Blogs from Harbourside, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania

While I do not attend so many classical music concerts lately, I had enjoyed my visits to some of the world's most famous concert halls. These would include: Royal Albert Hall in London, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, Wiener Musikverein in Vienna, the Bolshoi in Moscow, the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg, Carnegie Hall in NYC, Sydney Opera House, and the Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest. In no particular order, here are a few of my thoughts and experiences. My first real concert, other than the old San Francisco Opera House (before Davies Hall) was at Royal Albert Hall in London. We had to queue around the building for hours ahead of the concert. So, I found some friendly Aussies with beer and a deck of cards! The performance, which was both long and ... read more

Nie chcąc tracić czasu, w Sydney w pierwszej kolejności udaliśmy się na Circular Quay i pod Operę. Gmach zrobił na nas ogromne wrażenie, dlatego też, wybiegając troszkę w przyszłość, następnego dnia rano zaplanowaliśmy poranną przebieżkę w taki sposób, aby móc ponapawać nim oczy ;) Ciesząc się australijską wiosną pospacerowaliśmy też po Ogrodzie Botanicznym. W przeciwieństwie do wiosny znanej nam z Polski nie widać tu świeżej zielonej trawy i budzącej się do życia przyrody... zimy są tu tak łagodne, że przyroda śpi. Wiosna to natomiast mnóstwo kwitnących drzew i krzewów, niesamowita ilość cudnych zapachów i kolorów. Do tego egzotyczne ptactwo – ibisy, kakadu i inne nieznane nam gatunki dają wrażenie, jakbyśmy się znaleźli w innym świecie. Dotarliśmy też do najstarszej dzielnicy Sydney, The Rocks. Przypomina ona nam trochę krakowski Kazimierz – zapomniana przez lata, od niedawna oży ... read more

After breakfast today I went to Paddys Market where I bought two ipod cases and a Barcelona soccer strip. I then went for a ride on the city's monorail which closes this June. I got off at the City Central Station where the Westfield Sky Tower is locaed and I went with my cousin Harry up to the top of the tower which is 309m high. After lunch I walked round the Old Rock area of the harbou which is a market selling arts and crafts. In the evening I went with my family for a meal at Darling Harbour which is named after Lieutenant General Ralph Darling.... read more

Maria and I took a plane to Sydney on Friday November 2nd. We got to Sydney Central YHA, then took the train to see the Opera House and Sydney Harbor bridge. It was beautiful – we climbed the bridge, listened to didgeridoo music, and shopped at the markets for family Christmas gifts. We tried to find the Botanical Gardens, but failed. We ended up meeting Bird’s friend from Sydney at the Opera Bar and ordered cocktails overlooking the water! We went into the Opera House and ran into those 16 year old boys we met at Byron!! How weird! At night we went out to a club called Candy which had an obnoxiously large cover stamp to get in. That was the night where the cheetah dress made an appearance. Saturday Melissa drew the curtains at ... read more

This will be a short blog, but I wanted to get something out before calling it a day! Today has been the longest day of the trip so far. We were up at 3:30am this morning and at the airport by 4:30 to ensure we had plenty of time to make our 6:15 flight to Sydney. All I have to say is thank goodness for the Qantas lounge! We had a nice breakfast while watching the India/Pakistan Cricket game. We were fortunate enough to sit by 2 guys who were pretty knowledgeable about the sport. One of the guys was a producer for a sports channel in either Sydney or NZ (can't remember which) who focused only on Cricket. Even after listening to them explain the game, I still had no idea what was going on! ... read more