G'day, Mate
03/29/09 02:49 AM Filed in: Australia
In 1932, Australia celebrated the completion of the Sydney Harbour Bridge by issuing a set of commemorative postage stamps depicting the massive iron structure. I collected those stamps as a boy, although I could never afford the five shilling denomination pictured below.
The bridge connected North Sydney with the city center, a trip that previously could only be made by ferry. It cost so much to build that 60 years were needed to repay the investment.
Maybe I could never own the stamp, but yesterday, I took this photograph of the actual bridge itself—a dream come true.
We are spending the next two months touring Australia. We’ll remain a few days in Sydney, then rent a car and drive up the east coast along all those beautiful (and shark-infested) beaches, perhaps as far as Cairns in the tropical north. Two months is a long time to be away from San Miguel de Allende, but even at that, we’ll barely scratch the surface of Australia. It’s an entire continent, after all. In order to afford a trip of this length, we won’t be staying at the Four Seasons. Or even the Holiday Inn Express. Our hotel in Sydney is the Alishan International Guest House. It costs a quarter of what nice hotels charge. And, of course, it offers a quarter of the amenities: We get fresh towels once a week and we make our own bed.
But we get a communal kitchen so we can save time and money on breakfast. And we get a location in a wonderfully funky neighborhood near to all the famous sights. Sydney reverberates with strong echoes of the British Empire. Looking like an English manor, Government House exemplifies imperial architecture. It says, “We British are here to stay.”
Australia’s principal educational institution, the University of Sydney, is located a few blocks from our hotel. Unaware of its presence, we stumbled across it on an evening walk.
Victorian city design traveled to Sydney from England’s factory towns. These row houses could have been built in Manchester, except for the adoption of balconies made possible by benign climate.
We’re in one of the world’s most multicultural cities. On our street, we have a choice of Lebanese, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, and Mexican (!) food. We frequently hear people speaking Mandarin.
In contrast with the cozy neighborhoods, the city center is smart, sophisticated and modern. Brilliant skyscraper designs leap up beside stolid nineteenth-century piles of granite.
One of the world’s most recognizable buildings is the Sydney Opera House. Its multiple roofs resemble the triangular sails of the pleasure boats that fill the harbor on weekends.
I didn’t want a guided tour the Opera House; I wanted to use it. So we attended a concert given by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra—Beethoven, Haydn and Bartok—and got a close-up look at this wonderful space. Multiple halls, restaurants and bars, promenades offering breathtaking nighttime city views, make it one of the greatest places to hear music (even if the acoustics are not up to par). Lucky Sydneysiders live in a most beautiful city. Most of its five million residents live within walking distance of water. They have access to many, many cultural and recreational options. Sydney may be the most remote city in the world, but there’s no sense of isolation. Everything one would ever need is here.
The bridge connected North Sydney with the city center, a trip that previously could only be made by ferry. It cost so much to build that 60 years were needed to repay the investment.
Maybe I could never own the stamp, but yesterday, I took this photograph of the actual bridge itself—a dream come true.
We are spending the next two months touring Australia. We’ll remain a few days in Sydney, then rent a car and drive up the east coast along all those beautiful (and shark-infested) beaches, perhaps as far as Cairns in the tropical north. Two months is a long time to be away from San Miguel de Allende, but even at that, we’ll barely scratch the surface of Australia. It’s an entire continent, after all. In order to afford a trip of this length, we won’t be staying at the Four Seasons. Or even the Holiday Inn Express. Our hotel in Sydney is the Alishan International Guest House. It costs a quarter of what nice hotels charge. And, of course, it offers a quarter of the amenities: We get fresh towels once a week and we make our own bed.
But we get a communal kitchen so we can save time and money on breakfast. And we get a location in a wonderfully funky neighborhood near to all the famous sights. Sydney reverberates with strong echoes of the British Empire. Looking like an English manor, Government House exemplifies imperial architecture. It says, “We British are here to stay.”
Australia’s principal educational institution, the University of Sydney, is located a few blocks from our hotel. Unaware of its presence, we stumbled across it on an evening walk.
Victorian city design traveled to Sydney from England’s factory towns. These row houses could have been built in Manchester, except for the adoption of balconies made possible by benign climate.
We’re in one of the world’s most multicultural cities. On our street, we have a choice of Lebanese, Korean, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, and Mexican (!) food. We frequently hear people speaking Mandarin.
In contrast with the cozy neighborhoods, the city center is smart, sophisticated and modern. Brilliant skyscraper designs leap up beside stolid nineteenth-century piles of granite.
One of the world’s most recognizable buildings is the Sydney Opera House. Its multiple roofs resemble the triangular sails of the pleasure boats that fill the harbor on weekends.
I didn’t want a guided tour the Opera House; I wanted to use it. So we attended a concert given by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra—Beethoven, Haydn and Bartok—and got a close-up look at this wonderful space. Multiple halls, restaurants and bars, promenades offering breathtaking nighttime city views, make it one of the greatest places to hear music (even if the acoustics are not up to par). Lucky Sydneysiders live in a most beautiful city. Most of its five million residents live within walking distance of water. They have access to many, many cultural and recreational options. Sydney may be the most remote city in the world, but there’s no sense of isolation. Everything one would ever need is here.
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