Sydney Town

Hey all,

I know in the last post I said I wouldn't be so bad about updates, but here we are.  I'm a hopeless procrastinator, as those who know me well are aware, and this has been a curse of mine for some time now.  Moving on, I have here for you recollections of my time spent in Sydney and a few days in Canberra.  Both of these are in Australia, as I've now left New Zealand.  Pictures will be posted when I leave this country, in about a week and a half.  Until then, more updates.

Sunday, May 30th
Woke up today for the last time in New Zealand on this trip, although hopefully not for the last time in my life.  I had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 5am, and this after going to bed at 3am due to the bar below my room and a plethora of interesting movies on tv (my favorite being Bottle Shock, which featured the inimitable Alan Rickman).  I packed up, dropped my key off and walked down K Road to the Airport Flyer Bus pick up station.  When I got to the airport, it was still dark, which actually made it easier to recognize things from my past trip here 2.5 weeks ago, when it had also been pre-dawn.  I wasted time in the main terminal before heading off to security.  Once through, I went to a bar and watched the New Zealand v. Serbia soccer game, which was a warm up before the World Cup for both teams.  As my flight was delayed, I had enough time to watch the whole game, which NZ ended up winning.

My flight was probably delayed because I was flying between Auckland and Sydney on Aerolineas Argentinas (I know, pretty random choice of airline), and the plane was coming from Buenos Aires.   Once on the plane (which featured the dullest interior this side of an LTU flight) I was cracking up, because everything was in Spanish.  It just felt so out of place on this side of the world.  The flight was about 4 hours long, and I spent most of it asleep, trying to regain so many lost hours of sleep.  The only highlights were that those crazy Latin Americans gave me a ham sandwich for lunch, and that I descended into Sydney blasting "Down Under" by the Men at Work, which I think probably irritated the Aussies and amused the Kiwis.  I cleared Aussie customs ridiculously easily, even though I had declared my recent visit to a farm and my possession of hiking boots.  Once through I was greeted by that most American of vendors, Krispy Kreme, and also by a place called Hungry Jack's, selling whoppers.  I was later to learn that Burger King is called Hungry Jack's down here and that they weren't actually practicing copyright infringement.

I took a bus to Bondi Junction, where I was to meet up with Yuval, of MT6 fame, and go to his flat, where I was graciously being offered a place to sleep free of charge during my time in Sydney.  After a bit of confusion I managed to get a hold of him and he took me to his place, which is directly above the train and bus terminal, or in other words, perfectly located for exploring the city.  He has been studying abroad this past semester at Sydney University, a fairly prestigious school in this part of the world.  His apartment was amazing, with great views of the Harbour Bridge out of the kitchen window, two balconies, a gigantic circular window in the living room, and plenty of space, even for 6 people.  I relaxed there for a little while, being generally exhausted from the travel.  During this time, I met a few of Yuval's flatmates, who all seemed like pretty nice people.  I had intended to go to the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby game this evening, but at approximately 2:30 I learned that it started at 3:00.  I hurriedly made my way down to the train station and set off on my way to the game.  I had to take 3 different trains to get to Olympic Park, site of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and home of my team, the Rabbitohs.  I suppose I should explain, to those still in the dark, why the Rabbitohs are "my team."  I am not the most knowledgeable fan of rugby, and had not really had any affiliation with the sport until 2008.  During that year, Russel Crowe, who happens to be part owner of said team, brought them to Jacksonville, my home town, of all places, to train during the preseason.  He even arranged for them to play an exhibition games against the winners of the European League, Leeds Rhinos.  It was highly entertaining, and I have been a Rabbitohs fan ever since.  The journey to the stadium took about an hour, so I arrived at the very beginning of the second half.  After some pleading with the security guards at the ticket gates, I was allows entry free of charge, which was an unexpected bonus.  I got to see almost all of the 2nd half of play, during which time most of the scoring occurred.  The Rabbitohs won handedly against the Penrith Panthers, a team from a distant suburb of Sydney, with a final score of 44-24.  Once the final whistle blew, I was treated by the fans to South Sydney's song, which bears striking resemblance to rather famous Civil War song back in the States.  I took the trains back to Yuval's, had some Mexican food for dinner, and crashed on the couch.

