Walking . . . A Lot

So Tuesday was a day of learning through moving, seeing, and listening. We met our extremely knowledgeable tour guide, Eoghan at the Sydney Customs House by Circular Quay on the bay. There was a lot of information of which I will not get into here, but suffice it to say that though our legs were tired after a good 5 hours of walking, our minds were enlightened. Sydney has a history of conflict between native peoples (Aboriginals), Australian whites, and foreign immigrants and influences from Europe and Asia. This conflict has largely played into the cultural and physical development of Sydney by itself and the nation as a whole. Sydney, being the oldest city in Australia as it was set up by Captain Cook upon arriving from England, is the only Australian city that has been laid out in a more organic European nature. All others employ the American grid system. Throughout it's history, all developed Australian centers have eagerly adopted ideas and forms from other places and then tweaked and manipulated those forms and ideas into uniquely Australian concepts.

After filling our minds with meaningful sociopolitical and architectural knowledge, the group dispersed into smaller groups and went about exploring on our own. Gretchen and Jul went off to find the Apple store in the CBD (Central Business District) as she needed to replace her computer charger after accidentally burning out a convertor earlier. Dannielle and I hopped on a ferry across the bay to the zoo. We didn't visit the zoo, as this was not our intention in taking the ferry, we simply stayed on and enjoyed the sunny excursion across the water while snapping amazing photos along the way. Arriving back in Circular Quay from whence we came, Dannielle was so pleased with our first trip that she felt we must follow it up with another. So, we boarded another ferry that was to take us to the furthest destination available down the Parramatta River. Of course, we paid no head to the time frame of the ferry before embarking and so we found ourselves watching the sun set over the river and returned over two hours later to a city emitting a dazzling display of lights.