Australia Day 1

Welcome to Australia travelog😉 

Welcome to the next chapter of my travelog (finally!). Guess where!

If only it's a wide lens, so I could take the pic of the bird in its entirety.

Well, actually sometimes I kinda reluctant in posting photos with face(s), esp strangers, since I feel like, do I have to ask for their permission, first?

Back to topic, so yes, I was on Sydney, with @bayusuryadi, @bayuadipersada, and @ilhamfatoni to attend a conference. Unfortunately @wulanmantik couldnt go with us due to a bit issue with the visa.

We arrived a day prior the conference, so we could take a stroll in the city. We followed a #walkingtour guide from the internet, where duo Bayu tirelessly arguing with each other about the direction that we should go for, while me and Ilham just lived in the moment. lol.

The first destination was Custom House, nearby the Circular Quay area. So yes, it's close to the shore.

The feeling when you see a very famous landmark for the first time. Well, it's still quite far, but you know.

Well, we visited the Sydney Museum, only at the lobby, since it had an entrance fee :p .
Oh yea, we also see a cruise ship at the quay. You know, we dont see cruise ship often in Jakarta, do we?

The next destination was The Rocks Discovery Museum? This time, we went inside. Why? Because it's free.

I myself a bit forgot what's inside. It's quite a small museum, with a group of elementary school student inside with their teachers.

Rocks, umm, perhaps related with the rocks formation in Sydney? well, gonna check wiki, but I think you can skip this venue :p.

Do what we did was ... sitting below a tree, enjoying clear bright blue sky. .

To go to this spot, we relied on Google Maps. And we walked! Well, actually it wasn't that far but quite tiring. Plus, there's an area where it seemed that no one else was walking. So I was a bit wondering whether we took the right way.

The bridge is nicknamed "The Coathanger" because of its arch-based design, carrying rail, vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic.

It is the sixth longest spanning-arch bridge in the world and the tallest steel arch bridge, measuring 134 m from top to water level.

Less than an hour in this area, my comment was: "sepi amat ya?". haha. Perhaps, because it's in midday?

If you wanna read the yada yada about the Sydney Observatory, please go to its offical site or its wiki *males nulis*.

Well, so we went here, walking from Coathanger Bridge. Actually, not that far, but the sun was sizzling at that time.

The reason we went here is, I dont know actually! Perhaps because it's free? .
The interesting thing about the site is its past role to provide time through the time-ball tower. Every day at exactly 1.00 pm, the time-ball on top of the tower would drop to signal the correct time to the city and harbour below. At the same time a cannon on Dawes Point was fired.

The first time-ball was dropped at noon on 5 June 1858. Soon after the drop was rescheduled to one o'clock. The time-ball is still dropped daily at 1pm using the original mechanism, but with the aid of an electric motor, not as in the early days when the ball was raised manually.

From the Sydney Observatory, we took an Uber ride, going to our hotel (well, it's serviced apartment, to be exact). Apparently, the driver was a moslem, and he preached few things along the way. haha. Pretty interesting.

At night, we strolled around the city. Ohya, we went to an Indonesian Restaurant nearby, and the taste of the food was delish! The price tag was Sydney standard (which is expensive), but the portion was huge.

We then got around a bit by walk. But hey, it seemed the city slept early. Stores were closed at around 7-8pm including restos. Well, so basically not many that we could do at night.

One of the landmarks that we passed by was St Andrew's Cathedral, since it's nearby our hotel.

The cathedral is described as a perfect example of the colonial desire to reproduce England in Australia in the mid nineteenth century.

Shopping center that we passed by. Kalo ga ada foto ini, I dont think I'd know the name of the place. lol. Actually the architecure is quite interesting, it's not modern like we have in Indonesia, but it's not crazy old as well.

When the arcade opened in 1892, it was said to be the very latest in shopping centre designs and was described as, "The finest public thoroughfare in the Australian colonies". .