Tourism
No one should get the idea that I haven’t been spending lots of time getting to know my new city, but I took off two days this week to spend in wandering through Sydney with my father-in-law, and it’s been quite a lot of fun toting a camera and seeing the city accompanied by someone with a few extra decades of history here to impart. Russell was sometimes lost in contemplation of his past in Sydney, which was, I think, a fairly significant part of why he came to town, but he never failed to engage me with stories and lore of the places we visited. We spent nearly half an hour circumnavigating the Department of Lands building, for example, while I learned who and why certain persons were enshrined along the façade. As fun as it was to examine the sandstone buildings of the Victorian era, it was even more delightful to stroll through the Botanical Gardens out to Wollomolloo, where we had lunch and discussed the merits of the sailing ship berthed across from our table. The ‘loo – an unfortunate but evidently previously apt nickname – is a neighborhood that has changed a good deal over the years, although once you begin the climb up through Darlinghurst into Surry Hills, the old character of the suburb becomes a bit more clear, as well as the evident disregard local government continues to exhibit towards the residents of such places, the Eastern Distributor having been plowed straight through it, an overhead rail line above, and now the latest tunnelling project underway. As much as Sydney needs the relief from traffic, it’s easy to see why people get so upset over the plans: they will go through regardless of objections in an eminent domain taking and I’ll bet they’re only as effective as current conditions allow. In a year or more, new projects will be required. We also went through Milson’s Point, a fascinating district on the other side of the Harbour Bridge, where in addition to our sightseeing M. and I hoped to locate a situation for viewing the New Year’s fireworks, for which we will be hosting our first international visitor. (I’m voting for the old pub we found, but there are some other places still in the running.) There are some wonderful sights to see from this side of the city, including an archaeological dig (which may yet become an apartment block), as well as areas where sandstone was evidently cut for the purpose of supplying building materials elsewhere in town. Lunch in The Rocks, the oldest surviving part of Sydney, in a garden abutting a great wall of sandstone and overgrown with towering plants that look straight out of an episode of the Lost World. I feel we have thoroughly scouted locations throughout the city to which we will make all visitors march and express sounds of delight. I’m also somewhat inspired to take up Russell’s suggestion of a photographic project: the stairs of Sydney. They’re everywhere, some only by suggestion of where they had been, others that no longer take you anywhere, others more extensive and still in use, but all highly photogenic. I’ve got to get better versed in f-stops, though, or fix the light meter on my SLR.