After an intense fall semester at school, my planned visit to Australia was a welcome gift. This was my first time to the continent and opportunity to visit friends I've been wanting to see for years. Fortunately many of my friends are in the same area near Sydney, so that was my destination over the holiday break with excursions from this city.
This post is a mix of random events and observations I experienced over the weeks I was in Australia, while separate posts allowed me to focus on and research other places and events.
CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY
I attended an incredibly beautiful Christmas Eve service at
St Andrews Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in Australia with a consecration date of 1868. The choir, readings and message were powerful and a great reminder of what this season is all about.
This cathedral is located in downtown Sydney and holds an original Bible printed in 1539 that was commissioned by Henry VIII when he ordered that every church have a Bible in the English language. In addition to its beautiful Gothic Revival design, it features stonework coats of arms dating from 1604 at an entrance, which were taken from the Houses of Parliament in London.
The next day I took a train to Penrith, a northern suburb of Sydney, to spend Christmas day with friends. I got to know the Dhinaharans in Taejon Korea when we all worked at an international school about 10 years ago. Cynthia and Dhina had other Korean visitors in their home as well so we all enjoyed Christmas together. After dinner we went to neighboring parks where their family likes to relax.
One park is the former Olympic rowing site formally known as the
Sydney International Regatta Centre which held a 2000m rowing course. Rowing was 1 of 28 sports offered at the 2000 Olympic games.
CHILLIN' AT THE BEACH
Timo and Marg Gobius, another family I got to know in my Korea days, offered to come to Sydney while I was there. Fortunately Sydney was not far out of their way as they traveled the country over the Christmas break. It was wonderful to catch up with them and their girls as we went for a Mexican lunch and chilled at
Coogan Beach after -- one of many beaches along the coast of Australia. This is one of the closest beaches to the downtown CBD district near my hotel.
SUNDAY ATTRACTIONS
I hate to put a Sunday morning church service on the list of 'attractions' but I guess it fits the definition. I wanted to attend a Sunday morning service at
Hillsong since I love their worship music and wanted to see where it all originated. In all respects, they provided a service that had uplifting, meaningful and challenging moments the first Sunday of 2017. The music got us focused, communion reminded us of Christ's sacrifice and the message got us thinking about our relationship with God and what that means for the year ahead.
Every one of the greeters did their job and went out of their way to make me feel welcome. I will include my taxi driver on this list for he certainly made me feel welcome in his cab on the ride home. In fact, I never met any stranger who went so 'deep' in conversation in so short a time. We talked about a variety of things, such as how actions produce consequences, how we treat each other, our faith and nationality... all in 10 minutes =) My driver is originally from Tunisia and I now need to check out traveling there since I promised him upon leaving his vehicle!
My Sunday evening was one I will not forget for a long time. I decided a while ago to purchase a ticket to see the Broadway production of
Aladdin in the
Capitol Theater that was only blocks from my hotel. Afterward, I relaxed with a chai latte, of course =) The entire production was top-notch from acting to choreography to singing to the orchestra to tech marvels throughout the show. I still have no idea how they made the magic carpet fly!
SYDNEY ARCHITECTURE
As is typical when I visit a new area, I like to do a lot of walking around to not only get to know the layout of the city but, in this case, enjoy much of the old architecture Sydney has to offer. I'm so glad the city does not tear down the older buildings but rather upgrades and preserves them.
I have a separate post on the
Hyde Park Barracks (see post) but there are a lot of other buildings, most of which I walked by. For instance, the buildings on my radar included:
Art Museum
Australian Mint
Parliament Building
State Library
Town Hall
Queen Victoria Building
Central Train Station
Sydney Museum
St Mary's Cathedral
St Andrews Cathedral
Nice to see a healthy mix of new and old architecture!
