sydney v1.0

last day in hobart saw us needing to rest our legs after v1.0 and v1.1 accents of mt. wellington. we visited the botanic gardens and then split up. lyds went into the downtown and i walked for a few hours exploring the neighbourhoods of battery park and sandy beach. it was emotional visiting the errol flynn reserve where he learned to swim. it remains his only monument in hobart. sad news from the academy of motion pictures that they have turned down a request made on behalf of his family for a posthumous oscar to be awarded to him for his lifetime achievement. after over 50 films he never even attended the oscars. back to the house for our last night at the clarkson's. time for a last great dinner and table talk, a few beers, and some going away presents. up at 4:30am the next morning for the red eye to sydney. the clarkson's insisted on driving us there. we cannot even begin to express our gratitude to them. they made us feel like family. finished in hobart was my copy of man on fire and for the term of his natural life (a story about a convicted felon in tasmania). goodbye baron.

nothing wrong with the bird except the early flight time. we arrived in town with no plan except meeting up with sarah around 6pm. note: sarah is lydia's friend from back home who has offered to put us up for our stay in sydney. as we arrived at 8am, we had some time to kill and elected to use it. lyds came up with storing our bags at the train station, and buying a week long metro pass for the subway. both excellent notions. now bagless and armed with a metro pass, we ate and called home. after we went to the top of the sydney centrepoint tower to get an introduction to the city. at more than a 1/4 of a km above sydney (260m) the 360 degree view provided an excellent orientation. you could see the distant blue mountains and all the beaches. note on sydney: the countries biggest and flashiest city, sydney sits midway along the coast of the most popular state, new south wales. the cosmopolitan city has grown since 1788 to a modern metropolis buzzing with 20% of the national population (3,775,000). cafes and sailboats everywhere, with overhead, silent monorails making the city appear more out of minority report than the southern hemisphere. down from the tower we explored the central business district including the queen victoria building built in 1898. back to southerland (40 minutes by rail south of central sydney) to meet up with sarah and micah at their flat. an early night after the day's events were in order.

the next morning we went online and booked our tickets to new zealand, and then went back into the city to visit the sydney aquarium. highlight of the visit was not the collection of sharks and underwater tunnels, but when an absent-minded visitor dropped a cellphone into the seal tank. apparently you could see the seals swimming around, one with a cellphone in its mouth. they had to send in a diver to retrieve the phone, and bribe the seals with fish to get them to release the phone. it was eventually retrieved, albeit in pieces. then back to the flat to make dinner for micah and sarah.

in the morning lydia and i decided to do our own things. i ate a meat pie on the way to seeing sydney's powerhouse museum, the "hippest museum" in town. i think the a.i. computer had a crush on me, as we had quite the lengthy dialogue. after the museum it was time to see the sydney opera house from its position on bennelong point. note on the opera house: the building took 14 years to construct with a final price tag of $102 million (the budget was for $7m). it was finally opened in 1973 to a false fire alarm and over a million self-cleaning cream and beige tiles adorning its roof. along the way bureaucracy and political issues forced the the architect jorn utzan to divorce himself from the project. he took with him all his plans for the interior, and perhaps as a result, 1400 spectator seats were set up in the wrong direction. after the opera house tour, which is basically a must do, i checked out the adjacent sydney harbour bridge which has been the visual symbol of the city since being completed in 1932. an impressive latticework, massive and grand.

for st. patrick's day we visited the beach of cronulla during the day, and the orient hotel at night for drinks and dancing. a lot of drinks, and a lot of dancing. before the orient we crashed -5, a bar where everything is made of ice (including the glasses) and the temperature inside is negative 5 degrees. you had to wear a parka and gloves inside. us canadians felt right at home, but it is a novelty for the aussies. we had a wonderful oasis moment singing wonderwall with a bunch of aussies from north sydney. a sad note though that there is a very strong racist undertone in the city. one of our friends, rk, was bounced from the orient hotel later that night. the bouncers told us it was because he was intoxicated. now before i get into the argument that kicking someone out of a bar for being intoxicated on st. patty's day is like handing out speeding tickets at the indy 500, i want to assure you he was not drunk. he was the most sober amongst our group, and the sharpest dresser. he was bounced because his family is from india. crazy that in such a modern city such prejudice still exists.

happy st. patty's day to everyone all over the world. go kansas.