Hello, Sunday! We wake up to a cloudy and overcast day, which is appropriate because... it's the first day of autumn here in Australia! Yes, it's all downhill from here. The temperature might eventually drop below 10C. Grab your children, grab your fleece: winter is coming!
Okay, okay, I'll stop picking on the Aussies. I only tease because I love them and their lovely country. And I definitely know I can't handle the heat of their summer, so I will shut up now.
JQ and I are relatively pleased with the cooler weather this morning. It was 21C when we got up, which is a relief after yesterday's 30C. I debated on whether or not to bring my Tilley hat - I think there's still a lot of UV, whether it's cloudy or not, but in the end I decided that I'd slathered enough sunscreen on my face to withstand a cloudy day and I left it behind.
Off we go, on our daily trek to Darling Harbour. We stop in at the iToursntix center, and book a trip to Jenolan Caves for next Thursday. Theoretically, we get free admission into the caves with our iVenture card. However, we would have to actually get to the caves ourselves for that to work. You can take the train, but that will only take you to the townsite, not the cave, which might be an hour further. If we were renting a car here, maybe, but even then, it sounds like there's some confusing stretches of road near the cave. I checked online on TripAdvisor, and most of the Aussies giving advice said "book a tour, it's easier." JQ and I discussed options (aka argued like wild tasmanian devils), with me wanting to spend money and her wanting to explore cheaper DIY options. This is the flipside of our usual selves, proving that we really are Down Under, where everything is flipped upside down.
(By the way, we also saw an awesome local map with Australia on top of the world, and everyone else below them. 😄 North America looks funny upside down.
Okay, now that we've booked our tour, let's get down to today's adventures. The first thing on the agenda is the Justice & Police Museum. It is only open Saturdays and Sundays, so today is the day.
Check out those well-dressed criminals. Dalton has a scar across his face from a razor fight, and De Gracy has cyborg eyes. (His super-light cyborg eyes are kind of mesmerizing...) 😮
We head out, and I start to head towards the ferries. But, because JQ is a scientist and a master of deductive reasoning, she says she thinks it will be cheaper if we walk. No shit, Sherlock. I think it works that way in Canada, too. However, her point is that it's a walkable distance. ♪ Okay, these boots were made for walking, so that's just what we'll do. One of these days these boots are gonna-- ♫♭
Hey, what's going on in Darling Harbour today? There are hordes of people here. I mean, more hordes. They are much horde-y-er than usual. (It's a word.) Dragon boat races! 🐲 There are a million racers, and two to three million spectators and bystanders. (Note: Unofficial crowd estimates were provided by dimwit tourists. Do not treat as actual statistics despite the presence of a researcher.) After pausing to watch a race or two, we head on our way.
We walk uphill (it's a thing that happens in cities with hills), and pause next to Islay's fountain outside the QVB for map-reorientation time. Where are we? We are here - the justice museum is somewhere over there. WTF, says JQ, I thought the museum was here. No, that's the Barracks; the Justice is over there... somewhere. Where, exactly? I don't know; I forgot to bring my museum map. Well, then. JQ is mildly perturbed, because it turns out the ferry actually would have brought us closer to the museum that we were planning to visit, instead of walking towards the museum we went to yesterday. Yup.
We decide to be efficient by splitting up. Since we're two blocks from the Australian Opal Cutters, JQ goes to buy her opal. Instead of accompanying her (and hindering her with my unhelpful commentary), I will walk up to the Hyde Park Barracks and grab another copy of their museum maps. Perfect!
We go our separate ways. There is the faintest bit of drizzling rain as I get to Hyde Park. Instead of heading straight over to the Barracks Museum, I dilly-dally, and I wander to and I wander fro. There's the Sandringham Garden, which I did not see yesterday. There's a sunken fountain in the middle, and some formal gardens around it, and a dedication to King George IV and V. Oh hey, over there, there are sculptures nestled in by the trees. I am also wandering about looking for the memorial to Ataturk (Meric sent me a link about it), but I have not yet come across it, even though I'm skulking about in the bushes and scurrying along side pathways. I stop and look up, and can see clouds and light rain misting over the Sydney Eye. Pretty! What was I doing? Oh yeah, I should probably go get that map from the Barracks, which was what I was supposed to do in the first place.
