Karen's Millennium Photos
It was initially Andrew's idea to spend the dawning of the new millennium together, and I thought it would be cool to go somewhere special. After all, you only get one millennium change-over in a lifetime. Sydney was planning a huge celebration, so we decided to go there. I left for Australia at 8am on Dec. 25, 1999, much to my sister's annoyance (who wanted the family together for Christmas day) - but it's a busy time of the year for tavellers and I didn't have a lot of choice in my departure date. (click here for a related Backpack story)
I arrived in Sydney at 11pm on the 26th. Andrew was flying down to Sydney from Brisbane, and had also had problems with departure dates especially because he was travelling on frequent flyer miles, so he wasn't due to arrive in Sydney until the evening of the 27th. It's too bad I couldn't have arrived earlier on the 26th - that's a national holiday in Australia (Boxing Day) and is also the starting date for the Sydney to Hobart sailing race. So there would have been a lot going on in Sydney on the 26th.
Since I had the whole day to myself on the 27th until Andrew arrived, I wanted to get together with my friend Laurel (who I know from when I was attending Macquarie Uni.). Laurel and her boyfriend, John, were both very excited about the upcoming Olympics. Andrew, on the other hand, was decidedly (and justifiably) anti-olympics and would have nothing to do with anything olympic-related. So I figured that if I wanted to see the olympic grounds at all, I should go with Laurel and John - so that's what we did. Click here to see some photos that Laurel took on that day. Laurel and John were very knowledgable guides, and we had a lot of fun. Later we picked up Andrew from the airport, and then we all went to dinner together.
Andrew and I had a few days to spare before the new year, so one of the things we did was to go to the Blue Mountians. The Blue Mountains are a sort-of plateau about an hour's drive from Sydney. It's a really touristy area because of the natural scenery, and the quaint little towns. We took the commuter train from Sydney to the little town of Katoomba. Once you arrive in Katoomba, there is abundant public transportation to get to all the scenic areas. I'd actually been to the Blue Mountains in 1995 - Mac Uni had sponsored a trip there for the international students - but it was Andrew's first visit, so we pretty-much stayed on the beaten path. It was a rainy day, and we got soaked, but it was fun anyway.
Links:
| Katoomba Information | Blue Mountains Webcam | Katoomba Visitor's Centre |
A couple of photographs I took that day:
| The three pointed rocks on the left are called the Three Sisters, and there is an Aboriginal story associated with them. |
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"Mountain in the shadow of light, rain in the valley below."
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Back in Sydney, the hotel owner let us up onto the roof to take some great photos of Sydney's Central Business District on a cloudy night....
The next few pages contain my account and photos of Sydney's millennium extravaganza!
