First Day in Australia!

As you all know by now, I arrived in Sydney Wednesday night without incident. My extremely heavy backpack and I checked into the hostel and after making some blog updates, I passed out. Since I was still on New Zealand time, I woke up bright and early the next day. I got up and did some laundry, then took a shower and headed out for the day.

I started by walking towards the Australia Museum. On the way, I stopped at the Anzac Memorial that is dedicated to all of the Australian troops. It had a nice little exhibit with a real personal touch to it, and it was situated in the middle of a neat park. Unfortunately, the weather was muggy and overcast - the kind of weather where you're bathed in sweat the instant you step outside (Atlantans know it well), so I was eager to get inside.

Here is the Anzac Memorial:



The Australia Museum was right up the street, and had a large sign out front for an exhibit called "Eaten Alive!", so I knew I was in the right place. They had an exhibit about Aborigines, here called Indigenous Australians. I still don't understand their mythology completely, but maybe I will before I leave - there is a lot about it in various places. A few minutes after I arrived, there was a guided tour. I joined in and we toured through a room full of various skeletons, an excellent collection of gems and minerals, a collection of bugs and animals that can kill you, and another room full of stuffed animals (like the formerly living kind, not the plush kind). So I have now felt a kangaroo, wombat, platypus (much smaller than I thought), and koala. Hopefully I'll be able to see some of them living too!

The next thing I wanted to do was to go to the Bodies exhibit. It came to Atlanta, but I missed it. If you don't know what it is, it sounds totally morbid, but it really wasn't. It's basically "plastinated" human bodies on display. Okay, I guess it is morbid. Really it was totally fascinating to see what's going on under the skin. And I swear, it was really easy to separate the idea that they were actual bodies and just focus on the interesting part.

After that, it was time to get ready for the opera! First, I was going on a sunset cruise around the harbor. Luckily, the clouds had broken, so we got a very nice sunset. I'll post some pictures in a second. I was one of two solitary people on board, but I ended up sitting with the other gentleman, who was from Saudi Arabia, but had lived in America. We had a very nice conversation. Here are some pics from the cruise:









After the cruise, it was time for the opera! I went to see The Marriage of Figaro, which I knew nothing about except that I had heard of it. It is a comedy about Figaro and Susannah, who want to get married, but the Count they work for wants Susannah for himself; meanwhile, the Count's wife wants his attention back. In the end, it all works out happily! I got in trouble for taking this picture, so I don't have any good ones of the actual opera house during the performance. Here's my ticket, bill, and a chocolate they gave me.



The performance was wonderful! It was over three hours long, but it didn't feel like it at all. I think I'm going to have to check out an opera when I'm back home.

I went back to the hostel after the opera and fell asleep quickly - I'm not sure if it was the long day or the wine I had with dinner!