2009.12.31

It’s our last day in Sydney. At the morning, I had a walk in the Royal Botanic Garden in the area we didn’t visited last time. The garden is very big with a lot of exotic plants, and it’s free. I was frightened when I stepped into one corner of the garden. Hundreds of Flying Foxes hanging on the tree. They are the largest bats in the world. Although they are necessary for spreading seeds for plants, many palm trees have been destroyed by these over-populated bats. The Garden is planing to use noise disturbance to drive them away.

Half of the garden was blocked to prepare for the New Year Eve event. At 10AM, a lot of people have already waiting there in order to get the best spots. Too bad the following video is not shot by us, but the video is a good way to conclude my travel log of Sydney trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhN6v7E5Yhk

2009.12.30

We took the Essential Tour to get into the Opera House. Besides showing music halls and different function rooms, the tour also focused on the story of the designer, Jorn Utzon, his creation, resignation and re-engagement.

Left: Concert Hall Back
Right: The Utzon Room

2-hour train took us to the rural side of Sydney. Blue Mountains is one of the nearest national parks to Sydney. The best-known landmark of the region is the Three Sisters. Compared to the national parks in North America, Blue Mountains is less impressive in terms of majesty. It is a good recreation area for families.

Top Left: The Three Sisters
Bottom Left: Leura Train Station
Right: Demon’s Leap

2009.12.29The sky finally cleared up. We got chance to take some photos we have to take, around Farm Cove and using the Opera House as the background.

After taking pictures of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, we walked through the Royal Botanic Garden.

We walked to the city center to have a lunch at a Japanese noodle house and shopped around Queen Victoria Building.

Bondi Beach is a popular beach in Sydney suburb. A lot of people were surfing, playing soccer or simply getting tanned.

2009.12.28

We took bus to the Darling Harbour and visited Sydney Aquarium. If you have visited some newly built aquariums, such as the one in California Academy of Sciences, Sydney Aquarium is not worth seeing.

Darling Harbour

Monorail took us to the city center. The Galeries Victoria has a wonderful bookstore, Kinokuniya, and some asian restaurants and stores.

The most tasty dinner we had in Sydney.

Hyde Park was named after its London equivalent. Right next to the city center, the park is a quite and ideal place to have a after dinner stroll.

Overlook the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House across Farm Cove.

2009.12.27

The first fleet arrived The Rocks in 1788. It is where the modern Australia starts. Today, The Rocks is packed with boutique stores, restaurants and galleries. The weekend market is held under a canopy.

Latte in Guylian.

Harbour Bridge climbers: I’m sure it would be a totally different experience, but the weather was not very good and it doesn’t allow you to bring your own camera, so we decided not to go. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the tallest steel arch bridge in the world.

We took ferry to the Taronga Zoo. It’s only a 10-minute ride, and it’s the only chance that I could take pictures of the front of the Opera House.

In the Zoo.
Left: A Koala is awaken and ready to do some excercise.
Right: An Emu is chasing a …, wait, is it a Kangaroo, or a Wallaby, or a Wallaroo?

The Harbour Bridge at night.

2009.12.26

We checked into InterContinental Hotel in the morning. The location cannot be better. Circular Quay, the Opera House, the Rocks and the Royal Botanic Garden are all within 5-minute walk.

It’s the boxing day. We took bus to Watsons Bay to watch the start of Yacht Race. The race is from Sydney to Hobart. The boats normally take 2 to 3 days to complete the race. The picture was taken right before the race started.

We did some window shopping at CBD in the afternoon. The boxing day is the busiest shopping day in Australia. The queue was especially long outside of the LV store. What in the picture is Strand Arcade – a restored shopping center of Victorian era.

Sydney is one of the biggest cities in the southern hemisphere. It is located in the east coast of Australia. By any means, from buildings to culture, from parks to restaurants, it is a typical city of the western country. In fact, I found it is very much like San Francisco Bay Area. Both are around a bay, both are multicultural and both have an eminent construction that defines the city. While San Francisco Bay Area is known for its hi-tech fast-pace style; Sydney is more relaxing with a British touch.

We stayed in Sydney for 4 full days and visited almost all attractions. Except, we left the city on December 31st, right before the world-famous NYE fireworks. It is indeed a pity, but at 10AM when we left the hotel, people have already lined up for a mile for the event. Hopefully next time, we would be more financially prepared, so we could reserve a seat at the Opera House.

The Opera House is an iconic construction to Sydney. Arguably, without the Opera House, Sydney would not achieve its status in the world as of now. Although it was built 40 years ago, the design is still modern and bold by today’s standard. At night, when you leave the clamorous Circular Quay behind and watch the Opera House across Farm Cove, it is such a peaceful view. I researched the Internet about the resignation of its original architect – Jorn Utzon. How unfortunate it is that he could not complete his own masterpiece because of the political reasons. Otherwise, what we see today would be even more grand.

Influenced by the British tradition, tea house and cafe are all over the city. There are also many choices of Asian restaurants. But, the food is generally mediocre and expensive. For the first time, we felt the pain of dollar depreciation directly.

I calculate that the average price is more or less reasonable before the dollar depreciation, but US dollar has dropped 50% against Australian dollar in the past year. The restaurant we like the most is called Guylian, a Belgian Chocolates cafe, located in Rocks and Circular Quay. Its chocolate dipping is my wife’s favorite; to me, the blue cheese salad is the best.

More pictures will be posted.