Postscript – The Longest Day

Do you remember – back in my first entry of this blog – I described how I ‘missed’ an entire day traveling from DC to Sydney – and how there was no Monday, July 6th in my life? Well, today, I guess I was paid back in full! I flew from Sydney to LA and then from LA to DC. A total of 20 hours in the air – and several more in airport lounges. The strangest thing of all, though, was that I arrived in LA earlier in the day than when I had left Sydney! I departed from Sydney around 2:00pm on Sunday afternoon – but I landed in LA at 10:00am on Sunday morning. Confused? I was! It certainly made this a VERY long Sunday. I think my Sunday lasted about 40 hours…
But there was the perfect reward for this arduous journey waiting for me at Dulles. My wife, Cecilia, was there to meet me – and so too were Aidan and Eliza, which was a complete surprise as I had been told that they would already be in bed. I had never been away from my family for so long – and I had missed them enormously. But the reception and hugs I got from them all quickly made me forget the 20 hour flight. What a wonderful welcome home.

Goodnight, Sydney - Goodbye, Australia.

I’m sitting here on Saturday evening, at about 8:00pm – writing two final postcards to Aidan and Eliza. The postcards show nighttime pictures of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge – and, funnily enough, I am sitting on the wall at Circular Quay with perfect real-life views of them too! I take two last photographs myself of these wonderful structures – which look all the more spectacular by night. I mail the postcards, thinking that I will be back in DC when they arrive – so very far from here. I glance back for a lingering look at Sydney Harbour and remember the day I arrived, nearly three weeks ago now. I will never forget checking in to my hotel that first morning and being shown to my room with this remarkable view. I feel I know it so well now and have learned so much about it – but, as I’ve said before, you never get tired of looking at it.
I have seen only a tiny part of Australia – but I have at least been to the three most heavily populated cities (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) as well as the capital city (Canberra). I have learned so much about the country and had many surprises along the way. From the Big Pineapple, to Surfer’s Paradise, then there was the Sunshine Coast, Bondi Beach, Captain Cook’s Cottage, The Gabba and Aussie Rules football, the Glasshouse Mountains, Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo, the penguins at Phillip Island, visiting four schools in three cities, finding my great grandparent’s church in Sydney, the parliament building in Canberra, Ned Kelly and Old Melbourne Jail, Shakespeare at the Sydney Opera House, Luna Park fun fair, the trams in Melbourne, watching cricket on tv with England beating Australia (!), the Q1 tower on the Gold Coast, The Endeavour, the wonderful markets in Melbourne and Sydney, the superb coffee I have had everywhere, fish and chips, the water taxis and ferries in Brisbane and Sydney, meeting up with old friends and making new ones - and so much more (which, luckily, this blog has chronicled – so I’ll never forget!).
I knew that I would enjoy Australia – I had always wanted to come here and I'd heard so much about it throughout my life. But, now that I have seen some significant parts of it for myself, I can truly say that I feel I know and understand this country – and I absolutely love it. I will most certainly be back – there’s so much more I still want to see (take your pick from Adelaide, Perth, Uluru, The Great Barrier Reef and Tasmania – to name but a few) and I want to share all of it with my family next time too.
I would recommend Australia unreservedly to everyone. This is a country that has to be seen to be truly appreciated. It may seem far away – and the journey IS very long - but, my goodness, it is worth it. Studying Australia will certainly make for a rich and exciting Global Study for my students next year – and, having now experienced Australia first-hand, I have so much to share with them. I can’t wait to get started.

Market Day

Many of Sydney’s finest and most popular markets take place on a Saturday. Today was also my last full day in Sydney (and in Australia) – so this would be my chance to find some local souvenirs and gifts to bring home too.
Saturday’s market at The Rocks had been recommended to me by several people as the best place to go. The Rocks is one of the oldest areas of Sydney, situated below the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was first developed soon after the colony’s formation in 1788 and many historic buildings still remain in this area, including one known as Cadman’s Cottage, which is the oldest surviving residential building in Sydney (it was built in 1816).
It takes its name from John Cadman, who lived there from 1827 to 1845. Cadman had originally been transported to Australia as a convict, for allegedly stealing a horse. After being pardoned by Governor Macquarie, he fared much better and was made Superintendent of Government Boats and occupied the cottage, which was for the use of coxswains and harbour masters.

