Day 3: Elephants, Platypi and Germans, oh my!

Thursday, September 4th~

Today I got up early and headed to the Taronga Zoo. It was cold and gray and windy, so a lot of the animals were hiding. Who could blame them? But the Asian elephants were awesome! There was this one bull standing by the water drinking when all of a sudden he dove in! Seriously, one minute he was dry, the next he was fully submerged. I had no idea elephants were so aquatic! He would dive down, then bring his trunk up for air, lift his head above water, and dive again. Hilarious! After a couple of hours at the zoo, I felt I had seen enough and was getting tired of the field-trippers, so I ferried to Darling Harbor by way of Luna Park. I took lots of pictures (for the Cass-monster), and wandered around for a bit. It was quiet and abandoned and mildly creepy in a Scooby Doo kind of way.

I got some lunch and hit up the Aquarium. I was thrilled to finally see a platypus (cue Flobots), thrilled! They are so darn cute! I want one! The rest of the Aquarium was nice; I found Nemo, so that was cool. No dolphins, but some pretty hardcore sharks. On my way out, I got surveyed by a woman who just returned from holiday in Lancaster, PA. Small world, eh?

Walking back to the hostel from Darling Harbor, I stumbled upon Paddy’s Market. It’s a massive quagmire of stalls and vendors, all of them aggressively peddling their goods and services to the passers-by. It reminded me a lot of the market in San Salvador, but with slightly better English. I wandered around for ages, talking my way out of countless massage offers (I know, sad), admiring the massive quantity of Aussie emporia, and marveling at the number of stands selling weaves. I bought some lively colored socks and continued on my way.

Back at the hostel, I repacked my bags and headed out to reception to see if anything was going on. Turns out it was burger night! For five bucks, I grabbed a kangaroo burger and an Australian beer (that is to say watery crap), so that was cool. I flew solo all day, and I gotta say, I like making friends better.

Tonight, I found myself in the company of Germans. I was just about to go to bed, when two of my roommates asked me to hang out with them to help them with their English. In exchange for a bowl of pasta, I taught them words like “condiments”. Turns out, the whole place was crawling with Germans! They were joking about how there are so many travelling in Australia, and I quizzed them on the best places to visit in Germany. It was quite a pleasant way to spend an evening, but I had to get to bed early. New Zealand tomorrow!

A Night at the Opera

I had a really good seat at the opera. 9 rows back, maybe 10 seats from the center. As for the opera itself… well… Like I said, it was Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which is really an excellent opera. However, the director took a kind of modern approach which just didn’t sit well with me. The costumes were kind of wonky late-20th century, and the sets were super abstract, mainly orange and black. Leperello was a bum and Don Giovanni was wearing sweats and constantly doing blow. Zerlina was portrayed as, well, a slut really, with none of the innocence that I’ve always thought was the crux of the character. The director made choices, but I just didn’t feel that they synergized with the music and libretto. The cast was pretty phenomenal, vocally, but I couldn’t help but feeling that they were inhibited by the staging. Musetto was pretty forgettable. Everyone’s movements and characterization was pretty blah, no snap, no sharpness in their decisions on stage. Perhaps they were tired; it was nearly the end of the run. And when I closed my eyes, I found it to be a highly enjoyable experience.

I was sitting next to Beta (sp?) from Milan, Italy, which was a lot of fun. She’s been to two different operas at La Scalla, which is pretty cool. Don Giovanni is her favorite opera and she really enjoyed it, so I guess it just depends on your taste.

I got a cab home. The shoes were a painfully unfortunate choice.

*Update: As I pondered this post today, folding laundry, something else occurred to me. The whole production was kind of dragged into a modern setting, but Don Giovanni still killed Il Commendatore with a sword in the opening scene. A sword? If they were changing everything else, why not change that? Why not kill him with a hypodermic syringe or something? Yeah, I just didn’t like it. I think I would have preferred a much more traditional approach to the material. Call me old-fashioned!

