Sydney

Now for Sydney... 5 days, 22 people from mum's side of the family, 3 different houses, and huge swarms of people from all over the world who wanted a Sydney New Years Eve! Busy busy busy...

The people: Well, it all started when we decided to visit mum's cousin Bruce in Sydney for New Year's Eve. Word travels fast in our family and soon all the relatives in Australia & New Zealand had found out we were down-under. All of a sudden, our party of 8 turns into a party of 22!! I'll briefly introduce you: 5 Taits, mum's cousin Ron & wife Julia, mum's cousin Linley & husband Greg, mum's brother Keith, wife Barb, and kids Carl & Lisa, mum's brother Alan and kids Zach & Finn, mum's sister Phyll and kids Britt & Mackenzie, and mum's cousin Bruce, fiancee Monica, and her daughter Amy.

The city: for those of you who have been to Sydney, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who haven't, it absolutely needs to go on your to-do list! 

--The city was first settled by the English (commissioned by Baron Sydney) in 1788 as a penal colony. The American Revolution during that time meant that England could no longer deport prisoners to America, so off they went down-under! Transport of prisoners to Sydney stopped in 1840 because the non-criminal citizens didn't appreciate their neighbors. It became a city in 1842 and gold was discovered ten years later resulting in a huge influx of people from all over the world. The Harbor Bridge was opened in 1932, amid the Great Depression, and the Opera House was opened in 1973. And so on and so on... I guess the point is that it has become the popular destination that it is incredibly recently! There is not a postcard of Sydney without the Bridge & Opera House on it, and they haven't even been there for a century yet! 

-- Sydney is obviously a bustling city, but it's surrounded by some of the most beautiful coastline and scenery in Australia. You can head to the beach or parks in the morning and wander around the many downtown museums and shops in the afternoon, or catch a ferry from Circular Quay to one of many attractions in the bay. The clear blue skies never end... Basically, I would HAPPILY live there.

For those of you who endure the wet and cold European winters, you'll understand me: spending time outside in December & January, walking, swimming, BBQs is MAGICAL. Just when you don't think you can cope with one more grey sky and constantly carrying your umbrella around, hope is restored. So it's not surprising that we spent almost all our time outside, starting with a welcome BBQ our first night. The next morning we did the Coogee Beach --> Bondi Beach walk (recommended by all travel guides & locals). In between the beautiful bays are huge cliffs that drop down to the sea. So we had fantastic views from the cliff-tops overlooking the Tasman Sea followed by walks around the crescent-shaped bays in between. It was HOT and obviously there were many icecream breaks. Staying together in a group of 22 was also challenging, and as soon as the lead group found a shady spot they would call the trailing groups and let them know they were waiting. Then, after anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes later, the trailing groups would arrive, seeking shade. At which point, the leading group who had been waiting would announce "right, let's go, everyone ready?" So it was a constant cat-and-mouse along the cliffs, very funny. 

New Years Eve celebrations that night, after a few hours lying on the beach resting our feet (and waiting for the final group... haha). One of the appartments some of us were staying in was right by Coogee Beach, where there was an incredible 9:30pm fireworks display. Absolutely the best fireworks I've ever seen, lying down on the beach with hundreds of stars in the sky, the sound of the ocean in between the boom of fireworks. Am I painting the picture for you? We then watched the Harbor Bridge fireworks on TV but soon discovered that we could actually see & hear most of them from the apartment balcony, so we ran back & forth to get the whole experience.

New Year's Day, we went into the city and saw the Opera House close-up. Little did I know, it's not all one building. Its a series of large shells. And it's not completely white, it's covered in cream & white patterned tiles. And the architect had a huge fall-out with the Sydney government, mainly because the building ended up costing $103 million when the original budget was $5 million! So the argument was understandable...? 

A few hours later, 12 of us were all wearing jumpsuits, harnesses, radios & headsets. Can you figure it out?

 

Unfortunately this picture is not of us, but we did climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge. 2 and a half hours, 134 metres (440 feet) above sea level, absolutely amazing! We started off in the Bridge office, getting all the gear on, and our leader asked our group of 14 to introduce ourselves and say why we were there. The 12 of us tried not to laugh as cousin Carl said his name and that he was here for a family reunion with 11 others from the group... haha the 2 poor other people in our group who had to put up with us for over 2 hours!! 

We were all harnessed to a continuous wire for the entire climb so there was no falling off despite the 30 mph winds at the top. Problem was that at regular intervals there were little spinning gadgets to connect the wires that your harness was supposed to run smoothly through. Unfortunately, mine had to be pulled through at exactly the right angle otherwise I'd keep walking and get yanked backwards which was very painful. There were also 2 camera stations where the leader took pictures of us... typically the group would get split into couples or families of 3-5, but our group of 12 posed a photographical challenge. We found a system where there were 2 rows, with alternating people crouching down in front of the person next to them. Of course, we were all still attached to the handrail so this formation was very difficult and at the end it took a while to untangle ourselves... 

This was all followed by kangaroo pizza at The Australia Hotel which I can't say I really enjoyed. It didn't taste bad but just the thought of eating kangaroo put me off. I was especially sure of my dislike for it when we visited the Sydney Zoo the next morning and saw the kangaroos. We also saw an incredible bird show and a seal show. The cutest animal: red pandas. Most shocking: the snakes which were HUGE. I literally got goosebumps just looking at them. This is a picture from the sight of the bird show overlooking the bay, Sydney skyline, Opera House, and Harbor Bridge!

The following day dad went to the first day of the Australia-South Africa cricket test match. To say he was excited would be a HUGE understatement. The poor guy had lived in the US for five years and is now in Holland, so for him to be going to the first day of a TEST... everytime we went past the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground), which was conveniently on the bus route into the city, he'd point it out and bow down to it through the bus window. 

The rest of us split up into a beach group and a city group. I went with mum, Phyll, Britt, and Chris into the city again, to visit Darling Harbor, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Rocks. The MCA was very cool, I've never really been that into modern art, but there was actually some very interesting stuff. Thank god for the little description things next to the art, otherwise I wouldn't have known what was going on or what the story was behind it. My favorite medium is photography, and there was a really interesting exhibit by a woman named Simryn Gill. Here's the museum's description: Gill’s practice considers how we might experience place and the intersection of personal and collective histories and geographies. For her work May 2006 the artist took more than 800 photographs over a month of walks around her neighbourhood, using a film stock that had recently been discontinued and was nearing its expiry date. The work records the passing of this material as well as Gill’s deepening connection to her locality. 

I really appreciated the importance of feeling connected to the place that you live in...

And next day we said goodbye to Dad (I won't see him until I get back to Holland at the end of April) and mum, the boys and I flew to Adelaide to stay with Linley (mum's cousin) and her husband Greg.

I'll do the Adelaide bit next! But now I'm off for a driving lesson with my uncle Peter. I've been driving for a year so it shouldn't theoretically be that hard, BUT I have to drive on the left hand side of the road here... wish me luck :)