretty high.
- The city is ridiculously clean, but trashcans are nearly nowhere to be found. When a good few Americans would rather throw trash on the ground if a can is out of range or say "screw it" to recycling if a recycling bin is not right next to the trash can, how does Sydney do it? Chris' theory is that this is because Australians have pragmatic expectations for their people and have good infrastructure so wanting a clean city has produced one.
- And such polite road signs!
First stop: Hyde Park, Australia version (my parents took me to the original in London a few years ago too). We walked through the park to a gorgeous cathedral we spotted on the drive to snap a few pictures first.
Then we had to work a little to do some caloric intake. We found option after option for cafes, but cheap was not one of them. We ended up at Bond cafe and felt quite out of place. It was a swanky establishment, more like half bar, half cafe, and our jeans and sweatshirts did not exactly fit with the professional attire swarming around us. But we were paying customers too, so we got some brunch in us and split a florentine: an Australian treat that seems to be a cross between a cookie and healthy granola cereal. The top was laden with dried fruits and nuts but the bottom was dipped in chocolate. Good choice.
Another solid choice to approach our afternoon was to get ourselves acquainted with the city by taking one of those wacky bright red double-decker sightseeing buses. We hopped on and off a couple times for souvenirs and to withdraw some funds for our trip, admire the "chocs and lollies" at the 7/11, and start our souvenir collections.
Looks like a tight squeeze!
The architecture is all extraordinarily well-kept, and I would characterize it as an intriguing mix of intricate stone British and metal-and-glass modern.
For me, palm trees clash with my expectations of both winter and the dominance of the futuristic chrome of the background, but that's what you get here, just not quite what you'd predict.
Meet two of Sydney's prized possessions: the Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Absolutely gorgeous architectural feats. Unfortunately climbing over the top of the bridge was not on the table because of the near $200 ticket to do so, but one of our goals is to tour the inside of the opera house in the coming days. For now we settle for photos and admiration from afar.
Julia and I found our way back through Hyde Park and to where Chris was waiting to take us home (and with very little map-checking! Perhaps we do have some minimal sense of direction...). North Side Sydney is filled with gentle hills, adorable bungalows, and lush foliage. Chris' wife Janet and a rambunctious miniature schnauzer named Prince greeted us in their homey abode where they have raised 4 daughters, with the youngest, Ally, our age.
It is such a nice feeling to be able to explore on our own but have such great quarters to come back to. Julia and I are sharing a room, but we will probably actually sleep unlike the many nights of sleepovers in our elementary school years. For now, it's nap time! More updates to come, thanks for reading!
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