On this Saturday morning, the view from the high balcony (seventh floor at the top of a hill) is obliterated by fog - can't see the park immediately below, or the harbor view. I'm so grateful for this reason to delay venturing out, because I was ready for a lazy morning.

Friday, June 2nd

Yesterday featured a walk to Bondi Beach from Bondi Junction, coming upon the enormous crescent cove of sand, with aquamarine surf dotted with surfers. An intended seaside walk through Bronte to Coogee was pretty and each cove had its own surfers to watch.

The rocky, almost-cliffside path had all of the ups, downs, stairs and steep inclines that are routine in exploring Sydney - I've come across multiple parks accessed via many stairs, at the top of long hills and even served by elevators. Yesterday, on the third day of exploration, I hit a wall; I was tired. Is there such a thing as delayed jet lag? Even at 70 degrees and in a wintertime seaside breeze, the Australian sun is hot. I didn't make it to the end at Coogee; I took a bus to the train station from Clovelly, then got a train into town thinking I had just enough energy to get dinner and make it back to my AirBNB to relax.

(Life in and around the water seems to be a core principle in Australian life: beaches, pools, views, transportation.) Each subsequent community's housing seemed from a more-recent era, with the outermost reaches featuring brand new buildings and infrastructure, landscapes still under construction, cranes and new tower districts rising from seeming riverside lowlands in the middle of nowhere. Fellow passengers included students going home from school, people travelling between neighborhoods, as well as commuting workers. There was not much to see in the way back, as the winter sun sets had set, except for the many people boarding to go into the City for Vivid.

There was a lot of activity at Circular Quay as the ferry pulled in, with Vivid Sidney's colored light shows due to begin in a few minutes. Children - and adults! - in costume, families and groups of young people circulating in every direction as specialty lighting of the towers and ground displays were firing up-stunning. The streetcar wasn't running, so I got to take the train from the Quay from an elevated station.

Thursday, June 1rst - the Zoo, and Barangaroo

A lovely, quick trip across the harbor brought me to the Taronga Zoo, where I spent a pleasant couple of hours, despite several exhibits being closed and significant construction throughout the park. In general, the habitat-based exhibits allowed for good creature spotting, although the platypus eluded me. Great views back to Sydney. Once back in Sydney, I walked through the Rocks and under the Harbor Bridge to the Observatory (great views) Millers Point and Barangaroo, with many amazing sights along the way, both the more historic buildings of the Rocks and Millers Point, and the brand new development of Barangaroo.

Ephemera

• Transit rides are so inexpensive and convenient, there is never a question of whether to ride. There are three systems: Buses ("B"), Light Rail streetcars ("L"), and trains ("T") which are electric, smaller double-decker cars which run into the suburbs. There is significant overlap of services in downtown locations - all three modes are a short walk away. Plus, the ferries, again, so easy to ride. An Opal Card or a credit card/Apple Pay/Google Pay may be used for tap on/tap off ON ALL MODES (so, so convenient); however, I was advised by the transit employee to use the Opal Card for improved reliability.

• There is always a public bathroom at the many public facilities. They are ample and clean. It feels revolutionary. When will the US figure this out?

• I'm not sure I'll ever need cash, use of credit is so ubiquitous, but I got a little from an ATM. Postcards and stamps may require cash.

• There is no CVS, Walgreens or equivalent. I'm struggling to find contact cleaning solution or a particular type of hair styling product. The typical local retail source, "chemists", are tiny little shops with one person aisles and floor to ceiling shelves, with only the necessities in tiny packages and only one of each, except for nutritional and skin care, where they have a thousand bottles, one of each product. Travel size rarely exists.

• I happen upon pachouli scents frequently here, as if from colognes.

• “Sydneysiders” love their coffee. They walk the streets with to go cups in their hand, almost as if it is a status symbol. They line up to buy an afternoon cup at three. Coffee shops are on every block, at least one, usually several.

• There is a Sydney Guy walk when they travel in groups...hands in both pockets. All of the guys in the group, in the same way.

• The weather is unbelievably pleasant here. It reminds me of the west side of LA, only the perfect amount warmer. Even on a pier in the harbor, it's only slightly cool, not cold and raw as in New England; it must be a warmer water temperature making the difference.

• I'm not seeing a level of diversity I'm used to in Boston. I'm seeing very, very, very few black people. I'm seeing fewer brown people than expected... especially in the central business district. There is a significant population and range of ethnic asian residents.

• The amount of green and hardscape open space in this city, and the form of both plazas and promenades, is remarkable. It reminds me of Boston in that way, though Sydney far surpasses Boston with the many opportunities to access greenspace, everywhere you go. People take advantage of it, for lunch, to meet up, even to take phone calls. I saw so many people doing phone calls outside Anna greenspace, seemingly business people. Makes everything so livable. The Botanic Garden adjacent to the downtown is gorgeous, vast and heavily used at lunch time. There were groups of school, children playing games, classes, there were other groups spending time in the park. Park there were many families and small groups of friends strolling through, and then a large number of individuals there for lunch or making phone calls or running on the highly-trafficked running route that loops around the Opera House.

• A subcategory of open space that is unusually prevalent are zero-traffic pedestrian streets, pedestrianized alleys, mid-block pedestrian malls, stair streets and pedestrian paths through urban wilds to connect streets. We have relatively very few in the States, due to issues of capital investment, maintenance and repair, and space allocation. Clearly this is a city planned around pedestrian travel and in fact prioritizing it both with public and private investment. A case in point, across the street from where I'm staying is a space high in the air that I suspected was a park, some four stories in the air with a stone retaining wall creating its platform. Okay, so if it's a park up there, four stories up, how on earth do you get up there? The City of Sidney built an accessible ramp structure at one end, and at the other end built a stair tower and an elevator. In the States, it would be unlikely to put together funding for one of those three, but for this small park suspended for stories in the air, Sydney did all three.

• Groceries are very inexpensive here, especially with the exchange rate. Today I got a loaf of bread for $2 Australian, two mandarins for 50 cents, a big roast chicken breast for $3.75, 8 ounces of hummus for $1.80. The current exchange rate offers about a 33% discount when converting US dollars. Conversely, the restaurants are expensive... A$25 for a burger and fries. However, when the tip is assumed as part of the price (because tipping isn't a thing here), and one considers a living wage, and the exchange rate is considered, it seems very similar to the States.

• One of the interesting things about Sydney is the number of restaurants there are, so many, and located along pedestrian pathways that would be a curse to a similar business in the US. Either they are counter service, or they are full-service, sit-down restaurants; there's very little in between. The small, hole-in-the-wall, mom-and-pop sorts of restaurants are by far the most prevalent, they are absolutely everywhere. They are far more than there used to be in the States before recent economic trends killed them, I'd guess by three or four times. It's hard to imagine the number of customers keeping these places in business.

The fog has now burned off, and I’m heading out into the early afternoon for a walk. More soon.