So this cruise ship had been parked in the harbor for at least 1 day - note that it was in my video made on Saturday. On Sunday I walked through the harbor area about 4:45 and it was docked. When I came back through about 5:45 it was pulling back into the dock. It must have gone out to sea and then had to come back for something or someone. Watching it come in was a really amazing, slightly emotional experience. I have never had any desire to be on a cruise in my life but seeing all those people standing out on the decks while it pulled in has changed my mind about that one. I still don't desire to take a cruise around the Caribbean or Mexico or the Mediterranean but taking a cruise across the ocean could be really cool. Watching those people I thought "Wow! That was what it was like when people came into Ellis Island." I think it would be really amazing to have that experience, traveling to a new and foreign country by boat, seeing the land materialize over the horizon, pulling into the port and watching the city and the people for the deck of a huge cruise ship. Someday I'll travel across the ocean on a ship - just as a means of transport form point A to point B, not as a vacation to 6 islands in 7 days.
So that's all for the harbor from yesterday. Moving on....
This morning I went to the Museum of Sydney. This museum sits on the land once occupied by the first Government House - the original residence built for the Governor of New South Wales when the English first arrived here to settle in 1788.
A few fun facts learned on my tour today:
The first Government House was the first brick building built on the continent of Australia.
It was used by the first 8 governors who each found it to be insufficient as a residence and insisted on putting additions on the house.
It was built by convicts. It was originally intended to be three rooms, one story, but they were so good at the construction that they made it two stories with six rooms.
When the first group of settlers and convicts made the journey to Australia the marines were outnumbered 2:1 by the convicts. Because of a fear of a revolt, Arthur Philip, the first Governor of Sydney and the leader of the original First Fleet, made sure the convicts had better food and larger rations to keep them happy. They also got large diets of fruits and vegetables when they stopped at ports along the way and more time for exercise.
When the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Harbor they had brought animals long for food - cows, sheep, chickens. They released the cows from the boats before they had built and fence and they all wandered off. Descendants of the original runaway cows were discovered living somewhere near sydney about 20 years later.
Here are some photos:
Edge of the Trees. This is an installation inspired by the forests that were originally coving the land surrounding the harbor. When the English came they would have seen a forest on the shores of the harbor, through which they were being watched by the aboriginal people. When the aboriginal people eventually made contact with the English they communicated through dance, the only way they could communicate being they didn't share a language.
This photo is hard to see but we're looking down through a glass window int he floor. Underneath they have exposed some of the original foundation of the Government House as well as part of a drainage pipe leading away from the Government Printing Press.
A model of the house as it was in the 1840s before a new residence was constructed and this one was demolished.
The Government House from the rear.
This photo is also hard to see. It is a wall showing goods being traded in Sydney Harbor in the early 1800s. The three goods on this wall from America were Flour, Corn, and Tobacco.
I had to take the photo sideways to avoid glare.... The food in the tray on the right is a typical ratio during 1788 and 1789. By 1790 the ration had to be reduced to what is shown in the tray on the left. Because most of the animal they had brought for food died (including the cows mentioned earlier), they were eating starvation portions of salted meat and staples while doing a full days labor clearing forests or building houses. Thank god for supermarkets!
Okay, that's all for now. I think I'm going to a comedy show tonight in Surry Hills, a cute neighborhood in Sydney. Chat tomorrow!
Best!
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