Monday, May 31st
Today was a relatively slow day.  The weather was pretty rotten, with gale force winds, and lots of showers.  I needed to get some work done anyway on finalizing some appointments in Australia, so I decided to stay in.  I slept in a bit, both due to exhaustion, and the 2 hour time difference.  I got up at 10, but it felt to my body as if I had slumbered until noon, which was rejuvenating.  After waking, I had some cereal and milk for the first time in about a month and got to work.  I had arranged to attend a conference on Indigenous Health being hosted by Sydney University, so I worked on some background research on the speakers and their work.

After a lot of work, I found myself a bit stir crazy, so I ventured out into the wet to see what was about in the neighborhood.  Bondi Junction is a hip, relatively wealthy suburb, so there was no shortage of amusements for my boredom.  I went across the road to the Westfield Mall, which is by some accounts the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, or at least Australia and New Zealand.  I almost couldn't find my way around, it was so large.  It had so many shops of interest that I wound up spending about 3 hours inside it.  It was fun to do some window shopping, and also to observe little cultural and linguistic differences.  I ate at the Harbour Room Food Court, which is the most upscale food court I have ever seen.  All the restaurants were really classy, but the prices were still fairly low, which was a plus.  I had a really tasty chicken schnitzel sandwich, which they have everywhere here in Sydney.  I couldn't even finish the food on my plate, there was so much of it.  I did some shopping at the supermarket and went back to the flat.  I spent the evening doing more work, watching some TV, and reading.  It was a slow, but productive day.

Tuesday, June 1st
Hard to believe it's June already, but here we are.  I had a great day today.  I got to check a major thing off my life's must do list, and I had a very successful time at the conference this evening.  I started off the morning with a hearty breakfast, then was off on my way for the day.  I took the train from Bondi Junction to Central station, where I got on another train to Circular Quay, which is at the center of Sydney's harborside.  Once there I wandered past a nifty and very talented didgeridoo player on my way to the world famous Sydney Opera House.

The building was every bit as spectacular as I had expected it to be.  The curving walls, forming the shapes of sails, seashells, birds' wings, and other imaginations, were covered in white and cream colored tiles.  The design of the building reminded me of the Contemporary Hotel in Disney World, not for architectural similarity, but because they both represent the past's conception of the future.  We can all agree that the conception was wrong, but nonetheless awe inspiring in its bravery and boldness.  I walked around the structure a few times, just absorbing the images and trying to understand them.  I booked a tour for later in the afternoon and wandered off to the other side of Circular Quay for my next adventure.

I walked to the area near the harbor known as The Rocks, since it forms a rocky outcropping into the harbor.  It was here that European Sydneysiders first settled to create what is today a sparkling city of millions, although obviously Aboriginal inhabitants had lived elsewhere in the region for thousands of years prior.  Parts of it still have that old European charm, though, with small alleyways and cobblestone roads, along with old architecture.  From there I took some stairs up to the pedestrian entrance to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which is perhaps the second most iconic structure in Australia, behind only the Opear House.  It is certainly a nice bridge to look at, being very well designed, especially with the two flags at its summit, one the Australian national flag and the other the Aboriginal flag.  I walked to the midpoint of the bridge, and soaked up some amazing views of the city.  The bridge is actually a lot higher up than it seems, giving a wonderful vantage point from which to view Sydney.  I then had to head back to the Opera House for my tour.

