Adelaide

My first stop in Adelaide was at the Central Market, where I had some good coffee and read The Advertiser, a local newspaper, to know what's happening in the world. I have noticed two things when listening to (on the radio, when I was driving) or reading the news. The first thing is that there is a big focus on agricultural matters - fish quotas, milk production policies and so on are big issues here, which shows the important weight of agriculture in the Australian economy; the second thing is the focus on criminality. Both the news on TV and the newspaper seem to love murder fait divers, although this is one of the safest countries on Earth (but when reading the newspaper you could believe you are in El Salvador). Similarly, I find it interesting that although Australians seem to be very respectful of rules (when driving, for instance, or as far as their wildlife is concerned), you often see these threatening signposts warning you that should you dare to smoke or over speed or approach a seal or do this or that you will be fined xxx $ (the signpost will mention the amount).

 

After the Central Market, which I loved, I rented a bike for free at a place in the centre and went for a ride near the river - a short one, unfortunately, as I had to return the bike before 4:30pm. Still, I was able to see pretty much of the centre. Adelaide has a relaxed atmosphere for a city of more than 1 million people. I met a Brit who took a picture of me with the bike (how many pictures do I actually have of myself in Australia? 6? 7?) who has recently moved here precisely because of this  relaxed vibe with all the advantages of a big city.

 

Central Market

Adelaide from the river

 

After returning the bike I took the tram to Glenelg beach and decided to stay there for the sunset sipping a South Australian Sauvignon. That's when Lynn and Peter approached me and asked if they could sit at my table. We had a delightful conversation. When you meet people just for a short moment together it's often difficult to go beyond the standard conversation (how long do you stay in Australia, etc), but sometimes it does happen and I had a lovely time with them. The sunset was rather dull, but who cares about the sunset anyway.

 

Glenelg

 

Tomorrow I'm leaving South Australia by train (a 24h journey) and going to Alice Springs (Northern Territory). If everything goes well, soon I should see Uluru right in front of me, I can hardly believe it!!!

First disappointment

In almost every experience there is always a time for disappointment and travels are no exception. On Thursday morning I arrived on Kangaroo Island with high expectations. There's no public transportation on the island so you either register for a guided tour (but there are only day tours, you don't see everything, no time for hiking, and I was staying for 3 days) or rent a car. Of the two rental agencies, one was closed. The other one proposed a nissan micra (unsuitable for most of the roads here, which are not paved and are in a bad condition) for $75 a day and with a limit of 100km/day, extra km with extra charges (the island is 150km long, there is no way you can drive only 100km a day, obviously they know that very well!)... However, I had no other option to get around, so I accepted, but decided to rent the car for 2 days only.

 

The weather was awful, except on the second day in the Western part of the island it rained and everything was grey. I drove to the north and only saw farm land (but I did eat some great fish). I read that there were nice bays further west but I would have to take unpaved roads and didn't dare to do that with the micra, I was afraid of getting stranded in the middle of nowhere (and there’s no network coverage in much of the island) and it was raining anyway, so forget the nice walks on the beach. Meanwhile, it was too late to head south, so I drove back to Penneshaw (the tiny town which is the gateway to the island), where I was sleeping. The next day I did the south coast and did take the risk of driving in some unpaved roads to go for some hiking in Flinders Chase National Park. And yes, the Remarkable Rocks are indeed... remarkable, no doubt about that. Watching the seal colony at Cape du Couedic is a pleasant experience. The Snake Trail is beautiful. But I didn't see anything that different that I hadn't seen in other parts of the country - I actually saw more wildlife when doing the Great Ocean Road than on Kangaroo Island, and found the latter very commercial already - and some trails, like the Rocky River, are really not that special. At the end of my second day I just decided to change my booking and take the Saturday morning ferry instead of the evening one, and go to Adelaide. Overall, I paid around $500 for coaches, ferries, a shitty car (I ended up doing 400km, which is inevitable if you want to see the island), fuel, accommodation and bad weather... I think this is the problem when you are expecting too much of a place, I had heard so much about Kangaroo Island and thought it would be a spectacular unique experience, one that I couldn't have elsewhere in Australia, but I was wrong, whereas in other places I just let myself be surprised, and it was great.

 

A little friend trying to hide!
 