Oh, look - there's a big, beautiful church! First, I should go see what that is. It's St. Mary's Cathedral. I have arrived too late to attend mass, as it looks like all the good Catholics are now pouring out into the street. There was a "solemn sung mass" at 10:30 a.m. Darn it! I am too late. Nevertheless, I go inside and take a look around. It is soooo beautiful. The air is heavy with incense. It's a Gothic-style building, with literal bells on it. 😉 At noon, the bells are striking the hours. Though the church is designed in a medieval style, it was obviously built much later - 1880s or 1890s - but it does remind me of Notre Dame in some ways. There is a tour, but I'm sure JQ will be done her opal shopping soon, and the last place she'll be looking for me is in church - she will, in fact, be expecting me to be in prison in the Barracks. Still, it's hard to go... I love beautiful churches, and this one is gorgeous.
The Barracks is just a hop, skip and a jump away, so I hop, skip and jump on over there, sneaking in around other tourists to grab a museum map, and bouncing out again. It's okay - I'm out on parole!
JQ has texted me - she has purchased an opal, and is now heading up Druitt. I can't remember where Druitt is, but if I keep walking, I'll find it. But first, I stop to hang out with Queen Victoria for a moment. At the Barracks tour yesterday, I learned that this little plaza was a plaza way back when in the original settlement. It seems like a place I should visit. QV is unamused by my presence, whereas JQ is unamused by my absence. She texts again, and says she'll meet me by the fountain in Hyde Park. She is making good time, because she is walking in straight lines, and I am zigzagging everywhere.
I make one last attempt to find Ataturk, leaping through bushes, and charging down gravel paths. I don't know where that elusive Turk is - but I suspect he must be hiding in the fenced-off areas that are being redeveloped, because I have criss-crossed this whole park now. Sorry, Meric - I tried!
JQ and I meet at the fountain. She shows me her opal, and - thinking she was handing me a coin - I threw it into the fountain for luck. Little did I know that opals are bad luck. JQ jumps in to retrieve it, spluttering and splashing and yelling something about "my precious!", and she and I have a terrific brawl, and she tries to drown me. (That might not have actually happened, but it totally could have.)
Okay, back to reality and to the Justice & Police Museum. I have a map - we can find it now! It is a block away from Circular Quay.
From the museum's website: "Step into the dark side of Sydney’s past with a visit to the Water Police station and courts that once made up one of the city’s busiest legal hubs. Crooks and cops, thugs and judges, locals and drifters, the guilty and the innocent have all left their stories here. With its 1890s holding cells, offices, charge room and courts, the museum draws you into a world of crime, punishment and policing, from bushrangers, sly grog and razor gangs to forensics. A vast archive of crime scene photography and mug shots reveal more than a century of underworld Sydney."
The Justice & Police Museum was a great stop. As mentioned, it was an actual station and courthouse at one time. JQ and I had fun trying out a few of the interactive exhibits...
(let's just pause for a moment, and view the hardly-working Judge at the Water Court)
(and now, back to our regular programming)
...and both of us found the photo exhibits particularly compelling. It's a look at the people and the times, and almost incidental preservation of history via crime photographs that give you a window into the day-to-day life of the past. Some of the photos were of foul play, but some were of traffic accidents (don't stress - no bodies, just wrecks), or supplementary photographs of crime scenes that simply show you the backgrounds of the homes and streets that people lived and moved through. You see the bric-a-brac, the home decor, the way that people lived at the time. It's really quite fascinating.
Did I mention that was not only was there a courtoom, but also some holding cells for unruly lowlifes?