The market at The Rocks was well worth the visit. It was full of fresh, local produce and, in another section, there were several arts and crafts stalls, a wide range of Aboriginal art and artifacts on offer and jewelry stalls, dealing primarily in opal. Opal is an Australian specialty and is the national gemstone of Australia, as it is responsible for the production of about 97% of the world’s opal. It was a lively, thriving market in a wonderful location – surrounded by well maintained (and restored) nineteenth century buildings. I certainly came away with a good stash of gifts and souvenirs to bring home!

Then it was on to Paddy’s Market, which is near the Chinatown area I had visited on Thursday. This is a market for bargain hunters and tourists and the majority of stalls deal in clothing or toys. There is also a fruit and vegetable market here every day. I successfully picked out several t-shirts emblazoned with the words Sydney or Australia and quite a collection of cuddly koalas and kangaroos, a boomerang, and even a didgeridoo! I felt I now had a decent collection of ‘Australiana’ to bring back to DC to share with my family – and my students next year, too.

Sydney, like Melbourne, has also maintained some superb nineteenth century shopping arcades. Most famous, is the ‘Strand’ Arcade, which dates from 1892. So many original features remain that you walk through feeling transported back to the Victorian era of Sydney’s shopping district. The stores were all very enticing and – yes - I found yet another wonderful coffee shop!
The main shopping street in Sydney is George Street. You could spend hours here (which I did!) and there are some wonderful buildings from the 1800s here too. Most prominent, is the Queen Victoria Building – locally known as the QVB. This is filled with many individual stores and a large statue of Queen Victoria sits regally outside keeping a watchful eye on shoppers. This statue has a wonderful story behind it, because it was once the statue that stood outside the Irish parliament in Dublin. It was taken down in 1947 (several years after Ireland became independent) and it was then, remarkably, lost for several years. Years later, the Sydney City Council announced that they were on the lookout for a statue of Victoria, to place at the front of the QVB. The Irish heard about this and the famous statue was, somehow, tracked down to a field in a small Irish town called Daingean! It was then sent to Australia as a gift from the people of Ireland, “in the spirit of goodwill and friendship” (this is inscribed on the statue now) to mark Sydney’s bicentennial in 1987. Like so many before her, this ‘Victoria’ had left behind her previous life on far-away foreign shores and come to Australia for a new start, where she was welcomed with open arms. And there you have it – the Australian Dream.

Soccer in The Domain

It’s lunchtime on Friday and The Reserve Bank of Australia and NAB (National Australia Bank) are playing each other at soccer - here in the middle of Sydney in ‘The Domain’ (which is Sydney’s equivalent of Central Park). They are all very committed and are certainly taking this opportunity to let off steam. I noticed that, waiting on the sidelines, were teams from two other banks, ready to play each other as soon as this game concluded. I am sure that more gets settled out here on these fields than it would in a Friday afternoon spent in the towering offices behind us. We should tell the folks on Wall Street that maybe they should meet in Central Park every Friday afternoon for a game. This could be the solution to the global banking crisis.

I was impressed that the whole of The Domain was full of people exercising. This is certainly a very fit and healthy nation which has embraced the outdoors and the concept of frequent physical activity. I saw people running, kick-boxing, taking a yoga class, swimming, power walking and throwing a football around – let alone the entire banking community playing competitive soccer. Impressively, all this activity seemed to be happening during their lunch hour. No wonder Australia, even with its relatively small population, consistently does so well at the Olympics Games - not to mention in rugby, soccer and cricket worldwide.

