Hi everyone! I do apologize about the delay in getting part 2 of the Sydney blog up, but I’ve been swarmed with something that every student can relate to: exams. Everything has gone well though, and I’m on break for a while now, so hopefully there are lots of future posts on the way!
After my first day in Sydney things calmed down at least a little bit. I spent most of my next day visiting the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which is a very beautiful gallery. The gallery itself is a little bit out of the way, hidden behind some park lands, right at the beginning of the Royal Botanical Gardens. I didn’t realize where I was until I was actually on my way out of the gallery, but then it hit me. I walked right past this building when I was going to see the New Year’s Eve celebrations six months earlier! That walk is one of my very first memories of Australia and I remember admiring the building as I passed, so it was nice to be able to go inside and enjoy the art!
Entrance into the gallery was very inexpensive and the free tour was very informative and showed us a lot of the beautiful art on display. I happened to be lumped into a tour group with a large number of university students from the United States, so it was nice to talk to some other students from North America. If I can recommend one thing about visiting the art gallery it’s this: take your time. The art in there is so beautiful and it took such talent to create it. You’ll probably enjoy yourself much more if you pause and reflect on each piece, rather than quickly browsing!
The other highlight was definitely taking the ferry as a means of transportation as it leaves directly from Circular Quay, the area that surrounds Sydney Harbour. People in Sydney actually take the ferries into and out of the city each day to get to work. Can you imagine floating into Sydney Harbour and seeing the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge every day? Some people wait their whole lives to see those! Being on the ferry also gives you excellent views of the Opera House from the harbour, which is something that I’ll never get tired of seeing!
The rest of the trip was just spent catching up with various friends around Sydney. My hosts were so generous and kind, so if you’re reading this thank you James and Sally! I also had the chance to connect with a fellow Sprott student who is currently studying in Sydney. It was wonderful to see her again and spend some time seeing her university, and how a student in Sydney lives! It’s a huge benefit to connect with other students who are studying in other parts of Australia before you come. It gives you lots of fun people to do things with when you travel!
That’s all for now about Sydney! Stay tuned for my next post, which will be about a trip to the Adelaide Zoo that I helped run for international students!