After we finished at Justice/PoPo, JQ wanted her dose of coffee, so we went down to Circular Quay. Light drizzling rain, on and off, enough to wet the pavement, but it's not cold out. She grabbed coffee, and I grabbed some fish and chips from a vendor near the waterfront. That set me back $17, but was freaking delicious.
After a brief breaking perusing touristy shops, we headed a few blocks uphill to visit the Museum of Sydney. It's only a block or two away from the Justice/PoPo Museum. Located on the site of the original Government House, back in 1788, it is pretty much devoted to telling the story of the city, from its early relations with the Gadigal people through to the present day.
Lots of artwork, and there are a billion renditions of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was the iconic Australian image (unbeknownst to me) until the Sydney Opera House (knownst to me) came along and replaced it as the iconic symbol of Australia.
They also had a little exhibit on the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne (and they kinda made me feel bad for Melbourne with some of the shade being cast). On a somewhat related note, I found this interesting: "Such was the competition between Sydney & Melbourne that when Britain's six Australian colonies joined to become the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901, the Constitution stated that the new national capital must be at least 100 miles from Sydney. The federal authorities chose a sheep station not far from Yaas, which could be served with a rail spur off the main Sydney to Melbourne line. The site was proclaimed in 1911 and named Canberra in 1913."
Also at the Museum of Sydney was a sister collection that was also being shown at the Justice/PoPo Museum (makes sense, since Justice/PoPo is only open on weekends) - "Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties." Fascinating photos. They aren't your typical mugshots that you'd see in more modern times - people are smiling, smirking, lounging, laughing with each other - they're more like candid portraits.
And then there were the mug shots.
For example, check out our friend Gerard here - hat on, hat off, hair slicked back, snazzy pose:
Gerard Beaumont
(alias Gerard Bardelli, Gerald Beaumont, Gerard de Beaumont)
31 October 1921
Frenchman Gerard Beaumont had a history of 'flashing' women. He was also a thief and was once charged with stealing an opera cloak and other clothing from the room of a woman he fancied but who did not return his affections. Beaumont argued that he stole the woman's finest clothes to stop her dating his love rivals, and asked the jury to think like passionate Frenchmen, not 'Britishers'.* He was acquitted.
*The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 June 1922.
Well. That was an interesting winning defense he put forward. 😜 I'm not sure that his 'French' logic really works, but I guess playing on stereotypes worked out well enough for him in 1922.
When we head outside, JQ is tired and therefore does not suggest it would be cheaper to walk home. We walk over to Circular Quay, where I am delighted to see one of the ferries is nicknamed the "Ferry McFerryface". It's not our boat home, but I'm just happy it exists. The Voyager of the Seas is our new cruise boat for the day (3100 passengers). Our much smaller boat leaves from Wharf 5 in 2 minutes, so we trot quickly along (there's enough rain underfoot now that it is actually a bit slippery), and we arrive in time to board. For once, we've timed it right! As we're leaving, I see another cruise ship parked further out - the Celebrity Solstice (only 2800 passengers, so it has to park further away, I guess).
Anyway, on our much less luxurious, but perfectly adequate ferry, JQ and I ride up top (outside) in light rain for the first two stops, then retreat to the glassed-in interior, because it is starting to rain harder. At Pyrmont, we head indoors to the Harbourside mall to buy some souvenirs. By the time we're done and ready to walk home, it is raining hard. That explains why so many people were buying umbrellas.
JQ decides on a circuitous path home, designed to avoid her two nemeses - rain and hills - which takes us up to a covered skywalk, over to a parking garage, the both of which save us two or three blocks of walking in the rain. That leaves us with about two blocks in the rain, which is coming down steadily now. I do actually have a jacket that I could put on - but it seems bad form to do so when JQ does not have a jacket, and she's already whining that she's cold. On the other hand, if she didn't spend all of her money on opals, she might have a jacket...
Doesn't matter, it doesn't take us long to get back, and we shake off the water and relax inside, away from the rain. The upside is that the house is no longer hot from yesterday's heat.