The Domain is a peninsula that ends in Sydney Harbour, from the tip of which there is yet another stunning view of the city. Luckily, you never get tired of these views. This one seemed to be a particular favorite, as professional photographers had set up an area where they offered (for a fee) to take group or individual pictures and print them for you on the spot. A visiting rugby team, from a boys school in England, were in the middle of having a team photograph taken by a clearly delighted vendor, who was likely to do very well out of this transaction.
I happily took my own photographs of the area and then continued around the headland and in to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

These gardens started life as a farm, set up in 1788 by the first British settlers and Governor Phillip. But it was in 1816 that Governor Macquarie chose to turn what had become an unsuccessful farm into the beginnings of a Botanic Garden. He even built a seating area for his wife near the rocks at the tip of the peninsula, which provided the perfect view of the harbour. Here she would happily sit and watch ships entering the bay. This remains today and is known as Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, where visitors now come to admire the view and have their picture taken in this famed spot.

The Gardens are full of exotic plants and trees native to Australia – and many that were brought from all over the world and planted here over the last 200 years. There are also the flying foxes – something I had certainly not come across before. They are actually very large bats and are common in the Asia-Pacific region. Some breeds are also known as fruit bats. I was only able to see them from afar, clustered in a treetop above, which was fine as they are sometimes known to swoop around in a rather alarming fashion which can be quite a surprise for an unsuspecting tourist passing below, I’m sure!

From the Botanic Gardens, I then headed back towards the city center and to Hyde Park, named after Hyde Park in London. This was a more formal park, enjoyed by city folk who come here regularly for their lunch – or even to play a game of chess on the prominent giant board. It’s wonderful that Australia’s most heavily populated city (and its center of all banking and commerce) has managed to keep and maintain so much green space in such a bustling environment. This really is a very attractive city which balances business, beauty, work and pleasure extremely well. It’s the sort of place that makes you feel good, just from walking around. I can certainly report that most Sydneysiders themselves look cheerful, optimistic and healthy - and in this kind of environment you can understand why.

Bondi Beach

Perhaps one of the most famous stretches of beach in the world, Bondi lies just a few short miles east of downtown Sydney - in the eastern suburbs – and even on a winter’s day, is spectacular.
The beach itself has over half a mile of uninterrupted golden sand that curves invitingly around a bay. Surfers come here from miles around (and from all over the world) and in summertime (December!) the beach can get so crowded that you cannot even see the sand. So a midwinter’s day was a perfect time to visit Bondi (although it almost reached 70 degrees today!)

I had to become a temporary member of one of the swimming and surfing clubs – the Bondi Icebergs Club – in order to go in to what I thought was just café and order a coffee! I will proudly keep hold of my membership card. Just next to the clubhouse is a stunning swimming pool, which is filled naturally by seawater. Yet another great Australian pool with a view. No wonder they have had so many great swimmers through the years. Ian Thorpe – the ‘Thorpedo’ is a native of Sydney.
I watched as several surfers braved what must have been relatively cold waters – and was impressed by their patience and technique as they waited for the ideal wave to come along. At least there were no sharks around – although I had been told that earlier in the year, due to unseasonal temperatures in the ocean, there had been an unusually large number of shark sightings at Bondi – and at several other Sydney beaches. I got the impression that this was just something you got used to and half expected – as nobody ever seemed particularly bothered or alarmed when talking about sharks in the areas that they liked to swim and surf in.