The tour was led by a very knowledgeable gentleman named Stephen, who was quite enamored with the performing arts.  He stressed early on that the Opera House did much more than just operas, and included comedy, concerts, ballet, dance, and many other forms of entertainment, but that it just didn't roll off the tongue to say Sydney Multifunctional Performing Arts Center.  We were all given headsets which were tuned to his microphone, thus eliminating the need to shout while on the tour, which allowed us to observe many rehearsals and sets.  The two main buildings are the larger Concert Hall, and the slightly smaller Ballet and Opera Hall.  We got to see some of the small thatres on the lower levels as well.  In the large concert hall, a student orchestra was performing some bombastic klezmer music, which threw me off a bit.  The interior, though, all things considered, was much less stunning than the exterior, which could be explained by the dismissal of the architect, Jorn Utson, halfway through construction.  A number of videos on the tour explained Utson's relationship with the building, which he never saw completed.

After the Opera House I had some grilled baby octopus and chips for lunch, having to shout at and threaten the seagulls.  They were certainly true to their "Finding Nemo" form, and there were about 50 of them following me into the train station, even after I had thrown away what remained of my chips.  I went back to the apartment, got dressed, had some dinner, and got on a bus to go to Sydney University for my conference.  By the time I arrived, the sun had set, so I couldn't see everything that well, but the campus seemed nice.  I had a tough time finding the Auditorium in which the event was taking place, but did eventually get there, with about 10 minutes to spare.

The Sydney University School of Medicine was putting on a panel of speakers, each to speak for about 20 minutes about the organization, program, or policy they were affiliated with, and then questions would be allowed.  All of the people involved were deeply committed to closing the healthcare and/or education gaps between the general Australian population and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.  To start off the event, as is customary, a commemoration statement was made about the land we were meeting on and the elders who we needed to pay our respects to.  The Belle Celloe, the woman who had organized all of this, gave a brief introductory speech, and the conference began.  We heard from Ben Howard about the AIME Program, Jeff McMullan, CEO of the Ian Thorpe Foundation, Dr. David Brockman, VP of the Australian Indigenous Doctors' Association, Gael Kennedy, of Filling the Gap, Mark Bloxsome, an Aboriginal man who works for the federal government, and Ngiare Brown, of the POCHE Centre for Research.  All of the speeches were helpful, inspirational, and instructive in understanding the path forward in Australia.  After they Q&A session, I went down to the stage to thank the speakers and organizers of the conference.I then walked to Redfern station and took 2 trains back to my couch/bed.

Wednesday, June 2nd
Got up fairly early today, to get going, because there was a lot I wanted to get done and to see. I took a bus out to Sydney's most famous beach, although debatably not her nicest, Bondi Beach.  From Bondi Junction it was only a ten minute ride away, and I took advantage of this fact.  The day was a bit chilly, overcast, and windy, but the beach was still spectacular.  It is set into a natural cove, and half of it is given over to swimmers (you must swim between the flags) while the other half is given to surfers.  There were a lot of the latter, kitted out in their thick wetsuits, since the Pacific in winter isn't the most temperate of waters.  I dipped my toes in, just to see how it felt, and it was cold, but not terribly so.  I then wandered around the area, which was similar to beach towns everywhere, with cafes and tourist shops.  The cove was bordered on either side by rocky coast, and it reminded me of a cross between the coastlines of Northern California and Maine.

I took the now familiar train into Town Hall station, which is, as one could guess, located right under the Sydney Town Hall Building.  The building is in the classical style, and is quite striking.  It cuts a very majestic image nestled in between the skyscrapers of downtown Sydney.  It is also proximate to a couple of other old and majestic buildings, namely the St. Andrews Church and the Queen Victoria Building.  Following some guidance from a local information booth, I set out on my way throughout the city.

Downtown Sydney is immense, and completely different than anywhere else I've been thus far on my trip.  It's a far more metropolitan city than Auckland, to be sure.  It reminds me of New York, with the city feel so close to water.  I walked through the CBD to a large park, which was again reminiscent of New York.  This park, as with one of the ones in London, is known as Hyde Park, and holds within its border the Sydney ANZAC Memorial.  This is, of course, a monument to the war dead of the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, from when both countries still fought for the Empire, mostly in the Boer War and World War One.  It was the first memorial I had even seen built in the Art Deco style, which was cool, and really worked for some reason in lending an air of austerity and respect.  The interior is similar to Grant and Napolean's tombs, with a main floor above a circular lower area with a tomb, or in this case the crucified form of an ANZAC soldier.  The roof is covered with countless cold plated stars, and the main floor features a eternal flame and four alcoves in which the battles of the ANZAC have been inscribed.  Outside is a large reflecting pool and the flags of Australia, New Zealand, the Aborigines, and the Torres Strait Islanders.