And we've been here in Australia for such a short while that we really haven't acclimatized, so are mostly immune to the cooler weather... except that both of us change into long sleeves when we get home. It's 19.9C out there - getting cold! 😉
Wow, the rain is just coming down in sheets out there. Forecast says heavy rain throughout the night. What are we going to do? This house doesn't have central heating. I just checked online, and the weatherzone says: "The remnants of #CycloneKelvin will move into the Bight today before linking with a cold front to spread rain across the nation's southeast on Friday and Saturday." There you have it. Apparently, they have flash floods in Canberra. Yikes - that's scary!
It's supposed to clear off tomorrow, but it might be another indoor day at museums. We'll see how the day shakes out!
Okay, okay, I'll stop picking on the Aussies. I only tease because I love them and their lovely country. And I definitely know I can't handle the heat of their summer, so I will shut up now.
JQ and I are relatively pleased with the cooler weather this morning. It was 21C when we got up, which is a relief after yesterday's 30C. I debated on whether or not to bring my Tilley hat - I think there's still a lot of UV, whether it's cloudy or not, but in the end I decided that I'd slathered enough sunscreen on my face to withstand a cloudy day and I left it behind.
Off we go, on our daily trek to Darling Harbour. We stop in at the iToursntix center, and book a trip to Jenolan Caves for next Thursday. Theoretically, we get free admission into the caves with our iVenture card. However, we would have to actually get to the caves ourselves for that to work. You can take the train, but that will only take you to the townsite, not the cave, which might be an hour further. If we were renting a car here, maybe, but even then, it sounds like there's some confusing stretches of road near the cave. I checked online on TripAdvisor, and most of the Aussies giving advice said "book a tour, it's easier." JQ and I discussed options (aka argued like wild tasmanian devils), with me wanting to spend money and her wanting to explore cheaper DIY options. This is the flipside of our usual selves, proving that we really are Down Under, where everything is flipped upside down.
(By the way, we also saw an awesome local map with Australia on top of the world, and everyone else below them. 😄 North America looks funny upside down.
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| Justice & Police Museum |
Check out those well-dressed criminals. Dalton has a scar across his face from a razor fight, and De Gracy has cyborg eyes. (His super-light cyborg eyes are kind of mesmerizing...) 😮
We head out, and I start to head towards the ferries. But, because JQ is a scientist and a master of deductive reasoning, she says she thinks it will be cheaper if we walk. No shit, Sherlock. I think it works that way in Canada, too. However, her point is that it's a walkable distance. ♪ Okay, these boots were made for walking, so that's just what we'll do. One of these days these boots are gonna-- ♫♭
We walk uphill (it's a thing that happens in cities with hills), and pause next to Islay's fountain outside the QVB for map-reorientation time. Where are we? We are here - the justice museum is somewhere over there. WTF, says JQ, I thought the museum was here. No, that's the Barracks; the Justice is over there... somewhere. Where, exactly? I don't know; I forgot to bring my museum map. Well, then. JQ is mildly perturbed, because it turns out the ferry actually would have brought us closer to the museum that we were planning to visit, instead of walking towards the museum we went to yesterday. Yup.
We decide to be efficient by splitting up. Since we're two blocks from the Australian Opal Cutters, JQ goes to buy her opal. Instead of accompanying her (and hindering her with my unhelpful commentary), I will walk up to the Hyde Park Barracks and grab another copy of their museum maps. Perfect!
