Sydney - Hyde Park

With the long red-eye flight and the time change and all, I kinda just wanted to rest. I remembered when I was in Venice that sometimes I just found a sweet city park and hung out. Sydney has a number of nice parks; Hyde park is nearest to the QVB. I found a bench in the shade, not too close to the nearest busking musician (an accordion player singing christmas carols to his own accompaniment). I opened the wonderful mystery I picked up at SFO ("In the Woods" by Tana French) and simply enjoyed resting and reading outdoors in a lovely spot.

I saw something approach, and looked up, expecting a pigeon or squirrel or something. Imagine my surprise to see an ibis approaching! In fact, there are a bunch of these in the park, hanging out with the pigeons. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_White_Ibis)

It's these small, "normal" differences that really impress me on these trips. Reminds me of the Buenos Aires zoo: the most interesting creatures were the ones running around free, and then I saw a gray squirrel in a too small exhibit cage. The poor thing -- zoos are great for informing us about the world's animals and creating connections ... but the lucky zoo animals generally have shitty lives. Social elephants living alone. Etc.

Turns out Hyde Park also has a giant chess set that gets used.









As well as a tree that has startling orange flowers.