Pelicans near American River

Taken from the Remarkable Rocks: a remarkable view 

Cape du Couedic

Snake Trail



Another friend, but I didn't feel at ease with this one, standing in the middle of the Rocky River trail

 

Great Ocean Road, first couchsurfing experience and South Australia

Last Sunday I left Tasmania and landed in Melbourne, where I rented another car to drive the Great Ocean Road. It was a windy, rainy day but the rain often stopped and there would be an amazing rainbow over the sea, I can't count the number of times I parked just to watch rainbows!

Taken from the Great Ocean Road, a couple of km before Apollo Bay

 
I arrived in Apollo Bay in the evening and met my first couchsurfing hosts. For those who don't know couchsurfing, it's a project that appeared in 2004 and allows people to accommodate travelers or be hosted when traveling themselves for free - the idea is to help others and meet people from different horizons, not to make money. I joined couchsurfing just before coming to Australia and had sent a request to Nathalya asking her if she could host me, to which she replied yes. Nathalya is from Brazil and lives with her husband Joel and a friend, Kip, both from the US. They are working in Australia on holiday visas. We had a lovely evening around a glass of wine and a meal cooked by Joel and in the morning they invited me to the restaurant where they're working for a coffee. They were really great and the experience incomparably nicer than staying at yet another hostel.

After we said goodbye I continued the Great Ocean Road and did a detour to visit a lighthouse. The views were amazing, but even better than the lighthouse was the road to get there: there were literally dozens of koalas on the trees! I parked the car and stayed there for ages watching them, they don't seem to be afraid of people and some come really close to you :-) 

Near Cape Otway

 

View from the Great Ocean Road

Shortly after the Great Ocean Road ends you enter the state of South Australia. The landscape becomes a bit boring (endless fields and sheep). I had decided I'd sleep in a tiny town called Robe because they were supposed to have a youth hostel there but when I got to Robe it turned out that the hostel has actually closed, so I had to go around town searching for a room. The price was always from $100 upwards and when I said that that was a bit expensive for me ("a bit" being an euphemism) I got looked down on... I found the place and the people snobbish, suddenly I didn't feel like staying there at all and decided to drive to the next town and if I didn't find anything cheaper then I'd just sleep in the car. The next town was Kingston SE, about 40 minutes from Robe. I saw a signpost on a pub which read "accommodation", went in and they had a room for $40, so I stayed for the night, still on time to go to the seashore and watch the sunset.

Driving from Kingston to Victor Harbor (yes, that's Harbor, no "u") the landscape changes again, but this time it's very beautiful. The Princes Highway crosses the Coorong National Park and you can stop for a walk here and there in the wetlands, between the lakes, bush, dunes and the ocean - and you can spot pelicans! You can also be eaten alive by flies, as I almost was. It has always been my opinion that all animals deserve to live, except two, and those are flies and mosquitoes. DEATH to them!

Coorong National Park

After Coorong thr landscape changes one more time, this time it's the vineyards - immense, gorgeous vineyards. I had to stop in one of them in Langhorne Creek and taste a an amazing chardonnay. I thought I might as well drive to the famous McLaren Vale instead of coming straight to Victor Harbor but gave up the idea since I wouldn't be drinking more wine anyway, as I was driving (ain't I a wise boy?). So I got to Victor Harbor once again just in time for the sunset... after spending almost $300 in my transportation to Kangaroo Island tomorrow, a place to stay for tonight, fuel (you must return the car with a full tank if you don't want to pay extras) and 3 or 4 silly stuff at the supermarket (I'm talking about biscuits and apples here, not caviar and smoked salmon). It's just amazing how fast money disappears here, I knew Australia was expensive but now I actually FEEL it!

Sunset (Victor Harbor)

Tasmania II

The day after Port Arthur I drove to a remote place called the Coal Mines, another convict site. Actually the site is in ruins today and nature has taken over. You don't have to pay, you can just drive there and visit on your own, it's not like Port Arthur. I don't know if it was because of the ghost tour I had done the previous night or what, but from the moment I got to the ruins (it was Monday and the site, which is far from everything, was empty, you could only hear the birds) I felt uncomfortable. I had a look around for about 10 minutes but kept feeling the urge to get away from there... so I did! Bizarre!

 

 I spotted this echidna next to the road to Coal Mines. I had to stop and follow it. They're so shy!

