Sydney

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Hello from down under! Yes it is official, Paul and I have arrived in Sydney. The trip over went very smoothly yesterday. We said goodbye to our new Amsterdam friend, (yeah that's right i'm showing off), returned our rental car, checked in at the airport, got on our plane, drank a small bottle of wine, for free, watched The Darjeeling Limited, and took a shuttle to our hostel in Sydney. Everything went well, except I think the wine gave me a headache, but it was free so I won't hold anything against it.
We were a little jet lagged so we just meandered through the streets for a while after we got in. And wow, what an incredible city! It reminds me very much of Chicago, mainly because of the diverse architecture. Almost every building, even the smaller apartments in the suburbs, has a unique look to it. It is also incredibly clean for such a large city of 4 million inhabitants. Funnily enough, well to me it is funny, the amount of people in Sydney is roughly the same amount as in all of New Zealand, but the kiwi's do dominate with the whole sheep thing.
After getting a solid night of beauty rest, we headed out for a day on the town today. We have three full days here so we are trying to explore the city by area. Today we walked west. We walked through a park near the city center, where we saw a war memorial with a very interesting figure in it as you can see from the pic. I walked beneath some of the enormous sky scrapers with my mouth open because of the sheer size and unique style that each one had. Some had balconies that curved along the side of the building instead of the normal rectangular repetativeness you would see in the states. One had a somewhat step pyramid look to it. The main technological advancement that blew me away though, was the raised tram that curved through the streets not 15 ft above our head. The city just has this very unique, alive feel to it, which is something I have only felt in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.
We eventually made it to a market which had hundreds of stalls where people sold things from clothing, to belts, to Sydney souveniers, even to knives and swords. It was a lot of fun to walk through.
After that we made it into a suburb, where we got some delicious pizza and walked through a science museum called the Powerhouse. Think The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, but smaller. Still though we walked through some great exhibits that overwhelmed me with information. There was a pretty unique exhibit on nuclear power, which discussed the science at a molecular level and included the pros and cons of the use of the energy. One interesting tidbit, was that in the 50's the use of atomic power was considered such a great achievement socially, that some soap and toothpaste companies actually used terms such as "atomic" to name their products because the social consciousness of the time associated the term with a sense of pure power. This association did not last long though.
There was also a cool exhibit on A.I. I played a speed game with a machine and lost to it, because it's much faster obviously, so I was ok with myself, until it insulted me. After beating me it turned to a tray of cards and pulled one out which said, "You Lose". And then it pulled another one out that said, "I'm bored, Im going to sleep now." What a jackass.
After the museum we stepped outside into a thunderstorm! Luckily the rain died down quickly, so we were able to make our way in a very planned out way, under overhangs, on our way back to our hostel.
Alright that is pretty much it for now.

Daniel

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Comments

[mom]

Blown glass from Aust or NZ?
Is that the blown glass you spoke about in NZ? Cool tram. That is the track throughout the city? Yes, an "interesting" figure inside the memorial. Which war? or war in general? A lot of religious icons over there in Sydney? More religious than NZ? The market reminds me of Fenuil Hall in Boston or Pike Place Market in Seattle. (See, I can brag about my travels, too.) I love you, danny boy. Never stop observin' and learnin' and writin'. You are a voice of cheer for the world. Thank you. (And, thanks for the "shout out." )