Living La Vida Loca

The final few days of our time in Australia were filled with lots of memorable experiences. I’ll do what I can to sum them up here. While I am less of an opera fan than Andrew, I felt it would be a grave injustice to pass up a night at the Sydney Opera House with it being such an icon architecturally and renowned for its presentations. That said, we treated ourselves with Kathy to both a tour of the house and Don Giovanni. Just a bit of history for those who are unfamiliar…

Located on the shore of Sydney Harbour, the opera house is considered one of the world’s most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture. It was designed by a Danish architect Jørn Utzon, but completed by an Australian architectural team and was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973. The building and its surroundings occupy the whole of Bennelong Point on Sydney Harbour, adjacent to the Sydney central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens, and near the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There are multiple performance venues that host over 1,500 performances a year, attended by more than 1.2 million people. There are guest performers and three resident companies: Opera Australia, the Sydney Theatre Company and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. It’s one of Australia’s most popular attractions and is visited by more than eight million people each year! We did do a building tour just before the evening performance and were really struck by how unique the place is. Here’s a view from the water and what one of the big venues looks like.

Don Giovanni was definitely a spectacle – all in Italian with “closed captioning” in English displayed above the stage. The lead character is a disgusting womanizer and the story told is how he is brought to justice. I have to admit that the almost 3-hour performance had me nodding off toward the end – and I woke up just as the evil guy was being pulled into hell by a bunch of hellish ghouls! I may have missed the prelude to this dramatic finale, but it was quite a sight to wake up to.

Another incredibly memorable thing we did was to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum. While we thought that the museum would have a very broad approach to documenting Jewish life in Sydney, it turned out to focus on documenting the impact of the Holocaust, the history of the Jewish people in Australia, and explore human rights issues in Australia. While different than what we expected we were not disappointed. I was frankly stunned (in a good way) at a pivotal exhibit that uses AI to bring Holocaust survivors that settled in Australia “to life”. Through a collaboration with USC in Los Angeles, thousands of hours of interviews were conducted with local Jewish survivors, and using AI technology, we were able to have a conversation with these people. I cannot express how moved and how grateful I am for experiencing this and for knowing that their stories are preserved in this way for future generations to never forget.

My Aunt Maddie would have never forgiven us had we not made it to the Taronga Zoo since she has dedicated many years of her life to supporting the enhancement of the LA Zoo, serving as the head of a huge docent program at that zoo, and having traveled the world in active support of making zoos good for the animals and humans who visit them. She didn’t have to twist our arms, though. This zoo is truly amazing. It sits on a scenic peninsula that looks across at the Opera House and the Sydney Bridge – the property itself is magical. We took a special zoo ferry across from the main ferry terminal and then a gondola that dropped us off at the very top of the zoo. From there we (along with many other visitors) wandered our way down through all the different exhibits with loads of places to sit, eat, and take in the scenery along the way. We got to see up close some animals that are native to Australia that you’d rarely see in other places – ring-tailed lemurs, koalas, even a Tasmanian Devil! Some handsome giraffes, assorted birds and funny faces got in the mix as well.

In the mix of all the touristic things we did, we had the opportunity to visit with some family friends who live in Sydney. Yosi and Derren Tal are friends of my uncle and aunt. When Ruthie and Simon were in Sydney a few years ago, Ruthie took sick and the Tal’s took them in for a few days while she recuperated. All that was plenty of incentive to get together and we were able to have a lovely dinner with them. We also had a brief visit with Yosi’s parents who were the original connection to my uncle and aunt. It was fulfilling to finally meet good people whom I’d heard about so fondly for many years.

I’ll leave you with a very funny exchange that topped off our trip this go around to Australia…We were running low on fuel for the car we’d rented so Andrew pulled into a station on the way back from running around. He met up with a young woman, Dani working there and here’s how the conversation went (perhaps not verbatim but you’ll get it):

Andrew: Hi! I need some gas…

Dani: I’m sorry, we are all out of gas.

Andrew: You’re out of gas? So, where could I get some around here?

Dani: Maybe…

Andrew: Really? I’ve never bought gas in Australia -how do I do it?

Dani: There are three ways. You can bring me a bottle and I can fill it for you. Or, you can buy a bottle from me and then I can fill it. Or we can swap out a bottle…

Andrew: Why do I need a bottle??? I have a CAR.

Dani: Ohhhhh, you don’t need gas – you need PETROL. (Gas is the stuff you put in a propane bottle for BBQ’s etc.)

So much for trying to blend in as a local. We all got a good laugh out of this exchange. So much so that Andrew had to reenact it on Facebook. Enjoy!

All in all, this trip was a great opportunity to travel with family and friends, meet new friends through our home exchange program, do some incredible biking though some awesome scenery, and explore parts of two countries we have come to love very much.

Until the next adventure…