 

Then I drove to Coles Bay, in the Freycinet National Park, a mesmerising place where I spent two days hiking by great weather, I can't believe how lucky I've been with the weather here in Tasmania, it's been amazing! I did a 5 hour walk including the Wineglass Bay and a 3 hour climb to Mount Amos with a view over the Peninsula.

 

Wineglass Bay seen from Mount Amos

 

From Freycinet I went to the Bay of Fires, a succession of little beaches and lagoons in the north, just beautiful.

 

One of the beaches at the Bay of Fires - but the water is VERY cold!

 

I arrived to Hobart this morning and I'm staying in this cosy bed&breakfast, a Victorian house close to the centre. Hobart still has a lot of architecture from the colonial times and is a pleasant, very spread out city, I was expecting a tiny town but that's not the case at all. But to say the truth, I've seen very little of Hobart so far - I leave that for tomorrow, my last day in Tasmania - because on arrival I went straight to the pier to take the ferry to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). I had heard a lot about MONA even before I even thought of visiting Australia and was very curious about it. I wasn't disappointed.

 

The MONA is the work of a millionaire who wanted to create a "subversive Disneyland for adults", as he put it, and I think he managed, this is truly one of the most creative spaces I've ever visited. The museum site occupies a whole island. You get out of the ferry and take the stairs to the stunning building (already worth a look in itself) and then visit the 3 underground floors with art ranging from ancient Egypt and Greece to nowadays, organised by topic, not chronologically, so you can have a 3000 years old mummy next to a video by a controversial Japanese artist, both related to the topic "death", for instance. Controversial is indeed the word to describe a lot of the works in the museum. There are no labels. When you arrive you're given a tactile device which they call "The O". You can ask the device what art works are physically near to the place where you stand and if a particular work gets your attention (and trust me, the majority of them do!) you use the device to find out more about it (name, artist, you can even read articles and interviews on that particular work). You can also rate it if you like - "love it" or "hate it", they don't foresee any in-between :-)  - and The O will let you know how many people voted as you did. You can also save your tour and use The O to email it to yourself or anybody else. I just checked their site and by typing my email I got the itinerary I did today, what I saw, what I "liked", and what I "hated". An impressive place not to be missed if you visit Tasmania. 

 

Bit.Fall (Julius Popp), 2006-2007. Words fall from above, formed by thousands of drops of water. "Julius Popp thinks our brains are being changed by the age of communication technology. For the worse."

 



Queen (a portrait of Madonna) (Candice Breitz), 2005. "Candice Breitz portrays a contemporary form of worship. She pokes fun at idolatry, both drawing on and scrutinizing popular culture. For this complex multi-channel video installation she asked thirty fans of Madonna to sing, solo and a cappella, the pop star’s entire Immaculate Collection album from 1990."



Tomorrow I'll stay in Hobart, I hope to visit the Salamanca Market and taste some wines and yummy food and then on Sunday I'll fly to Melbourne to start the Great Ocean Road.

 

I'm so glad that I came to Tasmania...

Tasmania

I arrived in Devonport, Tasmania, on the 11th October in the early morning. First surprise, a man had fallen from the ferry onto the water when the ferry was already in the harbour (I didn't see this but they announced it on the loudspeakers), so the police was called and all passengers had to remain on-board until they had finalised all formalities, so we all disembarked one hour later than foreseen. I was a bit nervous about renting a car here; I had only driven on the right side once, in Ireland, many years ago, but after half an hour or so I started feeling comfortable and since the car has automatic transmission it's very easy to drive anyway.

I went straight to Cradle Mountain National Park, on the West Coast, part of an enormous wild area of Tasmania which is on the world heritage list. It was a beautiful sunny day and I could already see the mountain when I still was about an hour away from the park. I got there still early and spent the day doing some of the park walks near Lake Dove - absolutely stunning! But what I liked even more than the landscape - which was sublime and reason enough to go there - was the fact that I saw so many animals... In one single day I saw, for the first time in my life, wombats, an echidna and wallabies, all wandering around in their environment. I was pretty scared when I spotted my first wombat, as it was quite big, I didn't know what it was and it was heading towards me on the trail, not caring about, and even seeming interested in my presence. I thought "Is this thing going to attack me?". I recalled Tamara, an Australian I met in Canberra, who told me half-joking that if all Australian animals look so fluffy and cuddling, that's only a strategy to kill you easier! "Actually, they're all vicious", she said (I burst into laugh with the way she said it: VICIOUS!). Then a guy appeared and I asked him what that creature was and he said "a wombat", headed straight towards it and caressed it on the back while it fed on the grass - crazy! But this was a particular sociable wombat, since many others I saw later seemed less keen in being near to humans.

