Sydney, Day 1

According to some people, you can't go to Australia without visiting Sydney. This idea had been pounded into Kelly's mind as well as a bit in my own. It's the largest city in the country and home of the picturesque opera house, which, arguably, is Australia's best known landmark.

By the time we were able to make concrete plans about when to take this vacation all the flights had significantly gone up in price. We considered renting a car but everyone who heard this idea said not to drive. Apparently, the scenery is incredibly boring along the Hume highway. Kelly wanted to see it anyway, and with a rideshare I found on Gumtree (a site akin to Craigslist) it was about 1/4 the price of flying, so we drove up north.

Everyone was right about the view. There was a whole lot of nothing. It was beautiful as the sun set on rolling hills... but that was only for a few minutes of the 10-hour drive.

We arrived in Sydney around 5am and slept in the car for a couple hours before heading out. After stopping for coffee and breakfast, we took the scenic route to our hostel to drop off bags. I was incredibly excited to walk through Hyde Park (and the day after the suburb of Haymarket) as a reminder of my Chicago home.


The Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park was gifted to the city with funds bequeathed in J F Archibald's will. The fountain is meant to commemorate the efforts of France and Australia in World War One--a peculiar statement as it was given to Australia by an Australian, not the French. Archibald was enamored with the French and even changed his name from John Feltham to Jules François. He was also co-owner and creator of the misogynistic, racist, anti-clerical Bulletin news magazine. Quite a character behind such a beautiful fountain.

As we walked along small streets to get a feel for the city, one block quickly switched from rows of buildings to a large cliff with apartments on top. No other cliffs were around; it was quite strange.

Beautiful purple Jacaranda trees lined many of the streets; their fallen flowers decorated footpaths like confetti.

It had been a while since I'd traveled with another person and my style of vacationing didn't always mesh well with Kelly's. She's more inclined to browse through various shops; I'm far more interested in stopping read plaques. Over the course of our trip I tried to stop less frequently and decided to photograph the plaques to read later so I wouldn't cramp her style.


The hostel we stayed at had spectacularly painted doors for each of the rooms. Some were superheroes (Wolverine), some were movie characters (Harry Potter, Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's) and others were abstract designs. They also gave each guest a map and book of coupons upon check-in, which we made good use of.


After dropping off our bags, Kelly and I went out to see The Rocks, Sydney's oldest district. England granted land and convict labor to men willing to settle in the new country. In 1788, the first group of men and convicts arrived in Sydney. There wasn't a prison until 1819, when the Hyde Park Barracks were built, and even then it was only some convicts who slept in the prison. Rather, the convicts stayed in cabins they built in a separate area from the settlers.

Governor Macquarie wanted Sydney to become less of a penal colony and transform into a city. The trade and shipping industries aided the town in growth. By 1840 convict transportation to Sydney had ceased and about 35,000 people resided in the city. Sailors became frequent visitors and pubs popped up everywhere, often with a seafaring name. As the population grew, more schools and stores were also built. "Ragged schools" were made for destitute children and named as such to discourage parents who could afford to pay for education.

Now the district is home to a variety of restaurants, small shops, museums and art galleries.

Kelly and I headed off to Featherdale Wildlife Park in one of the western suburbs. Wallabies and kangaroos roamed freely through the park, as did various birds that Kelly was scared of. Actually, she was scared of the marsupials as well. After passing through one of the gates, I was surprised to find my feet were almost touching a kangaroo's nose. It had bent down behind the gate so I didn't see it before almost walking into its face.

There were also fairy penguins, wombats, Tasmanian devils, echidna, koalas, dingoes, emus, quolls, quokkas...



We spent our evening admiring lightning while aboard a ferry going north across the harbor, then continued to gaze upon the sky show from the beach at Manly.