I walked around the headland, enjoying more great views of the whole bay and looked to to sea for a while thinking to myself what a vast stretch of ocean lay ahead. Next landfall, if you missed the north of New Zealand, maybe Hawaii? It’s no wonder Australia remained the great undiscovered continent for so long. It really is surrounded by a LOT of ocean – the South Pacific to the east and the Indian Ocean to the west. It is incredible when you remember that it took until 1770 for Captain Cook to make it here.
With Cook on my mind, I left Bondi and headed back in to Sydney – to visit Darling Harbour. The Maritime Museum is based here – and right next to it is a full size replica of Cook’s ship, Endeavour. This replica re-created the exact voyage from Whitby, North Yorkshire (England) to Sydney during the 1990s.
Funnily enough, I had actually been in Whitby at the time when the replica Endeavour was moored there, prior to its long voyage to Australia. It was good to see it again – and, having seen Cook’s cottage in Melbourne, I felt I had paid homage to this great British explorer and his significant achievements and place in the Australian story.
Darling Harbour is a fairly recently developed part of Sydney, full of the obvious cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops – as well as an aquarium, Imax cinema (which was proudly advertising ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ in Imax and 3-D!) a Chinese garden, and - intriguingly - a monorail system.
Sydney’s Chinatown area borders Darling Harbour and I had a chance to wander through, feeling at once transported to an Asian market with all its sights, sounds and wonderful smells. There were hundreds of Chinese restaurants and food stores – and for several blocks every piece of writing (on signs, stores, street names and advertising) was in Chinese script. Geographically, Australia has proximity with the Asian mainland and, particularly, Thailand, Indonesia and China. This has resulted in Australian cuisine having a heavy influence from this region, as well as (in the last 30 years or so) Australia becoming home to many who emigrated from these and other nearby Asian countries. This has made Australia into an incredibly diverse, multicultural society – many say unmatched by anywhere else apart from the USA. Captain Cook (who was one of the few early explorers to actually reach out to and respect the Aboriginal people) would have been rather pleased at how this land has become home to so many from all around the world.

The day I realized that I could have been an Australian...

No – I am not back at school in D.C. This is a third grade (Year 4) classroom in a junior school in Sydney – Redlands, which I visited this morning. I thought it looked reassuringly familiar!
Redlands is a beautiful school, with boys and girls from the age of 4 up to the age of 18 – split between two different sites. I was shown around by the Head of the junior school, Mr. Ari Guha. I saw a great deal of the junior school and was excited to see the equivalent of a third grade classroom.
They have up to 100 students in each grade, with a maximum of 25 students in a class. We will certainly be maintaining a connection with each other – and our Beauvoir third graders will have the chance to communicate with students at Redlands in 2010. I also met with the Head of the Prep school and saw their wonderful facilities and library, which often reminded me of Beauvoir. I felt that we had quite a lot in common with this school and I look forward to keeping in touch.
When I had finished my morning at Redlands, I walked the short distance down to Cremorne Point. This is an area of headland in North Sydney which is known for the most stunning views of the harbour. I was told that from here I would get my best view yet of the bridge and the Opera House. I was not disappointed. I took a tiny pathway, which wound its way around the coastline, overlooking rocks and the sea below. The view was all that I had hoped for.
Once again, I was spellbound by the image in front of me – I sat there and just, simply, enjoyed looking at it. There was also a small, outdoor public swimming pool, which obviously benefited from this extraordinary view. If I lived here, I’d be in that pool every morning. I saw boats coming and going and realized that a ferry service operated from the tiny Cremorne Point. How perfect!
I wound my way down to the jetty and then caught a ferry all the way across the harbour and back to Circular Quay. This was the way to travel. How wonderful it must be for those fortunate folks who live at Cremorne Point and work in Sydney – and have this as their morning commute. I had to call my wife right away to tell her that we had to move here at once!
Now that I was right beside the Opera House again, I decided that now was a good time to take one of their special guided tours, that takes you all around the building – inside and outside and behind the scenes of the opera theater and concert hall. It was an excellent experience – and I learned so much more about the building and its Danish architect, Jørn Utzon. The design was chosen from literally hundreds that were submitted as part of a world-wide competition. Utzon’s design was by far the most radical, risky and potentially impossible.
But, being Australia, they went for it – and succeeded. I think most other countries would have chosen an easier, safer and more traditional option – but that is not the Australian way, thank goodness – and just look at the outcome. It was completed and opened by the Queen in 1973. Utzon’s son is right now working on the redevelopment of interior of the opera theater – and was, apparently, in the building that very day. He must be a very proud son.