We go our separate ways. There is the faintest bit of drizzling rain as I get to Hyde Park. Instead of heading straight over to the Barracks Museum, I dilly-dally, and I wander to and I wander fro. There's the Sandringham Garden, which I did not see yesterday. There's a sunken fountain in the middle, and some formal gardens around it, and a dedication to King George IV and V. Oh hey, over there, there are sculptures nestled in by the trees. I am also wandering about looking for the memorial to Ataturk (Meric sent me a link about it), but I have not yet come across it, even though I'm skulking about in the bushes and scurrying along side pathways. I stop and look up, and can see clouds and light rain misting over the Sydney Eye. Pretty! What was I doing? Oh yeah, I should probably go get that map from the Barracks, which was what I was supposed to do in the first place.
 |
 |
Oh, look - there's a big, beautiful church! First, I should go see what that is. It's St. Mary's Cathedral. I have arrived too late to attend mass, as it looks like all the good Catholics are now pouring out into the street. There was a "solemn sung mass" at 10:30 a.m. Darn it! I am too late. Nevertheless, I go inside and take a look around. It is soooo beautiful. The air is heavy with incense. It's a Gothic-style building, with literal bells on it. 😉 At noon, the bells are striking the hours. Though the church is designed in a medieval style, it was obviously built much later - 1880s or 1890s - but it does remind me of Notre Dame in some ways. There is a tour, but I'm sure JQ will be done her opal shopping soon, and the last place she'll be looking for me is in church - she will, in fact, be expecting me to be in prison in the Barracks. Still, it's hard to go... I love beautiful churches, and this one is gorgeous.
 |
 |
The Barracks is just a hop, skip and a jump away, so I hop, skip and jump on over there, sneaking in around other tourists to grab a museum map, and bouncing out again. It's okay - I'm out on parole!
 |
| Unamused. And not Ataturk. |
I make one last attempt to find Ataturk, leaping through bushes, and charging down gravel paths. I don't know where that elusive Turk is - but I suspect he must be hiding in the fenced-off areas that are being redeveloped, because I have criss-crossed this whole park now. Sorry, Meric - I tried!
JQ and I meet at the fountain. She shows me her opal, and - thinking she was handing me a coin - I threw it into the fountain for luck. Little did I know that opals are bad luck. JQ jumps in to retrieve it, spluttering and splashing and yelling something about "my precious!", and she and I have a terrific brawl, and she tries to drown me. (That might not have actually happened, but it totally could have.)
Okay, back to reality and to the Justice & Police Museum. I have a map - we can find it now! It is a block away from Circular Quay.
From the museum's website: "Step into the dark side of Sydney’s past with a visit to the Water Police station and courts that once made up one of the city’s busiest legal hubs. Crooks and cops, thugs and judges, locals and drifters, the guilty and the innocent have all left their stories here. With its 1890s holding cells, offices, charge room and courts, the museum draws you into a world of crime, punishment and policing, from bushrangers, sly grog and razor gangs to forensics. A vast archive of crime scene photography and mug shots reveal more than a century of underworld Sydney."
The Justice & Police Museum was a great stop. As mentioned, it was an actual station and courthouse at one time. JQ and I had fun trying out a few of the interactive exhibits...
(let's just pause for a moment, and view the hardly-working Judge at the Water Court)
(and now, back to our regular programming)
...and both of us found the photo exhibits particularly compelling. It's a look at the people and the times, and almost incidental preservation of history via crime photographs that give you a window into the day-to-day life of the past. Some of the photos were of foul play, but some were of traffic accidents (don't stress - no bodies, just wrecks), or supplementary photographs of crime scenes that simply show you the backgrounds of the homes and streets that people lived and moved through. You see the bric-a-brac, the home decor, the way that people lived at the time. It's really quite fascinating.
Did I mention that was not only was there a courtoom, but also some holding cells for unruly lowlifes?
After we finished at Justice/PoPo, JQ wanted her dose of coffee, so we went down to Circular Quay. Light drizzling rain, on and off, enough to wet the pavement, but it's not cold out. She grabbed coffee, and I grabbed some fish and chips from a vendor near the waterfront. That set me back $17, but was freaking delicious.
Lots of artwork, and there are a billion renditions of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which was the iconic Australian image (unbeknownst to me) until the Sydney Opera House (knownst to me) came along and replaced it as the iconic symbol of Australia.