After paying my respects, I walked through Hyde Park to The Great Synagogue, which was constructed in the mid-nineteenth century for the Jewish congregation of Sydney, which itself had been formed officially in 1826, or so said a plaque on the building.  It's built in old Central European style and is quiet grandiose.  I did not enter the synagogue, because it is only open to the public during services, due to security concerns.  I thus admired the exterior for a little while and went off on my way.

Next I went to the Sydney Tower.  This is Sydney's attempt at the beautiful tower gracing Auckland's skyline.  Unfortunately for Sydney, their tower is both shorter and uglier than the kiwi version.  It's a gold, gaudy mess, and it adds no aesthetic value to the skyline.  I entered on street level, and found everything to be under renovation, which made the whole scene a bit disorderly.  I got into an elevator to the "summit" with a large and very confused Indian family, which led both to annoyance and hilarity.  The elevators, unlike the normally shaped ones in Auckland, are each shaped like pieces of pie, in order to fit more into the main structure, which led to some interesting positioning in order to all fit in.  Up at the top, the view was pretty stunning, especially since I got right as the sun was starting its descent.  This gave the whole northern half of the city a golden glow, particularly the Harbour Bridge.  Unfortunately, a tall, ugly building was blocking the view of Circular Quay and the Opera House, but the rest of the city was my oyster.  I could see the harbor, the Pacific Ocean, and the distant Blue Mountain range, as well as the metropolis below me.  Just as in Auckland, this was the way to see the city.

After the tower I walked to a nearby Apple store, where I used the wifi on a new iPad (which was just released here and is driving the Aussie press crazy) to get a map and find my bearings.  I then trekked out to Darling Harbour, incidentally the site of Real World: Sydney, for a visit to the Sydney Aquarium.  Having discovered an interest in marine life over the past few semesters at UM, I was very excited to get to see so many examples of organisms which only live in Australian waters, or cannot be found in the US.  I was also very excited to see my first real life pokemon, a dugong.  Alright, I promise that will be the last pokemon reference on this blog, but I was still excited to see, in person, this sleeker cousin of the Florida Manatee.  The aquarium consisted of four buildings.  The main building was on the Darling Harbour landmass, while the 3 ancillary buildings were in the harbor itself.  The main building had all the smaller exhibits, featuring a platypus (which was hiding), several species of penguin, rockfish, cuttlefish, and all sorts of other creatures.  The three other buildings, which were accessed via gangplanks, were massive tanks with walk through underwater tunnels in them.  The first was the famed dugong exhibit, while the other two featured sharks and rays, and a Great Barrier Reef habitat.  In the Great Barrier Reef habitat, there was a clever use of glass built in to separate some animals from others.  One of these animals was the Lionfish, which is a poisonous fish that has become an invasive pest in the waters around South Florida.  It was interesting to see them in their natural environment.

Following my marine adventures, I walked around Darling Harbour, which has a shopping and entertainment feel to it.  I walked past the largest IMAX in the world, as well as numerous malls, shops, restaurants, and a casino.  I spent some time wandering through one of the malls, had dinner at a local place (chicken schnitzel), and after that I returned to Bondi Junction to relax and sleep on the couch.

