Visiting The Sydney Opera House

I applied for student exchange program in summer 2012 from my university. There were several countries that I chose such as Singapore, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany and France. I was nervously waiting for which country that I would be placed in. After a few weeks of waiting, I found out that I was placed in University of Sydney in Australia. I was so happy and excited to visit the popular Sydney Opera House.

In June 2012, Australia is in winter season (as opposed to America). Fortunately, the temperature in Sydney is quite friendly in the winter, around 9-18 degrees Celsius. Therefore, I only need an autumn coat to “survive” against the cold weather. Apart from that, the transportation system in Sydney is decent at best, especially in the suburban area. The frequency of the bus coming in the suburban area is generally around 30 minutes. However, on some occasions, two buses are coming at the same time which leaves the next bus to come 1 hour later. These infrequent schedules are even worse on weekends and public holidays. Hence, as I lived in suburb, I had to take taxi most of the times. These taxis are quite pricey. It cost me around 30 dollars for going to the city which is about 15 minutes from where I lived.

The Sydney Opera House is located in Circular Quay which is a harbor which separates the northern part of Sydney and the downtown. Joining those two is a stunning bridge called the Sydney Harbor Bridge. There are regular ferries that take passengers back and forth into the Northern Sydney for every 20 minutes. When I arrived at the first time, the views are just breathtaking. The grandeur of the Sydney Opera House combined with the beautiful sunset views and the Harbor Bridge on the side of the background under the blue sky. Surely there are not much better views in the world. I did not waste any chance as I quickly pulled out my camera and started taking hundreds of photos. After done taking pictures, I went to the harbor side to try out few cafes and pubs in there. Although the qualities of the foods and drinks are pretty standard, it was nice having them while looking at those stunning harbor side views. At around 5.30 pm, the sky had already been dark (it was in winter). I spent this time to get closer into the Opera House. Looking at it up close, the design of this Opera House looked very attractive. The building itself has a sphere-like shape with three sections of uniformly arranged shells. The shells are covered with glassed ceramic tiles which give aesthetics impression in them.

I went back to Circular Quay again the following day. However, this time I wanted to try out “The Sydney Harbor Bridge Climb” which sounded really interesting. To get to the bridge, we have to walk around 5 minutes from Circular Quay into an area called the Milson Point. In here, we can find the entrance to the bridge. Not as the name suggested, the bridge climb activity does not involve any real climbing activity at all. The construction of the bridge includes a pathway on both sides of the arc of the bridge. This pathway is fit for two people to walk side by side. This activity cost me 200 Dollars. With this price, I only got safety ropes and a little bit of insurance. So, it is quite expensive. However, when I got to the highest point of the bridge, everything seemed worth it. From here, I could see the Sydney Opera House and most of the downtown Sydney from above which is a very rare view. I lost count of how many photos I took from here. It was definitely one of the great moments in my life.

Apart from those two, I found something very interesting in the university where I was placed in (University of Sydney). The so called Sydney Uni quadrangle looks extremely similar to the Hogwarts School we see on Harry Potter. If you actually trace it back to its history, this building was built at the same era as the Oxford University (the original set of Harry Potter). Moreover, both buildings were constructed and designed by British Empire. Hence, it makes sense that these two buildings are very similar to each other.