Sydney, part I

So Art had to travel to Sydney for business and I naturally had to go with him.  The city is amazing, I loved how there was a mix of historic and modern buildings in the city center.

The first day I checked out Darling Harbour, where the Sydney Aquarium and the Australian National Maritime Museum are. 

Darling Harbour (Australian National Maritime Museum on the left)

HMAS Vampire, Australian National Maritime Museum

Australian National Maritime Museum

 

 

I also went to Paddy's Market.  It's a huge building with tons of vendors, selling everything from clothes to food.  The Chinese Garden of Friendship was close, so I walked through it as well.  The garden was beautiful and I saw two weddings taking place.

 

Paddy's Market

 

Chinese Garden of Friendship

 

The highlight of my trip was the Sydney Opera House.  I took a guided tour and got to go inside some of the concert halls.  I'm not sure I had ever thought about how the building was constructed, but I was shocked/amazed when I saw it was concrete.  The history of this building is unbelievable.  In 1957, before construction began, estimations for the building were it would take 3 years and $7 million dollars to build.  In reality, it took 14 years and $102 million dollars to complete the Opera House.

 

View of the Sydney Opera House from the Royal Botanic Gardens

Inside of Sydney Opera House

Inside of Sydney Opera House

 

 

I'll have more on Sydney in my next post.  But before signing off, I have a special Sydney edition of Odd Store Names.

 

I spied this odd clothing store in a few shopping centers in Sydney.  The clothes were pretty cute, but were they sewn together, or just glued together?  We'll never know...