Lake Dove, Cradle Mountain

My first wombat, heading straight towards me!

My first echidna...

As in Canada, Australian parks seem to be very well organised, you have a visitor centre with all the information that you need, trail maps, ... Also, all trails are perfectly signalled with the time needed for the walk, the distance, the level of difficulty... and everything is impeccably clean, people do seem to respect their amazing natural heritage.

After a day of hiking I went to a place called Devils at Cradle to see a famous animal that I haven’t seen in the wild (at least not yet): the devil of Tasmania. They have opened some centres to take care of these animals and keep them in quarantine since a mysterious contagious tumour appeared in the 1990s, decimating the population (in some areas of Tasmania the population of devils fell by more than 90%). You can watch them, learn more about them, and assist to the feeding time frenzy! They are actually cute but very competitive for food and have an aggressive personality (as well as impressive teeth) and bite each other quite often (which in turn spreads the tumour that causes their death) for food, making lots of noise. A video in the centre explained that the Aborigines used to call them - I forgot the word, but it meant "the nasty ones". Poor devils, I actually found them sweet, I hope they will find a cure for the tumour that is killing them and that they won't meet the fate of the Tasmanian tiger (which, as I also learned, was not a tiger at all but was named like that by the Europeans because of the stripes on its back that looked like those of a tiger), which became extinct in 1936.

A Tasmanian devil at Devils at Cradle



Baby devils with their mum

At the end of that first busy day I found accommodation at the camping ground near the park, I actually stayed in a dorm alone, with the whole place for myself, for $28, my cheapest night in Australia so far, and I slept like a baby!

The next morning I headed to the southern part of the park, which means driving for about two hours, since you must actually drive around the park. I had my coffee in Queenstown, a little mining town where a foreigner is spotted within seconds of his arrival, a quiet, friendly place. Then I made a few stops on my way. The road is amazing, you can do little walks and visit waterfalls, climb to lookouts over the valley, or just walk in the forest. Finally I arrived in Lake St Clair and still had time for more walking. I did the “Aboriginal walk”, or Larmairremener tabelti, dedicated to the homonymous Aboriginal group who used to live there before the British colons expropriated them and deported them to Flinders Island (Northeast of Tasmania), where they died of disease and starvation.

Larmairremener tabelti

I was a bit disappointed with the walk itself because it was raining and - perhaps because the vegetation is denser - you don’t see many animals, unlike the northern part of the park. However, at the end of my hike, just as I was approaching the lake, it suddenly stopped raining and I was rewarded with a rainbow on the other shore. J

Lake St Clair after rain

The next day I drove to Mt Field National Park, my last stop in the wild Tasmanian West. Again, the road to get there is just beautiful; you pass rivers, waterfalls, and the landscape changes constantly. You hear nothing but the birds, very few cars drive this road.

 

Russell Falls

 

On my fourth day I drove to the East coast, to the Tasman Peninsula (most of which is also a national park). They call that area the “convict trail” because of its rich convict history. The remains of those times can be visited at Port Arthur (also a world heritage site), a beautiful place (you could never guess the harsh lives that were lived here) and also a renowned haunted one! I went to a ghost tour at night and heard lots of stories. However, much scarier than the tour was driving back to my hotel (I’m staying 13km away from Port Arthur): I could spot lots of animals, both dead on the road and moving on its sides or even crossing it and I was afraid that I might run over one (dead or alive, you sure don’t want to bump your car into a wallaby, it’s still a big animal), so I had to drive veeeeeeeery slowly…

 

Port Arthur. The building on the right used to be the prison

 

Melbourne

Melbourne is a gourmet's paradise. It can't compete with Sydney in terms of natural beauty, but it's a vibrant city with lots of cafes, restaurants, bars, shops, galleries, parks,... Today I had breakfast at Queen Victoria Market, where there's a huge organic section full of yummy stuff. I was seating outside and a lady a few tables farther was smoking a cigarette, I could see how she got some bad looks. I realised I haven't seen many people smoking since I arrived here, at least nothing compared to Europe.

