Sydney Reprise 28 Feb - 7 March

So i think i got some good photos i'd like to share on the blog now but i have many that others can see once i get back home. Here are a few things i did for my second week in Sydney. Not necessarily in chronological order.

I did the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. It was pricy but still a good experience. I didn't get any photos from the bridge because they would not allow us to take anything that could be dropped down onto the cars speeding by below. I got this good photo, though. They did take photos, one which was included and one that i purchased extra.




I took the behind the scenes tour of the Sydney Opera House. The normal tour is $23 dollars and just walks people through the regular Opera House for an hour. This tour i took was $140 for a 2-hour tour through all the back areas, on stages, and in the orchestra pit. It was quite nice. The tour also began at 7:00 am so i had to be awake by 5:45 am in order to walk over there. The tour ended with an included breakfast in the "green" room where all the actors and workers hang out.







The Sydney Aquarium was interesting. They have done a fairly good job at exhibiting the animals and there is a good variety. This is where i finally got to see a platypus. Apparently they are not often seen because they are only out in the very early morning before the sun comes up or just after the sun goes down. My photos did not turn out too well, though, because it was too dark.







Mardi Gras was a nighttime parade on 4 March. It is predominantly gay & lesbian i guess cuz they make it a lot more fun. This parade was much more fun than the San Francisco parade also. I met up with one of my Outback campmates and his friends that live outside Sydney. We stayed for about 3/4 of the parade and then went to a bar to hang out.






Aurora Place is a set of buildings designed by the extradordinary Renzo Piano. Here is a upshot of the buildings through the tension cable-stayed glass canopy over the plaza. I got a bunch of photos before the security guard came out and told me to stop. Hey, I didn't know.

Tarongo Zoo is across the harbour from downtown Sydney but it is still part of the city. Unlike a lot of cities divided by a major waterway, Sydney envelopes the entire harbour rather than have different cities on opposing shores. The zoo was good but not a mind-blowing experience. Most of the animals there, i have either seen in the US zoos or already in Australia. This was the first time i got to see an echidna. I've wanted to see live examples of all the major marsupials. The Tasmanian Devil was not in the zoo unfortunately as that is the last of the major ones i wanted to see. This is actually the second time that the Tasmanian Devil was not an active exhibit.