Sydney and the Barber of Seville

We arrived in Sydney a little earlier than expected on Monday morning. We made our way through immigration and customs without too much issue. Immigration either doesn’t like Sam’s long hair or his glasses, because this was the second time he’s been pulled aside recently for extra screening. Gabby declared her bag of fruit snacks, but they let us keep them.

Joe and Tanner went to pick up the rental cars, but Tanner’s wasn’t quite ready. After about five minutes Tanner had talked the guy at the desk into a free tank of gas, so, no harm, no foul. I was Joe’s navigator, and, usually, Adam is Tanner’s, but, somehow, Utah ended up in the front seat initially. Joe wanted to let them go first (for added chaos), but, once they missed the exit for the parking garage, he took over leading.

Sydney Opera House up close

Our first destination was the Sydney Opera House, and as we approached it, I announced, “And there’s the Opera House.” Joe said, “Oh, that’s the opera house?” He knew we were seeing an opera, and had seen the iconic building in pictures, but didn’t put two and two together. Justin, in the back, mumbled, “And he has a masters degree.”

Sydney Harbor Bridge

Our next objective was to get some lunch, and Joe found an underground food court (Region Food Arcade) on Bridge Street. It was patronized mainly by local finance workers on their lunch breaks. I got an egg and bacon sandwich (from a shop called Brooklyn Bridge) that was pretty delicious. After everyone ate, we walked out towards The Rocks and onto Sydney Harbor Bridge. We got some great views of the opera house from the bridge, and part of our group walked all the way across and back. We reconvened near some indoor futsal courts to figure out our next steps.

Sydney Opera House from the Harbor Bridge

Cassowary

After some negotiation, we decided that Joe, Emily, and Utah would go check into the AirBnB while myself, Gabby, Sam, Tanner, Lydia, Adam, and Justin went to the Australian Museum. On our walk there, we passed through Hyde Park and saw some strange long billed white birds, which we later learned were Ibises… Australia’s Canadian geese (or Sydney’s pigeons). At the museum, we got our first taste of (taxidermy) Australian wildlife here and learned quite a bit about Australia’s history… and it was free! We also enjoyed the minerals exhibit, where Gabby found some copper from Lake Superior.

After the museum, Tanner, Lydia, Adam, and Justin went back to the AirBnB while Sam, Gabby, and I made our way back slowly to the Opera House. Our first stop was St. Mary’s Cathedral, which had paintings of the stations of the cross. They were preparing for evening mass, so we didn’t stay very long.

St. Mary's

We stopped in Hyde Park again for Gabby to lay in the grass. We made friends with a few wild Ibises (who were definitely looking to steal Gabby’s sandwich) and watched an impromptu photo shoot. From there, we moved on to the Sydney Botanical Gardens. As we walked around the point for another view of the opera house, we started to hear a party boat parked in the bay playing a club mix. After a few minutes, we heard, “Walking to the south, out of Roanoke…” Darius Rucker is popular in Australia, apparently.

Party boat in Sydney harbor

As we kept walking, I recounted a story to Gabby and Sam about listening to, “Chicken Fried” behind a hotel somewhere in Romania fifteen years ago. Believe it or not, thirty seconds later, Zac Brown starts in, “You know I like my chicken fried…” Apparently American’s primary cultural export is country music.

We started looking for somewhere to grab dinner quickly and found a “Falafel and Shawarma” Mediterranean street food vendor on the Circular Quay. They also sold the “snack pack” which, apparently, is an Australian specialty, consisting of shaved meat, french fries ("chips"), and some type of sauce. After that, Sam, Gabby, and I went back to the car to change, and then we all managed to reconvene on the Opera House steps a few minutes before the show was supposed to start.

Utah had decided that, considering we had been traveling for 40+ hours at that point and the whole Opera would be in Italian (with English subtitles), he would be better off finding somewhere nice for dinner. Justin had his own seat in a box off to the side of the stage, but the other eight of us had seats together on the very back row of “The Circle.”

Our seats

When the orchestra started into the overture, I was pleasantly surprised how much of the music I recognized, thanks to Looney Tunes. The conductor was very expressive, and the orchestra was excellent. The opera itself was entertaining, but, eventually, especially as it got later and later, one by one, almost all of us started drifting off. Justin and Tanner bailed at intermission and went to find Utah, but the rest of us stuck around, although I’m not sure how much of the second half our group actually caught.

The view from the lobby

After the opera was over, we filtered out through the lobby with the rest of the crowd, reconvened at the cars, and headed back to the AirBnB. After showering, we all crashed into bed, and I, at least, had an excellent sleep.

After the show