Last View of Sydney...For Now

I’ve put off this post for a long time because it’s probably the last one I’ll do about Sydney. I’ve been busy back at school and trying my hand at sports reporting for the Columbia Missourian. I am still looking for my next opportunity to go back to Oz. Until then, one final reflection:


I actually cried for the city.

The plane had just taken off and I began to recognize the landmarks below. I could point out Randwick Racetrack, Centennial Park and the Sydney Football Stadium first. Then it was easy to spot the gothic buildings and green ovals of Sydney Uni. I could see Hyde Park and the beaches beyond it. Then we reached the harbour. Wouldn’t you know it, the plane started to turn just then, dipping the wing so I could get a full view of the bridge, Opera House and skyline one more time.


That’s when the tears came.

I’d been sad earlier that week when my all my friends left before me. I cried a little after they were gone and at a few points during the next two lonely days. But when I choked up on the plane, I wasn’t thinking about the people I’d miss or how fast the semester had gone. I honestly cried because the city looked gorgeous and I knew I’d miss living it.


The harbour was unbelievably blue as always, freckled with white sails. The Opera House and bridge were perfectly centered in my window. I didn’t have a camera, but I won’t ever forget that image. I can’t emphasize enough how blue it was. The harbour, the ocean, the sky. This was a view of Sydney begging me to return.


The plane continue to turn and I got a head-on look at Darling Harbour, Circular Quay and the Botanical Gardens. I loved that I could spot everything so easily. I’d been all around the city and looked at maps more times than you’ll ever know. I could see the Anzac Bridge, Luna Park, Balls Head Reserve. I got one last view of Manly Beach and the North Head, and then it was ocean for the next 13 hours.


As much as I wanted to stay, I am completely satisfied with my trip. I set out to explore and I did. There’s always more to see and do, but I think I got to know the city better than most. Hopefully the posts here will encourage travelers, and even residents, to get out and see new parts of Sydney. Or any city. Just explore.

One Last Exploration

On my train ride to and from work twice a week I would pass Waverton Station, which has a big sign for Balls Head. After all the times I saw the sign and snickered, smirked or snorted at the name, I finally looked up Balls Head the last week I was there.


Balls Head is a little reserve in North Sydney with walking trails and picnic spots. I decided it’s be a great last exploration with my friend Becky.


It was a beautiful day so we wanted to enjoy the early winter sun. We wanted to do something we hadn’t done before, though I thought it’d be good to say goodbye to Sydney’s familiar spots.


Balls Head is right on the water a few stops over the Harbour Bridge so we got a new view of the Opera House and the skyline. It was a perfect panorama from North Sydney over the Harbour Bridge to the CBD and Darling Harbour, across the Anzac Bridge to Balmain and Rozelle.


It was a nice little walk and a fitting end to our adventures.

Can’t Get Enough Festivals

If it’s the weekend, there’s a festival in Darling Harbour. My first day in Sydney I watched the Chinese New Year Dragon Boat Races there. I stopped by the Indian Holi Festival not long ago and watched acrobatics at the Hoopla Festival over the long Easter weekend.


Most recently I went to the Greek Festival, which featured lots of dancing and lamb-eating. The Greeks seem to be people with a lot of pride. A majority wore blue and white T-shirts, jerseys or hats, if not the Greek flag itself.

I missed the Indonesian Festival in Darling Harbour this weekend, but coming Sunday is the Thailand Grand Festival. It’s fun always going to the same spot but seeing an entirely different collection of people each time. Being from Los Angeles and traveling often, I’m used to cosmopolitan cities. After spending a few years at school in Columbia, Missouri, it’s refreshing to be back in a place with large populations from so many different cultures.

Whole Lotta Hoopla

Last Monday, two friends and I went to Darling Harbour for the last day of the annual Hoopla Festival, which included street performers and acrobatics.


These guys who played movie themes and classic rock as they flew, spun and flipped were maybe my favorite.




But the breakdancers on stilts were awesome too. (The photos didn’t just come out as good.) That's two people doing some sort of crab-walk together.







These two women were incredibly strong and graceful. They would climb the rope without any safety net or harness, then entwine themselves in the rope and twist around.









My friend and I were inspired on the playground. But without the same finesse, we didn’t draw much of a crowd.

Happy Holi-Days

On Sunday I stopped by the Indian Festival of Colors, Holi-Mahatsov, in Darling Harbour. Holi celebrates the start of spring in India. Though it is soon to be autumn in Sydney, this week it has been in the high 80s, maybe even 90s. I still haven’t figured out that whole Celsius thing. Multiply by five-ninths? Yeah, just after I finish listing pi to 38 decimal places...

Anyway, as part of the festival, people throw colored powder, which is actually made of medicinal herbs, at each other. The significance of this goes back to Indian mythology when Krishna put colors on his love, Radha. But on Sunday, the color throwing had more the feel of a snowball fight than expression of love.


Apparently on the first night of Holi, people light bonfires to symbolize burning the demoness Holika and the victory of good over evil. The festival is supposed to promote friendship and good health.


It was fun watching these boys, who set out to wash the pink powder off themselves, move into a full scale water fight.


It was bound to happen.

Scarier than a pigeon and just as dirty, it’s the ibis

Not long ago, I sang praises of Sydney’s parks. What I didn’t mention were the parks’ primary residents: Australian white ibises.

I first saw these birds when I was checking out Victoria Park within an hour of arriving in Sydney. They seemed pretty exotic to inhabit the area between Broadway and City Road, but soon I started seeing them everywhere. On campus, in Darling Harbour, Hyde Park... I’ve seen more ibises than pigeons.


Just the other day I realized they sleep on one leg like flamingos.

I did some research and learned that Australian white ibises began to flock to the city during the 80s because of droughts and other problems in their natural habitats. At their urban peak, more than 10,000 ibises nested in Sydney. The population has diminished because they do not seem to be reproducing as before and because governments started taking action. The main culling method is to apply canola oil to the eggs so the embryos can’t get air, rather than killing live ibis.

The birds can be quite a nuisance, especially when you try to picnic — a band of them surrounded my friends and I as we ate lunch in The Domain. Ibises typically eat bugs and small water animals, but have taken a liking to Sydney garbage as well. A lot of people would be glad to be rid of the smelly, dirty birds, but there are also movements to protect the species in the city since they cannot be sustained in other environments.


I’m sure if they just started eating shrimp and turned pink like flamingos, they’d have a lot more supporters.

The Seagull Obsession Continues

This guy finally held still long enough for me to get his picture the other night in Darling Harbour.