Thursday, June 3rd
Today Yuval finally had some free time, so he was going to take me to a few places around town that he liked.  We were delayed in the morning due to some technical difficulties with Yuval's computer, but eventually we got on our way.  We took the train to Central station, where we walked a few hundred meters to Paddy's Haymarket.  This is a very cool place in Chinatown where you can get everything on the cheap, and bargaining is required.  It was very different from the stores I had been in thus far in NZ and Australia.  It was a fun place to wander, and I procured for myself a boomerang, a poster of Aboriginal artwork, and a present for my folks.  Haggling was required, and I only spent about $35 on the lot of it.  Yuval got himself a didgeridoo, which I was considering also purchasing, but for the fact that I would have to lug it around with my from country to country.

After the market we walked over to Chinatown proper, which was easy to spot, given the large red Oriental gates marking the entrance.  We found a cheap place to eat, and dug into emmigrant Chinese food, which, in my opinion, can be much better than the real thing, being loaded with sugar, fats, and MSG.  We then took a free CBD bus to Circular Quay, where Yuval took some pictures of me with the Circumnavigators Club flag in front of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, as much to please my benefactors as my mother.  We wandered around The Rocks, and found a similar didgeridoo to Yuval's selling for nigh on $300.

Next up, we decided to go visit the National Maritime Museum, both because it sounded interesting and because it had free admission to the general public.  We made the sizeable walk between Circular Quay and Darling Harbour, where the museum is located, and were both pretty exhausted by the end of it.  Unfortunately, we arrived just 15 minutes before the museum was closing, so we were not allowed entrance.  Thus suitably dispirited, we began the long walk back to Town Hall to catch a train back to the apartment.  Once there, we settled in and didn't do much for the evening.  Yuval was going on a trip to Cairns, to visit the Great Barrier Reef, tomorrow, so he got a pretty early night's rest.

Friday, June 4th
I was woken a few times last night by the storm raging outside the windows of the apartment.  Upon actually waking up for the morning I could see the extent of it, as the harbor wasn't visible through the downpour.  It appeared as if the storms of Miami had transplanted themselves to the streets of Sydney.  Not only were the wind and rain bad in Sydney, but a smaller town in New South Wales had been decimated by a tornado during the night, although thankfully and miraculously no one had been hurt too seriously.  Noting the weather, I stayed in for the morning.

I was finally forced to set out into the weather by sheer hunger.  I had some passable Italian food at the food court nearby and then went back to the apartment to get dressed up for my meeting later in the day.  After showering, shaving, and donning the suit, I set out again into the rain and wind.  My meeting was with a Dr. Paul Torzillo, who is a respiratory physician at Prince Albert Royal Hospital, as well as a big force in the work to help improve the healthcare of remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.  I met the doctor at his hospital office in the suburbs near Sydney University, and through a clever combination of trains and taxis had somehow managed to stay relatively dry.

He was a little pressed for time, due to some commitments in the OR, but we had a very productive meeting nonetheless.  We were able to discuss his work with Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, for which he has received many awards and decorations, as well as about the general situation of Aboriginal health in Australia.  The thing he really wanted to stress to me was that, much as is the case with other disparaged groups, there is a lot of diversity in the Aboriginal situation here.  The problems facing Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote communities and those living in urban settings are, while both grave and deserving of attention, very different from one another.  Very helpfully, Dr. Torzillo also provided me with some additional contacts for my time in Canberra and Melbourne later on during my time in Australia.

After the meeting I couldn't find a cab on the suburban roads, and so I had to walk through the downpour to the nearest major street.  On the way I got soaked, predictably.  I took a cab to the Great Synagogue, where I had decided to go to Shabbat services, since I was already dressed up and looking for some company, as Yuval had left that morning and I didn't know his flatmates that well.  I got there a bit early, so I sat in a cafe nursing a coffee and trying to dry off, rather unsuccessfully I might add.  At 5:45 I went to the synagogue, where I had to pass the concerns of the two security guards stationed outside in order to be allowed entrance.  Once inside, I was equally impressed with the interior design as the external.  It was grand, with gold, tile, and ironwork everywhere, and a beautiful ark and bima.

