Sydney, you are beautiful

Why are there no famous songs about Sydney? She deserves a song, something pounding but haunting, young yet full of historic tradition for a city that has a long history for a place so young.  Sydney is fab.  I was extremely lucky to have glorious blue skies every day, sun shining and warm.  But i loved her elegant avenues, big brash skyscrapers combined and sitting next to extremely elegant sandstone Victorian buildings.  Sydney is a little pretentious and thinks it is more important and busy than perhaps it is.  But it is this pretention that makes it exciting, like a striving adolecent trying to take on the big guns of NY, London and Tokyo.  But its harbour setting, sitting on the beautiful bays of New South Wales, with boats taking you between the suburbs across the water makes it truely a fabulous city.  Definately one i'd love to work and live in.

My first day i visited the harbour front where i continued taking one of many photos of the Sydney Opera House.  Designed by Jorn Utzon in 1958, but not completed until 1974 after a change of administration and a change of architect, saw the inside designed by a Mr. Hall, while Utzon continued to work on designs privately, for the next 30 years.  In 1999 he was re-engaged to oversee the reworking of the interiors.  I took a tour of the house on my third day in Sydney and got to view the magnificent Concert Hall and the Utzon room, the first of the redesigned rooms:  Having seen the Utzon room, where he hides all electrical applicances and in doing so, raised the floor of the room to make the view out the windows look like you are standing right ontop of the harbour, make you only wonder what the rest of the building would have looked like.  Even so, the interiors are really interesting and striking, and I really liked Hall's Concert hall's design.

I also visited the Sydney Museum, which is on the site of the first NSW Governor's house.  The museum evokes Sydney's colonial history extremely well through great but simple displays, and wonderful 1950s and 60s tourism films encouraging emmigration/holidays.  Really amusing.  Especially the close up of women in bikinis, and comments such as 'the women are as beautiful as the city' and numerous shots of ozzy's drinking!

Took the ferry to Manly.  Happened to arrive on the Manly wine and food festival.  There wasn't too much on the food side that was very exciting, but there was a lot of wine.  And there was no 'wine tasting'.  This was a full on glass of wine (for $5) at each tent.  No suggestion about spitting into a bowl!  Got to observe Sydney's middleclass and yummy mummies out in full force.  Manly is the home of surfing, and even though it was sunny if cold, there were lots of people out in the water.  Really lovely beach and lots of nice coves.  Would have been a great place to stay if it was hot.

On my last day i went into China town, which actually is a bit pointless because all of Sydney is like an oriental town, with so many sushi, thai, chinese, korean restaurants on every corner.  And china town was a bit boring. But there is the Chinese Garden of Friendship which is bang in the middle of Darling harbour and you really could believe that you are in China itself.  It is laid out in a classic chinese way (according to the blurb) and reflects the unity between Sydney and its sister city.  It doesn't mention how far this friendship advances to human rights, but even so it was a lovely place to sit and drink yasmin tea, while i read 'Crime and Punishment' - quite an appropriate reading.

Have now taken a flight up to Mackay, a place i don't really want to be, where it is raining.  and it never rains.  and they have had a drought for the last 10 year.  bloody typical!  heading up to the whitsundays tomorrow.  Not quite sure what to do after that.  Everything is so bloody expensive here.  bring back the days when it was a penal colony and all the convicts had to do free labour!