Photo's of Sydney

After yesterday’s post I decided to take a look upstairs in the library’s gallery. There is currently an exhibition called ‘Sydney Morning Herald Photos 1440’. It’s a collection of award winning photos from the past year (I think), there are some really interesting shots, some inspiring and some harrowing.

After about 30 minutes of walking around looking at a mix of 'impressive' and 'how did that win an award?' images I decided to take out my own 12 mega pixel power house of a compact digital camera and gets some scenic shots of my own.
After a short walk to the waterside I picked a spot nearby a bunch of other photographers with their much bigger, expensive cameras and their bigger and expensive lenses...

Because a big lens makes you a better photographer?

I was not embarrassed by my camera’s size as a quick press of the ‘Menu’ button unleashed a wealth of options for various situations, like ‘Sunset’ and ‘Night’ for longer exposure times and ‘Beach/Snow’ for brightly lit places. Armed with my camera set to ‘Sunset’ I started snapping away...

I like this one, but...

I'd say this is my favourite one.

The sun went down behind the city and the temperature dropped, time to go back to the hostel, which allowed me to take a couple of snaps of less 'touristy' things...

I also realised I should invest in a tripod for those 'long exposure' shots.

Cathedrals are even more Gothic at night.

Hardly an amazing adventure, but what’s the point of walking through a park to take photos if you can’t share them with the world (or the 5 people who read this blog).

I might see if any roommates want to go out tonight, we did suggest it last night but you never know if people are really up for it until they start drinking! This is Ryan The Ginger Lion signing off!
PS. If you ever happen to walk through The Domain at sunset, be prepared for the loudest birds possible. Those Cockatoos are 1000 decibel squawking monstrosities!

The Adventure Starts Here...

So here I go, off on the Awesome Australian Adventure that I technically started 2 weeks ago, but now I’m off without a safety net! Checked in to the Elephant Backpackers hostel in Wooloomooloo (pronounced Wool-o-muloo, or ‘Near-Kings-Cross’) today after dropping off Tim at the airport so he could fly back to ‘the Shire’ or ‘Mordor’ or wherever he is living in New Zealand. 

So after saying farewell to my auntie and uncle I walked into the building and got my room key (after the usual filling out of forms etc.) and proceeded to make my way up the stairs to the 3^rd floor which helped me lose 2 stone straight away! It was about 3PM so nobody else was in the room, I dumped my stuff in a locker and decided to wonder off and take some snaps  of things around the local area (see below, no, not there, I mean below the writing on this page. I know it's a lot of phallic symbols but there isn't much else to photograph in the immediate area) before buying something to cook (I said 'cook').

Came back, ate food, said hello to a few people and went back up to my room in which 2 girls were sitting packing their stuff. After saying hello I determined they were from the north of England and I got a few tips about Cairns (where I will eventually go), apparently the Global is the hostel I should try to get into when I get there. The two northern lasses are going elsewhere in the morning but I still have 3 roommates to meet.
I did notice earlier that there was a balcony outside our room, something that only 3 room have, however there is no handle on the door so I haven’t got a clue how to get out there. There is also a roof terrace which I am yet to go to and a cafe that sells bottles of Tooheys for $2.50.
I have my potential employment decided tomorrow, hopefully I’ll get it so I won’t worry too much about money and I may venture out tomorrow night to sample the local night life.
Oh, the internet isn’t actually free here so I may sneak into a Starbucks before I can update next.

So tomorrow I will be interviewed and either celebrating or commiserating, tune in next time for Ryan’s Awesome Australian Adventure...

See that? There must be so much cool stuff in there that there wasn't even enough room for an awesome T-Rex!

St. Mary's Cathedral.

I'm not sure of the name of this building, but it is a war memorial. I'll have to find out if there was a battle of Wooloomooloo, where Admiral Nelsooon (or was it Woolingtooon) made his name.

Pfft... Cleopatra's Needle is bigger than that, and she's a woman!

The architect had 'issues'

...and a statue of Captain Cook. No nob jokes here folks!

That cathedral keeps getting in every photo! How annoying!

At this adjusted angle the cathedral is much bigger than that Westfield tower. Which will no doubt boost the cathedral's confidence.

And here is my home for the next... however long. (See the balcony at the top left of the building? My room is the un-openable door attached to that)