We left Blue Mountain this morning and returned to Sydney. We got to Sydney in good time, but there were constructions around the hotel and traffic was absolutely horrible. It took David half an hour to go around the block once, and the worst part was there were no parking anywhere except in a garage 2 blocks away. We also found out parking cost about $70 a day! Since we had planned to use public transit in the city, we decided to return the car that afternoon.
Since we had been to many beautiful beaches already, Bondi Beach was a real let down. While it is a nice white sandy beach and also the most crowded beach we have come across so far, the waves are rather tame and it does not appear to be anything special. Sydney has the most people and it is the most lively of the Australian cities we have visited thus far. One could feel and sense the vibes of the city.
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| Still Life with Stone and Car - sculpture by Jimmie Durham |
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| one of the last cast iron public urnials or pissoirs in Sydney |
After we returned the car, we joined a 1-1/2 hours walking tour around an area called The Rocks. The tour is a 'pay what you think it's worth' type of tours. The Rocks is located at Sydney Cove where the first Europeans settled in the 1788. The guide told us history and stories of the area, and she was quite entertaining. The area was going to be torn down and redeveloped in the 1960s. But the citizens, with the help of the building trades' unions, managed to stop the project after a 10-years long 'battle'. Finally the government relented and turned the area into parks, and refurbished the century old buildings and maintained the characters of the area. I find their archaeological sites most interesting. During the re-construction, they found building foundations under a parking lot and artifacts from people living there in the 1800s. They left the foundations intact, built a local museum on top to 'shelter' the original foundations, and put up a semi-transparent facade on the front to mimic what those buildings would look like in the old days. It is a rather innovative and practical approach to preserving the area. While they only have 200 years of history, they preserve them well. We also saw quite a number of old buildings; in particular, all three pubs who claimed to be the oldest in the area! We ended up having dinner in one of them - the Australian Hotel, who claimed the honour because it was established in 1843. We even tried their half & half emu and kangaroo pizza. It tasted good, but I could not tell the difference of the meat.
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| character buildings in the Rocks |
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