Sydney--Day 2: The City

The next day, I left the hostel and started to explore downtown. Sydney has a large and skinny CBD populated with equally large and skinny buildings, leading down to the Harbour. I ended up walking all the way down to Circular Quay, where the famous Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge reside.

Nearby, this guy was playing the digeridoo, which is a freakin' cool instrument:

I have to say, it's one thing to see these structures in photographs, but when you're actually there, it's a totally different experience. The Opera House is a truly magical building. You could look at it for hours if you wanted to, from different angles, admiring the triangles, the shadows cast by the building, the whiteness of the roof.

I had read about a ferry to the nearby community of Manly that was supposed to give great views of the CBD and the Opera House. I bought a pass that entitled me to unlimited use of Sydney's extensive bus, train, and ferry network and hopped on. Sure enough, we pulled out of the Harbour to incredible views of Sydney. It was a perfect clear day (the weather was incredible and warm compared to the weather in Auckland, which was simultaneously sunny and pelting me with cold windy rain as I left for the airport the previous day) and I got some great pictures.

A bunch of boats were in the Harbour...

Including this warship...

flying Chinese flags. You don't see this in Cape Cod...

Central Sydney from the Harbour

I wandered around the beachside community of Manly for a little bit and caught a ferry back to the CBD. I got lunch and consulted my piece of notebook paper--most of which contained instructions on the roundabout route from the airport to Banksia Station. There was another destination, though: "Cronulla Beach." I decided to head there, not knowing much about it other than a recommendation from Wikitravel. It would be a good distance away via CityRail, and I'd have to make a connection at one point. My all-day pass came in handy again.

Unlike Auckland, Sydney has a functioning and useful (albeit expensive) public transit system. CityRail's Illawarra Line took me south of the city through a bunch of quiet, leafy suburbs. I opened the window next to my seat on the upper level of the double-deck train car, a pleasant breeze blew in. "I could live here," I thought again. After 50 minutes, I had made it to Sutherland station, where I waited for my connection and a 20 minute ride to Cronulla.

I knew there was a beach somewhere around here, so I walked in the direction of some water in the background. I came upon a nice little sandy area with access to an inlet...a nice area,but had Wikitravel really recommended this? Still in a good mood from my train ride, I walked around the mouth of the inlet, near a playing field where some kids rugby team was practicing. I passed by a couple of schoolkids, still wearing their Cronulla Public Schools uniform.

Kid 1: Hey.

Me: Hey.

Kid 2: Hey.

Me: Hey.

Kid 1: Hey, what's your name?

Me: Mike

Kid 1: What school do you go to?

Shoot--I was outed as a non-native!

Me: Uh, I'm not actually from here.

Kid 2: Where are you from?

Me: America.

Kid 2: Oh. [Apparantly, this wasn't much of a surprise.] I thought you were someone I knew.

Me: Oh.

Kid 1: What are you doing in Cronulla?

Me: I dunno, just traveling around. I'm staying in Sydney.

Kid 1: Do you like it here?

Yes, I did. Very much.

Me: Yep.

Kid 2: Have you been to the beach yet?

Me: Uhh. [You mean this wasn't the beach!?]

The kids gave me really good directions to the real Cronulla Beach (the opposite direction, as it turned out). We chatted a little bit more, I told them more about where I was from. Then,

Me: I guess I'm going to go this way then [gesturing in the direction of the beach]. Thanks for the directions.

Kid 1: No worries. See you later.

[Maybe.]

The kids' directions were spot on, and in no time I was at the real Cronulla Beach. This couldn't have been anywhere but Australia. The surf was up, the water was perfect blue. A bunch of surfers in wetsuits were riding the waves, and doing a pretty good job of it at times. I watched them for a while.

Everyone in Cronulla seemed to be outside doing some sort of activity. Later, on my way back to the station, two policemen in horseback were inexplicably standing in a public park, with a bunch of little kids gathered around them admiring the horses.

As the sun set through the train window as we zipped through Illawarra on the way back to the CBD, I started to think about why Sydney was having such a positive effect on me. In three months in Auckland, I had never really thought that New Zealand was a place that I could settle permanently. Why was Sydney so different? Was it the weather? The people? The familiar feeling of the place? (I think, after just a few days in Australia, that Australians probably live the most Americanized lives outside of the States itself, and maybe Canada) The satay sauce in that Thai restaurant? Maybe a combination of these things, I don't really know. I'm still trying to figure it out.

After dinner, I went back to Circular Quay to see the Opera House at night. Good decision. The Opera House was magnificent again, but the real star was the Sydney Harbour Bridge, lit up in a variety of colors at night, crystal clear in the night sky. This was a really challenging environment for my little point and shoot camera. I was pushing it to and beyond its technological limits. I fiddled around with the settings, balanced it on a handrail to allow for a longer shutter speed, and took some of my favorite photographs of the trip.

I'm really happy with the way this one came out.

I convinced some people to take my picture with the Harbour Bridge in the background. The photos weren't coming out right--I fiddled around with the settings until I found the right combination (the secret is Hi-ISO mode, no flash, and vivid colors) and handed over the camera to someone else to get a relatively clear, somewhat grainy due to the high ISO, version of the "money shot."