Sydney

Another weekend break possible thanks to cheap Jetstar flights and AirBnB accomodation. Hurray!

A practical tip: on Sundays the public transport in Sydney is capped at $2.50, so you can travel on the trains, ferries, and buses around Sydney practically for free.

Old and new.

A model of the CBD under the glass floor of the Sydney library

A monument to a pioneer woman

Queen Victoria Building - a 19th century shopping centre.

Darling Harbour

Brutalist architecture near the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Rocks - Sydney's old town.

The Rocks

The Rocks Museum documents history of the native people of the Sydney area. 

Behind Circular Quay

Sydney ferries

On a ferry to Parramatta

On a ferry to Parramatta, the river quickly becomes narrower.

A typical double-decker Sydney train.

CBD packed tight.

A cruise ship "parked" right in the centre of Sydney - Circular Quay

The view of the Opera House from the bridge on a rainy day.

People sitting in the lower deck have a good view of other people's feet and knees.

Sydney train from a ferry.

Sydney Trains A set from the front.

An interesting thing about Sydney Trains' fleet is that it is custom made for Sydney, currently by companies in China and Australia. There are no labels inside or outside the trains that would tell you who the manufacturer is or what model it is. This method is applied in other cities and to other public transport vehicles in Australia. The buses in Gold Coast, for example, are often of the "no-name" brand.

A postcard from Sydney

Postcard #2 - Darling Harbour

Maritime Museum

Sam Fiszman was a Polish Jew who after the war settled in Australia and was active in the Labor Party. A park overlooking Bondi beach bears his name and features his credo: "I am better than no man and no man is better than I".  I'm not a fan of that credo - the first part sounds stupid: almost everyone alive is better than Hitler or Stalin, the second part sounds like an excuse for any wrong thing you might do.

Postcard #3

Two Canberra class landing-helicopter-dock (LHD) ships of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN): built in Spain and in Australia.

The remaining pictures are from the Australian Navy Museum on Garden Island.

The middle section of a WW2 Japanese midget submarine.

A humorous take on Australian Navy. 

Self-deprecation is part of Australian culture.

Postcard #4 - a view from the top of Garden Island

Australia had and has strict immigration policies, including sometimes deportation of whole groups of people. For another example see: Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901

I didn't know that Australia took part in occupation of Japan.