 

 

 

On my way back to downtown I stopped at the Melbourne Visitor Centre and picked up a couple of cultural agendas, it's just amazing how much there is to do here. Among other things, the Melbourne Festival starts on the 11th October and there's a Greek Film Festival starting in one week (Melbourne having an important population of Greek descent). I won't be able to attend either of them, as tomorrow is my last day in Melbourne. I had wanted to go to the Yarra Valley for some wine tasting but none of the tours I found fully convinced me, so I guess it will be another coffee/dumplings/pumpkin bread day... Then in the evening I'll take the ferry to Tasmania, arriving on Thursday morning. I saw the forecast and the weather there is still chilly, I just hope it won't rain too much as I plan to do some trekking...  

 

Kangaroos!!

Today after I visited the War Memorial I took a pathway towards Mt Ainslie lookout for the views over Canberra, when suddenly...

 

 

 

Cultural stop: Canberra

On Friday morning I woke up early to take the bus to Canberra. As you head south from Sydney the landscape remains very green and I was hoping I would spot my first kangaroo. After two hours or so, I did: a dead baby kangaroo on the side of the motorway :( Canberra reminds me of Brasília, in a way: modern architecture, well-planned, endless avenues, enormous parks crossed by wide lakes... I find no charm in this kind of cities but the thing that brought me here was not such much Canberra itself, but rather 3 of its museums, the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery (which has the largest aboriginal art collection in the world) and the War Memorial. Aside from the MONA, in Hobart, these are all the museums I plan to visit during my stay, so far I've visited the first two and I wasn't disappointed. Otherwise, the city is quite pleasant - though I wouldn't like to live here, especially when you know that Sydney is only three and a half hours away! - and again, the high standard of living of Australia becomes evident as soon as you go out in the street.

On my arrival to Canberra I visited the national Parliament. I was surprised that you can go in just like that and wander around, all you have to do is pass a security check at the entry and then you're free to walk around once inside. I had completely forgotten that the Head of State of Australia is... the British monarch, which I find surprising for such a modern society, and an interference in their sovereignty, as the Queen does have powers...

My room mates (I'm sharing a room in a youth hostel, since the next option was a lousy hotel for more than $100 a night!) have warned me they're going to a wedding tonight, that's what they're here for (how weird, to see people dressing up and getting all fancy in a place like a youth hostel) and they might come back drunk (at least they're honest), I hope I'll be able to sleep! Tomorrow is my last day here, I still have the huge War Memorial to visit and in the evening I'll take a night bus to Melbourne, where I'll arrive on Monday morning.

On the Aborigines

An important section of the National Museum of Australia looks into the history, art, culture and beliefs of the first Australians and the peoples of the Torres Strait.
When it comes to the complicated issue of the arrival of the Europeans in the late 18th century and their encounter with the people who had been living here for more than 50000 years, I didn't read the word "genocide" anywhere, even though that is exactly what happened, particularly in certain areas of the country, such as Tasmania (I now realise that I, perhaps as many Europeans, tended to associate the Aborigines with the desert and saw them as an homogeneous group, but actually they live everywhere across the country and there are hundreds of groups and languages, although they all share common beliefs, a strong connection to nature and the same perception of the universe). There is, yes, a sort of mea culpa, but is it an institutional mea culpa, or a truly, heart-felt mea culpa? I'd have to stay in Australia for much longer to find out. The museum acknowledges all the horrible crimes perpetrated until the 1970s, the humiliations, alienation, the children taken from their families by missionaries to be "civilised" (I remember an excellent movie I saw about this topic years ago: "Rabbit proof fence"), the fact that first Australians didn't become citizens until 1967 with the passing of a referendum, and there is a video with the 2008 official apology speech by the Prime Minister. I want to believe that white Australians sincerely feel sorry for the crimes committed by their ancestors. Meanwhile, regardless of forgiveness, the suffering of so many thousands of people for 2 centuries cannot be erased, it is engraved in this land and in those who suffered, like a scar... Just as in many other parts of the world where horrible things happened. What can the victims and perpetrators - or their descendants - of these crimes do, except cry and say sorry, sorry, over and over again?

