Nature and the City

Today was sunny, blue skies, so I put on my sun-screen and I spent the day at the Royal Botanic Gardens, a beautiful park, free entrance. The sign on the entrance says:

Welcome
to the
Royal Botanic Gardens & the Domain
Please walk on the grass
We also invite you to smell the roses, hug the trees,
talk to the birds, and picnic on the lawns.

Isn't that nice? Doesn't it make you feel welcome?

The lovely park has wonderful big and old tropical and subtropical trees -- I've always loved these, with their bizarre aerial roots, ever since I first saw them 15 years ago in Florida. There were also lots of birds, especially Ibis-like ones, but they didn't really listen when I talked to them. And there were hundreds of big bats hanging in the trees, re-wrapping themselves like packets from time to time with their wings. Their bones protrude through their thin and stretchy hairless black skin. They are called Grey-headed Flying foxes because their face resembles a fox.


As you can see from some of the pictures I'm posting here, I'm playing around with Hugin, a free "image stitching" software to make panorama pictures, and Sydney really invites for lots of such panoramas.

There is a photographer's rule I once found out that says: every tall building looks nicer from a distance, and especially so when there is some water between. It also applies to the skyscrapers of the Central Business District. I actually have a personal dislike for oversized business buildings, especially of the usual glass-and-concrete sort. But from a certain distance they do look nice. And thanks to the harbour, Sydney is blessed with as much water as you can wish for. So I really enjoyed the scenic ride on two of the ferry lines that are part of Sydney's public transport system.

In the evening I had an appointment with someone who offered a room in a shared house. It was okay, but I hope to find something better before I make a decision in the next days. In any case it seems to be a lot easier and less complicated to find a shared accommodation here in Sydney than in Germany.

On the way back, my new navi decided to suddenly black out and will no longer do anything. So I'll have to complain about it at the store. Hope to find the way back there without it. Bloody technology. It's so great when it works. When it works.