They also had a little exhibit on the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne (and they kinda made me feel bad for Melbourne with some of the shade being cast). On a somewhat related note, I found this interesting: "Such was the competition between Sydney & Melbourne that when Britain's six Australian colonies joined to become the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901, the Constitution stated that the new national capital must be at least 100 miles from Sydney. The federal authorities chose a sheep station not far from Yaas, which could be served with a rail spur off the main Sydney to Melbourne line. The site was proclaimed in 1911 and named Canberra in 1913."
Also at the Museum of Sydney was a sister collection that was also being shown at the Justice/PoPo Museum (makes sense, since Justice/PoPo is only open on weekends) - "Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties." Fascinating photos. They aren't your typical mugshots that you'd see in more modern times - people are smiling, smirking, lounging, laughing with each other - they're more like candid portraits.
And then there were the mug shots.
Gerard Beaumont
(alias Gerard Bardelli, Gerald Beaumont, Gerard de Beaumont)
31 October 1921
Frenchman Gerard Beaumont had a history of 'flashing' women. He was also a thief and was once charged with stealing an opera cloak and other clothing from the room of a woman he fancied but who did not return his affections. Beaumont argued that he stole the woman's finest clothes to stop her dating his love rivals, and asked the jury to think like passionate Frenchmen, not 'Britishers'.* He was acquitted.
*The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 June 1922.
Well. That was an interesting winning defense he put forward. 😜 I'm not sure that his 'French' logic really works, but I guess playing on stereotypes worked out well enough for him in 1922.
When we head outside, JQ is tired and therefore does not suggest it would be cheaper to walk home. We walk over to Circular Quay, where I am delighted to see one of the ferries is nicknamed the "Ferry McFerryface". It's not our boat home, but I'm just happy it exists. The Voyager of the Seas is our new cruise boat for the day (3100 passengers). Our much smaller boat leaves from Wharf 5 in 2 minutes, so we trot quickly along (there's enough rain underfoot now that it is actually a bit slippery), and we arrive in time to board. For once, we've timed it right! As we're leaving, I see another cruise ship parked further out - the Celebrity Solstice (only 2800 passengers, so it has to park further away, I guess).
 |
| There's a ferry named after my dog. :-) |
JQ decides on a circuitous path home, designed to avoid her two nemeses - rain and hills - which takes us up to a covered skywalk, over to a parking garage, the both of which save us two or three blocks of walking in the rain. That leaves us with about two blocks in the rain, which is coming down steadily now. I do actually have a jacket that I could put on - but it seems bad form to do so when JQ does not have a jacket, and she's already whining that she's cold. On the other hand, if she didn't spend all of her money on opals, she might have a jacket...
Doesn't matter, it doesn't take us long to get back, and we shake off the water and relax inside, away from the rain. The upside is that the house is no longer hot from yesterday's heat.
And we've been here in Australia for such a short while that we really haven't acclimatized, so are mostly immune to the cooler weather... except that both of us change into long sleeves when we get home. It's 19.9C out there - getting cold! 😉
Wow, the rain is just coming down in sheets out there. Forecast says heavy rain throughout the night. What are we going to do? This house doesn't have central heating. I just checked online, and the weatherzone says: "The remnants of #CycloneKelvin will move into the Bight today before linking with a cold front to spread rain across the nation's southeast on Friday and Saturday." There you have it. Apparently, they have flash floods in Canberra. Yikes - that's scary!
It's supposed to clear off tomorrow, but it might be another indoor day at museums. We'll see how the day shakes out!
aaaaaaaa you really tried!!! I am so happy that you did, but unhappy that you could not find him.. Anyways, if you ever happen to be curious, I will provide a crash Turkish history course :)
ReplyDeleteAlso do not get angry with me but something very bad has happened.... check your email please...
I tried again today, Meric! Still no luck. There is so much blocked off right now, as they're prepping for a festival, and a few of the monuments are being refurbished. I think the main lesson is that you cannot find a Turk who wishes to remain invisible. :-)
Delete