Today Ross and Matt gave us a wonderful walking tour of the city of Sydney.
Absolutely wonderful... well see for yourself!This is the reflecting pond outside the WWII memorial. Super Pretty and really a wonderful place to reflect, chill, and relax.
This is the wounded solder inside the WWII memorial. He is supported by three women- the present, the past, the future-- his sister, mother, and wife.More of the memorial...
This is Capt. Cook.
In April in 1770, Captain James Cook first sets foot in New South Wales at Botany Bay. He brought record back to England that he had found a place that offered much promise. The winter seemed to be very pleasant and he expected the summer months to be very fruitful. What he did not understand is that England's winter months occur during Australia's summer months- therefore making the season he came upon summer, Australia's peak season but very bleak compared to European standards.
This information was later used when the English were looking for a place to deposit criminals. In 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip, commanding the First Fleet, sails into Port Jackson, establishing the first colonial settlement at Sydney Cove. It turned out that the great promises given by Capt. Cook were not seen as they expected.
This is a pig fountain in front of the Sydney Hospital. It is said to be lucky if you rub either his nose or another undesirable location. None the less its a pig statue-- therefore I MUST have a picture of it!! : )
Harry's Famous Meat Pie known as "The Tiger". A meat pie is essentially an individual sized pie crust filled with meat and gravy. Harry's Tiger is unique but amazing- the meet pie is topped with mash (aka mashed potatoes-duh), peas and gravy. AMAZING!!!!! If i get back to the states and you want to impress me- make me one of these : )
The original Aussie baths---- yah what??Back in the day, when women didnt show even the skin on their ankles, women came to this contraption to bathe. Where the wooden rods are there would be towels that would come down. Where the men are sitting are stairs. The women would walk down the stairs into the shallow water near the land and get undressed. They would then wade out to the deepest end at the end of the wooden contraption, splash around some and go back to the entrance to put their clothes on. And with the hanging towels they were never immodest.
This is Matt- one of our OL. Within the Sydney Botanical Gardens Matt went out with a piece of bread and one of the white cockatoo parrots came over and landed on is arm to feed. We were given some bread to try ourselves and out of 32 people some of us got lucky with them- just not myself. The birds are friendly, totally exotic (to me), and completely natural here in Australia!
Isnt She Beautiful! View from the Botanical Gardens at the famous Sydney Opera House and Bridge.
In 1956 the NSW Government called an open-ended international design competition and appointed an independent jury. The competition provided broad specifications to attract the best design talent in the world; it did not specify design parameters or set a cost limit. The main requirement of the competition brief was a design for two performance halls, one for opera and one for symphony concerts. Jørn Utzon, a small building architect, was chosen to build his design for NSW.Utzon's Opera house ended up causing many issues. After a couple of years, and the Opera house not being completed, the party in office was voted out. The new party put much pressure on Utzon to make the buildings faster and using less money. All the pressure got to him and Utzon left the country- never seeing his final creation.
In 1973, 17 years later, Sydney Opera House was completed. The project took $102 million to complete. Originally, they planed the building to be completed in 1963 and costing $7million. The project was 10 years over due and over budget over 14 times!!!
Utzon's architectural creation was not meant to resemble sail boats or shells. Rather the buildings are Utzon's architectural interpretation of ocean cliffs. The white are clouds, the brown base of the building are rocks and the water the building is surrounded by is the water surrounding the cliffs.
This is our orientation group (minus matt and ross) in front of the famous scene-- im the cutie in the front : )
The walking tour finished and we were able to do as we pleased.
Some people decided to go back to the hotel or shop but Nicole, Rhianna, and I decided to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art. What we found there was very interesting, however they wouldnt let us take pictures. Outside the museum was this guy trying to sell his Didgeridoo CD's. It was interesting music........
At the end of the day we decided "happy hour, sushi, then drinks". Life doesnt happen as planned though. Instead we did happy hour (aka an 8$ WP shooter), walk around until we find food (difficult because we couldnt decide), and then bed. HA- we are such the party animals... NOT!
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