Sydney & the Melbourne Cup

Town Hall with a beautiful purple blooming Jacaranda tree

We had a great time in Sydney, Australia. In general, we try to avoid big cities - we usually don't enjoy the crowds, smog, cement, and transport that often go with them.  But Sydney is a very different city.

The city is incredibly clean and well-maintained. I never saw any dog poo on the sidewalks and litter was nonexistent. There are recycling bins - a very pleasant change from Thailand. When we passed people, they seemed friendly and would even make eye contact. The sidewalks are large and expansive, and cars always stopped for us at crosswalks.

Wow! Look at the size of this tree!

And the air! It smelled clean! There are large trees everywhere, and the downtown area was very green and filled with big, large parks. As we walked towards the city center, we frequently heard interesting bird calls. Ibis, a large stork-like bird with a long, pointy curved bill, were as common as ducks in Oregon, and they wandered everywhere in the city looking for scraps of food.

The large parks right in the center of the city were one of my favorite things. We would frequently cross through a park to get to a destination, and the bird life was fantastic. We saw a couple large white cockatoos up in the palm trees, and a small green & blue parrot when we went through the botanical gardens. The plant life was amazing and rich with flowers and color.

Our second day, we tagged along on a Free Tour of Sydney, led by our friendly guide, Allie. (Thanks Christina & Tim for the tip about these tours!) We learned about Sydney's history, from a convict prison to a thriving settlement. And, we got to see a horse race! As it happened, we took our tour on the day of the Melbourne Cup race, a gigantic and popular international horse race, with a $3.6 million prize to the winner.

The crowd watching the race

The whole city was on holiday that afternoon to watch the race. There's only one race, and it lasts about 10 minutes, but the entire city takes at least half the day off for it. We watched the race from a packed crowd in front of a huge screen in Martin Place. It was great fun to watch, especially as the winning horse won by quite a lead ahead of the others.

As we finished our tour of the city, we saw multiple bars with men dressed in suits and women in fancy dresses with feathery hair accessories, all drinking and chatting after the race was done. It looked like the party went all the rest of the evening! I had fun sneaking pictures of all the funny hair pieces - some were quite strange looking. I guess it is a "horse racing" tradition to wear these.

See the lady in yellow with the funny hat?

We enjoyed the rest of the sights of the city too of course. :) We wandered through The Rocks, the original birthplace of Sydney's colony and talked to an aboriginal tour guide inside who told us about the native peoples' culture and lives. The Sydney Opera House was beautiful from afar and close up - it looks a lot more "metallic" in pictures, but it really is covered in thousands of bright white ceramic tiles. They gleam in the sun and reflect the light in different ways, and it was great to see the building close up to admire its structure. At the time of its planning, the builders didn't even know how to construct it!

Ibis birds casually strolling the Botanic Garden lawns

A lorikeet