Thursday and Friday: Around Sydney

I hadn't planned anything for the Thursday after we got back, so when Anne-Nicole mentioned the Sydney Authors Festival, it sounded pretty good. The order of the day was speeches by Australian historians/authors.

I took the ferry downtown and walked to The Mint, where the event was being held. Getting there took longer than I anticipated, and the speakers were just getting ready when I walked in. There was standing room only, so I didn't get a seat, but my spot had an excellent view of the podium anyway. The authors speaking were Thomas Keneally, Beverly Kingston, and Henry Reynolds. Their information was interesting, even to one who knows aas little about Australian history as I do. Mr. Reynolds and Ms. Kingston came off as exceedingly intellectual (read: superior, slightly condescending), but Mr. Keneally was highly entertaining and his books looked more interesting anyway. I was planning on buying one of Keneally's books, "A Commonwealth of Thieves" to have signed, but they were $60, and I only had $40 on me at the time.

After the lectures were over I walked down the street to the State Library of New South Wales which had several exhibitions going on, including the World Press Photo Exhibition. Many of the pictures were beautiful and touching, but more were meant to be shocking. They were all great pictures, although the captions on most of them were very PC.

Friday, I spent most of the day at Taronga Zoo again, and this time I remembered my camera! I got some great shots, especially of the chimps and the giraffes (my two favorites, naturally.) The day was perfect for a zoo outing. It was almost hot in the sun, but and nice and cool in the shade. Unfortunately, the perfect conditions meant that the zoo was packed- not my favorite way to see the animals. I decided not to let it bug me, and got almost as much amusement out of watching all the children running around as I did out of the monkeys and apes. ;o)