Day 2: beautiful beaches, fun ferries, and o-some opera houses

Wednesday, September 3rd~

This morning, I took off walking down George St. in Sydney. I thought I was heading to Darling Harbor, glimpsed the Sydney Opera House and realized I was at Circular Quay (pronounced “Key”). What a pleasant surprise! I was going to hop on a ferry to get to my intended destination, but a friendly ticket salesman recommended I check out Manly. It was $12 for the roundtrip, so I coughed up four extra bucks and got myself a daytripper pass- unlimited ferry, bus and train rides. An excellent investment. The ferry ride to Manly was great! I made friends (Loren and Byron from Cali) and had great views of the opera house and coast line. Some pleasant conversation led us to realize that all three of us were attending the same opera that evening. Plans were made to meet for dinner. When I got to Manly, a pleasant visitor’s info guy gave me a map and pointed me in the direction of the Corso. The Corso turned out to be a wide pedestrian mall, lined with palm trees and cafes, that ended at Manly Beach. Beautiful! Cerulean waters framed by pale yellow sand and unusual rocks (under which I was tempted to drink tea). I followed a path along the coastline to Shelly Beach, smaller than Manly Beach and tucked back in the trees, but no less beautiful. After a spell, I walked back to the wharf and recommenced my ferrying to get to Darling Harbor to meet Shir. We ate at the I’m Angus Steakhouse, and Shir taught me various Hebrew words and phrases. It was a lovely lunch, and she got to try kangaroo for the first time, which she really really enjoyed. I left her around mid-afternoon to go and get ready for the opera.

Dressed to the 9s (well, at least 7.5s), I arrived at my rendezvous uncharacteristically early for my dinner date with Loren and Byron, so I decided to have a glass of wine while I waited, the Deakin Brut if I’m not mistaken. Delightful. I was feeling decadent. I went and met the guys and we found a restaurant that wasn’t too astronomically expensive on the walk to the opera house. Dinner was lovely (butter chicken… mmm, curry), but man! They kill you on those drinks! I had two and they probably cost twice as much as my dinner! Oh well, city living. During dinner, the guys told me all about their recent trip to Thailand. Sounds like a really cool place to go. Some day. Afterwards, I headed off to the opera house and the guys went in search of ice cream. We never did catch up again, but it was nice meeting them.

Stay tuned for my review of the Sydney Opera House 2008 production of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Day 1: leaving the red centre

Tuesday, September 2nd~

Holiday! Today began the great adventure! Three days in Sydney plus a 7 day tour of New Zealand’s South Island and I am ready for it! Alison’s mom, Dorothy, kindly dropped me off at the airport, and I made it to Sydney with no incident. I hopped on a train, headed down town, found my hostel, and got settled in. At this point it was around 6:30, so I took off in search of food. Railway Square YHA is right on the brink of China Town, so I wandered past countless Asian restaurants, nothing really appealing to me. So I did what any girl would do all alone in the big city with nothing to eat. I went and saw Hellboy II. It was a funtime. After the movie, I still needed something to eat, so I hoofed it to a café at another youth hostel to get a bite to eat. I was sitting there, all by my lonesome, catty-corner from a girl who was sitting there all by her lonesome. I commented on how it sucks to eat alone, and she graciously invited me to join her! Shir was an absolutely delightful girl from Israel who had been traveling around Australia for some time now. We ate dinner and dessert and then got a drink at the adjoining bar (Scubar, I believe. Check it out if you’re in Sydney). It was so nice to have a friend! As it got later, we made plans to meet for lunch the next day, and I walked back to my hostel.

A quick word about my hostel: The Railway Square YHA is located walking distance from everything worth seeing in Sydney, which is convenient. What makes it really fun is that I slept in a converted train car. It was fun and cute. I felt like a boxcar kid. But, you know, not as cool.