the moment I wake up

Well, day 3 here in Sydney. So far it's been slow going, in terms of activities. Turns out it takes more than a day to sleep off the jet lag!

I did go for a walk yesterday morning to Darling Harbour. It only took me about 10 minutes to get there from the hostel, which may have been why I chose it as my first destination. Darling Harbour has a really interesting history. When Sydney was settled way back when, settlers chose to use Sydney Cove as their shipping port, because the geography of the land made it difficult to get onland traffic to Darling Harbour. So instead it become a dirty industrial sinkhole, and remained so until about the 1980s, when some government types tore the whole thing down and re-designed it as a city center. There's loads of attractions there, including the aquarium, the convention center, Sydney's Wildlife World, the National Maritime Museum, etc.

a row of shops and restaurants.

 

across the bay, a different row of shops, known as Harborside

a fun fountain

It was cloudy, which kept the temperature down a bit, which was perfect for a walk. I remembered having been to Darling Harbour before, in 2007, and wanted to see if any of the same restaurants and such were there. I walked up along the bay  to the King Street Wharves, and then when the sidewalk ended, turned and headed into the city.

looking back towards the bay, the Macquarie building

The thing I noticed yesterday was all the little patches of green tucked away in the city, little spots of calm and oasis to sit and have your coffee or whatever. Across the street from this building was a huge banking tower, and you had to climb up a set of steps to get to the next street (there's lots of hills). But when you reached the top, there was a little lawn with shrubs and benches and things, tucked under a corner of the building. I couldn't get a good picture, but then I ran across another little park, a few blocks further east.

 

I think this was Wynyard Park

I couldn't get close enough to see who this was, but let's assume it was a Macquarie - they seem to be important folks in Sydney's history

Exiting the wonderful oasis of Wynyard Park, I ended up at Martin Place, a large plaza in Sydney's CBD (Central Business District)

 

to our glorious dead

 

The rest of my walk was along Pitt Street, a huge shopping centre. Very crowded, lots of tempting shops, but I resisted. I was pretty beat by the time I got back to the hostel.

That's all for now. Am doing a walking tour this morning with a German girl I met here named Wiebke (pronounced VEEB-kuh). I'm sure there will be more photos from that adventure.