 

Sydney, day 2

I woke up early due to jet lag and went to the supermarket at 7 a.m (yes, it was open!) before my Opera House guided tour. The tour lasted almost one hour and I got to see 2 of the main halls, the Concert Hall and the Opera room. The building is simply stunning, it's still so avant-garde today that it's hard to imagine the impact it must have had when it was inaugurated back in the 70s... I couldn't afford a concert, but thanks to the excellent and witty guide I got to know everything, anecdotes included, about the Opera House. Then I took a ferry to Manly, crossing Sydney Harbour for 30 minutes.
Manly is a high-scale area full of posh houses with lush gardens overlooking the bay. There are two scenic walks which offer amazing views of the bay and the city far away. I imagine that if you have lived in such a place there's no other place on Earth you'd rather live. The centre of Sydney is only a 30min ferry ride away and yet you feel as if you're in another world: amazing gardens, forests with lovely paths, secluded beaches, almost no traffic noise or even no noise at all, except the birds and the sea.

At the end of my 1st walk I was lucky enough to meet two elderly couples who offered me a ride back to Manly Wharf. They were well-travelled and wanted to know everything about home. Two of them, a Scot and an Italian, had emigrated to Australia by boat 50 years ago, the Italian guy still had his thick accent and when I told him I understood Italian he couldn't stop talking :-) Four lovely people.

After my second walk, no couples with a car to save me here!, I took a bus back to the centre, crossing Harbour Bridge. It was already dark and they had turned the lights of the Opera House on. Obviously, I've fallen in love with the Opera House...

Manly Beach

View from North Head, Manly

Manly

Pacific Ocean meets the bay of Sydney

Australia, first impressions

I arrived to Sydney in the early morning of Australian labour day after a 15h20min flight from Abu Dhabi, the longest in my life. I took a train to my hotel area and as I got to the reception at 7 something in the morning, completely jet lagged, my worst fears came true: I would have to wait till 2p.m, their check in time, for a room to be vacant. When I said that I had been travelling for more than 26 hours and desperately needed a bed, the lady replied she knew what it was like, "We're Australians". As she pronounced these words it suddenly occurred to me that yes, I was in Sydney. For some reason, maybe because travel is so easy and fast these days, I always need some time to realise that I am indeed there.

So there I was, with 7 hours ahead of me before check in. I decided to cross the Botanic Gardens and head to the Opera House to convince my brain that this is indeed Australia. The gardens are beautiful and as I walked I couldn't stop thinking of Stanley Park, in Vancouver. Not because they look similar, but because of the atmosphere, the greenery all around, the contact with the water, people jogging, cycling and rollerskating everywhere, enjoying the sun (it's only the beginning of Spring here in Sydney but it's already pleasantly hot) and the skyscrapers of downtown in the background. And then, as I came to a look-out point of the park, there it was: the stunning Opera House (I must say it looks more beautiful seen from afar than when you're standing next to it) and Harbour Bridge throning above the harbour. I sat on the grass and spent 30 minutes on the phone with an operator with strong Australian accent trying to activate my SIM card (I'm sure that if this conversation was recorded, it will become a "lack of communication case study" for the company) and Korean and Chinese tourists taking pictures like mad with the Opera House and the Bridge. Eventually I fell asleep on a bench and was woken up by a strange noise. As I looked around, there was a bird the size of a stork searching for food on the ground just next to me, doing that noise and looking completely indifferent to my presence just 1m away! I guess they're used to humans. I finally reached the Opera House, which I'll visit tomorrow morning on a guided tour if my jet lag allows me to get up at all, and then crossed the bridge to North Sydney, where I took a ferry back to Circular Quay. The ferries, the presence of the water, the landscape... A huge sense of "quality of life" overwhelmed me, like it happened in Vancouver last year, the feeling that these places were created not to work or produce anything, but only for your pleasure! Of course, I am only a tourist, maybe I would feel differently if I lived here. But it's true that people look relaxed and easy-going... and also very informal, in my first day I've been called darling and sweetie several times (which I love) and - yes - mate.

I finally went back to my hotel and as I got to my room, the inevitable happened: I laid down "only for ten minutes" (we want that jet lag to go away as quickly as possible, don't we, and sleeping during the day doesn't help) but of course I slept for 5 hours like a baby!

So tomorrow it will be Opera House again and then, as a proper boat-freak, I bought a travel card for the time that I'm here, I plan to use ferries as much as I can and it's a cheap way of exploring the harbour.