I had time for one more stop today – and it was a significant, but personal one. I knew (thanks to my sister’s extensive research of our family history and genealogy) that my great grandparents were actually married in Sydney – back in 1892. My great grandfather (this was my Dad’s grandfather), Earnest Hart, was in the navy at the time and married my great grandmother, Lillian Elizabeth Murphy, in St. Kieran’s Church, Golden Grove, Sydney on October 20th 1892. So – I set out for Golden Grove, determined to find St Kieran’s. A train took me just three stops from the waterfront to the area called Darlinghurst, where Golden Grove Street is. I walked the neighborhood for several minutes and then, with surprising ease, found the correct street.
It was quite a moment for me when I found the church itself. The original St. Kieran’s now lies behind a more modern church building re-named St. Michael’s. But the original nineteenth century building still stands and I felt a connection that I have never felt before with my great grandparents. What would Sydney have been like in 1892? It was certainly a rapidly growing city at that time, but nothing like it is today. Years of development, change and immigration still lay ahead. I wondered why they hadn’t stayed here much longer themselves? Perhaps my sister has the full story. It’s funny to think, though, that had they settled in Sydney, like so many others have, then I would have been an Australian. Maybe that explains my strong, positive feelings towards this country. I have loved Australia - and I adore Sydney. Well, Earnest and Lillian – here I am, 117 years later. I’m glad that I finally made it here too - this is a very special place.

Back to Sydney

So – the final leg of my travels – and it’s a return to Sydney. I left here on July 8th after a 24 hour whirlwind tour of the place – but now I’m back for six days and nights, which I’m delighted about. This is a great place to finish up – and I have so much I want to see and do here.
First up would be a closer look at the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was time to actually be on the bridge and walk across, rather than just admire it from afar (which is very easy to do and enjoy!)
I took a train to Milsons Point – on the north side of the harbor. Here, I also had the chance to explore Luna Park.

Luna Park was built in the 1930s and was based on the design of New York's Coney Island funfair. It is full of traditional fairground rides, an historic carousel and classic, art-deco structures. It is most famous for its extraordinary entrance gates - a 30 foot high maniacal clown-like face with a gaping mouth that you enter though. At night time, this is garishly lit and you can see it from way across the harbor on the Opera House side.
I then walked up and on to the Sydney Harbour Bridge itself – a magnificent structure and a Sydney icon. It was built in the 1920s and opened in 1932, linking the north and south shores at last. It remains the widest long span bridge in the world and is also the world’s tallest steel arch bridge – an impressive piece of engineering and breathtaking beauty. It was wonderful to cross the bridge by foot (nearly a mile long) and have time to stop and admire the incredible views of the harbor. Looking across at the Opera House, I was struck by how it has a ‘magnetic’ pull.
You just have to keep staring at it – few buildings in the world have that “Look at me! Look at me!” power. The Eiffel Tower has it, maybe the Pyramids too – but I think the Sydney Opera House beats them all because of what it is surrounded by. The setting is perfect, and I think I have just found my favorite view in the world. I could look at this for hours.
Having admired the water and the harbour from above for so long, I decided that I now needed to get on to the water. From Circular Quay, I caught one of the green and gold city ferries out to Manly.
This was a beautiful 30 minute ride, better than anything you could hope for even on a special tour boat. The regular public ferry to Manly provided all the photo opportunities you would ever need on this glorious, sunny day. Manly itself is a popular and picturesque Oceanside town with a beautiful beach. Here, I saw surfers catching a Pacific wave and children playing in the perfect sand. For a beach in winter, this was impressive.
As darkness fell, I took a ferry back to Circular Quay and caught the wonderful sight of the sun setting over the harbour. The Opera House had taken on a pinky-orange glow in this dusky light – and it was to this wondrous building that I now headed, to actually go inside and see an evening show. I was thrilled to actually have the chance to see a performance in this world-famous building and I enjoyed a hugely entertaining production of Shakespeare’s ‘Pericles’, performed by the Bell Shakespeare group – Australia’s only touring Shakespeare company. It was a great end to my first day back in Sydney. I just love it here.