After our ‘visa scare’ the remaining 24 hours of traveling was pretty uneventful. The 16 hour flight from Dallas to Sydney was surprisingly pretty easy. It included a ‘welcome cocktail’, dinner, snack and breakfast. The food was leaps and bounds above our flights to & from Europe! And the in seat entertainment was pretty great too! We were lucky enough to have a row of 3 seats to ourselves so we were able to spread out a little.
We tried to stay awake as long as possible to help acclimate ourselves to the local time. ‘Tried’ is the key word here. We did sleep well albeit a little earlier than planned. We arrived in Sydney at 6 am local time and had already been up for at least 4 hours by this time.
Once we arrived we took the train downtown and were luckily able to check into our hotel early. The guy working at the desk didn’t have to twist my arm much to get us to upgrade to room with a view of the opera house! We both got ready and set out for a day of exploring.
We set out to see Norman Foster’s Central Park building first which was on the southern side of the city. The streets were full of people heading to work and school but the pace seemed more relaxed than cities back home.
We walked through Hyde Park which is bisected by a walking path lined with huge trees. I’m not sure what type of trees they are but they were huge and the branches were almost sculptural. I was always thinking there was a chance I may look up and see a giant snake curled up in a tree or bush but thankfully we did not see any deadly animals downtown.
After a few miles of walking we finally arrived at Central Station and beyond that the Central Park building. After seeing it in person, it is one of my favorite Norman Foster projects. It is really cool to see how the vegetation has evolved resulting in an ever-changing facade of the building.
Before our trip I had researched sustainable buildings in the city so next we headed to see what was advertised as Sydney’s ‘greenest’ building. This took us all the way back up to the north side of the city along Darling Harbor. Of course there were lots of pauses along the way for photos.
Our visit to the target ‘green’ building was kind of a bust but it did cause us to happen upon two other cool parts of the city. The first was an old residential area filled with sandstone tow homes and lots of character. This area is surrounded in controversy right now as there have been groups trying to raze this area for new development. It was a very cool and quaint part of the city. The second thing we happened upon was a ‘Friday Foodie Market’ where we took the opportunity to grab some lunch. We found a spot to sit down and eat along the harbor across From the Opera House.
Next it was time to head over to the opera house. We found free wifi nearby so we took the opportunity to FaceTime with Bri before we headed inside. Joe and I marveled at how awesome is it to live in a day where you can video chat halfway around the world for free!
After marveling at the exterior and taking lots of photos of the Opera House we headed inside where we took a guided tour. I felt like a nerd as I marveled at all of the building details as the tour guide told stories regarding some of the famous visitors and happenings at the opera house. After the tour we decided that we might as well buy tickets and see our first opera at the most famous opera house we could think of. We were getting tired so we headed back to the hotel to change clothes and take a quick nap before the evening started.
We opted for a steak and seafood house long the harbor for dinner. Admittedly it was a ‘touristy’ restaurant but we decided the view was worth it and we hadn’t left ourselves much time to explore for a better option. Joe got a steak and I got the prawns. Both meals were excellent. We enjoyed chatting with our hostess who had a friend that was driving through Ohio on her way to Chicago and our server who was from North Carolina. This exchange was not the first of the day that left us feeling that people were very friendly in this city.
We arrived at the opera house and enjoyed a cocktail in a boutique bar inside prior to the show. The opera was in Italian but there were English subtitles above the stage. The con was that we found ourselves reading subtitles more than watching the performers. The pro was that you knew exactly what was going on since there was no deciphering of words or accents. We enjoyed the opera but we both found ourselves dosing off as our active day and the time change had finally caught up with us.
We left during the second intermission to do a little more exploring (and of course more photos) before calling it a night.