Sydney

I've arrived in Sydney, and boy, is it hot here. At 5pm, it was still 85 degrees, with low humidity and a nice breeze. I know, I know...no sympathy from the slush belt. I freshened up at the hotel following my flight, then went for a walk--I'm very close to the harbor and the opera house, so I headed over to check them out. The bridge is enormous. It's scale is so massive, though, that it actually doesn't really appear to be as big as it is. Here are two pictures, one of the entire bridge, the other a zoomed in photo of the top truss, where you can plainly see ants climbing to the summit. I've been contemplating doing the bridge climb, but it is pretty spendy for what it is. We'll see. My cousin's husband, T, thinks I would love it, but he relishes pointing out the fact that when he was in the Aussie army as a combat engineer, he got to climb it on several occasions as part of his job--and got paid to do it.


At the other end of the scale spectrum is the opera house. Certainly, it is a large structure by virtue of being a performing arts space, but the amazing thing when you walk right up to it is how small it actually is in real life. In part this may be due to the fact that I have only ever experienced it in photographs and film, not live. Sort of like the Statue of Liberty. Most Americans think Liberty is enormous, but when they come to New York they are usually surprised at how small it appears in context. Maybe that is the answer--context. In comparison to the bustling harbor, massive bridge and burgeoning central business district, the opera house--while iconic--is not a dominating presence due to its size. It is a dominating--and arresting--presence simply due to its unique architecture.