Services mostly consisted of a cantor chanting prayers, with the rest of the congregation either joining in at the good bits or holding side conversations.  The rabbi gave a very brief D'var Torah about how we had earned extra merit for coming to be closer to G-d on such a night, and how being close is all G-d desires of us.  I am not terribly religious, but it was nice to think that I had done something to be proud of, whether in reality I had or not.  The service itself was very compact, with most of the real bang being reserved for Saturday morning. Once services were over the small assortment of people present (we had only had one more than a minyan) went into the back rooms of the synagogue for some wine and pretzels.  Everyone was very welcoming to me, and they were all very interested in my trip and grant.  Amongst our number was the Rabbi (Jeremy), Cantor (David), members of the congregation (Raymond and Peter), a newly converted Jew (Johanna), and a few more whose names I cannot recall.  Johanna and I had a lengthy conversation about her experience converting, about her maternal grandmother, who had been a proud Yankee, and also about her writing.  She is the author of a bestselling historical fiction here in Australia, and she is trying to get it published in the States, so be on the lookout for the novel Ironbark.  We also noted a lot of similarities between Australia and the US in terms of history and culture, especially out west during the time of the gold rush.

Once he heard that I had no plans for dinner, the Rabbi invited me to his house for Shabbat dinner, where some of the congregation would be joining us.  It took about 20 minutes to walk there, but fortunately the rain had stopped for the time being.  I had, throughout the night, a lot of side conversations about US politics, my research, and the recent news, of which the Israeli flotilla raid was prominent.  At the rabbi's house we met his wife and family and had a lovely dinner.  There was much singing, laughing, and, as this was a Jewish food, more food than could conceivably be consumed by any normal human being.  We were treated to homemade challah, chicken soup, roasted vegetables, steamed pumpkin, grilled mushrooms, roast beef, barbeque chicken, and potatoes, as well as some wine and scotch for good measure.  To cap it all off, we had candies, chocolate, and apple crumble fro dessert, as well as various fruits.  We wrapped up around 11, and I didn't get back to the apartment until around midnight.  Very fulfilling day and night, though.

Saturday, June 5th
I woke up today expecting a continuation of yesterday's horrible weather, but not for the first time the weather of Oceania threw me for a loop as it was absolutely brilliant outside.  It was actually sunny and warm, which is another first in this winter season down in the Southern Hemisphere.  I had been panning to stay in and do work, but I decided to take advantage of the weather and see some more of the city the day before I left for Canberra.  I took the trains to Circular Quay, had some Hungry Jack's for lunch, and boarded a ferry bound for the other side of the harbor, and Taronga Zoo.

The ferry ride was awesome because I got to see Sydney from a completely different angle, from the water.  The ride only took about 20 minutes before we pulled up to a dock on a forested beach near a big hill, where the zoo is located.  It was a bit like how I pictured Jurassic Park the first time I read the book.  The boat left me at the bottom of the hill, with the entrance to the zoo at the top.  I took the chairlift there, getting a view of some of the animals (like the elephants) from the air.

The zoo itself was very cool, as there were many exhibits featured or showcasing animals I had never seen in person, much like at the aquarium.  Although I did stop by to see the African plains animals, and the animals of the Asian mainland, I was most interested in those animals which can only be found living in Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.  I got see giant Red Kangaroos, emus, cassowaries (which can run 30 kph through dense jungle), and koalas.  I walked next to hopping wallabies, with no barrier between us.  I was particularly enamored of the building housing all of the nocturnal creatures.  This is where I got to see an echidna, a Tasmania devil, and many animals whose names I can't even begin to pronounce.  I also missed out again on seeing a platypus.  They are very reclusive creatures, but I did learn that their babies are called puggles, which may be the most adorable thing ever.

After my trip to the zoo the clouds began to roll in from the Pacific, and the weather took a turn for the worse.  I went back to the apartment, where Yuval's flatmates had graciously allowed me to stay even after he left.  I stayed in for the night because I had a train to Canberra to catch in the morning, and also because I wanted to watch the USA v. Australia soccer game at 10:30.  I was very pleased to watch the US win the game, 3-1, and then I fell asleep.