More Opera House and Watson's Bay

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I've had a fairly quiet couple of days, but have still managed to get quite a few photos! Yesterday morning I went on a tour of the opera house, which means I've now seen inside all the major performance venues. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the theatres, but I've got some groovy shots of the foyer areas and the shells from different angles. Our guide was really interesting (the guides all seem to be excellent here!) and told us lots about the construction of the house and the controversies that surrounded it.

Today I took a ferry to Watson's Bay which is a really beautiful little suburb of the city. The harbour has so many small bays and each one has its own little town around it that have all joined together to form Sydney. Watson's Bay was the first fishing village in Australia, and is now famous for having a branch of Doyle's seafood restaurants on the waterfront as well as a cheaper takeaway fish and chip stand run by the same people. I walked along the seafront and through the park, and it was very strange to be in what felt like a pretty country town that had a view of the highrise city centre buildings across the water. After half an hour or so of wandering, I came across a sign to an area of the national park, and after climbing up some steps the sea was suddenly in front of me, a beautiful deep blue colour, with a cliff path walk stretching away on either side. It was quite unexpected and really gorgeous! I walked left first to a high point where you could look back on the whole town, the harbour and the city beyond, and then a little further along I could see into the next bay and the point where the harbour meets the sea. I then walked in the other direction up to the top of the town, and made my way back to the beach through quiet residential streets. It felt like a really friendly place where every house was attractive and different. I ended my visit with a berry sorbet before jumping on the ferry home.

Tomorrow there's a wine festival in Hyde Park which is quite near my hostel. I think I may somehow be able to persuade myself to go along...

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Photos

Opera theatre corridor
The door to the area I sat in on Wednesday was on the right of this corridor

A sea plane
There's a whole fleet of these that operate from Rose Bay: you can catch a tiny boat out to them and they'll fly you round the harbour