changing attitudes

I slept in this morning. guess I was lonely, or bored

when I did eventually roll out of bed, I craved food, and an excuse to explore the city a little.

perhaps it was the sheer number of people scurrying around me as I walked throughout the center of the city, or maybe it was the lack of caffeine in my system (haven't had a coffee since Wednesday); but for some reason, I was getting very used to the idea of TOTALLY HATING SYDNEY. People aren't friendly in the centre of the city, there's an alarming number of them talking/texting on their phones whilst walking (it's a Saturday people, I don't believe for a second that you have absolutely, positively; got to make a phone call while you're walking), and for some reason the city just gave off a dirty/mean vibe. It's also not very clean (could just be that it was a Saturday afternoon, but there was a large amount of rubbish all over the central city areas).

Things began to change as I approached "circular quay". Sure it's kind of a touristy-place, but as I rounded the bend to be greeted by the world famous opera house, I started to get it. By the time I'd wandered through the botanical gardens and seen the hundreds of couples/families/groups all having an amazing day in the gorgeous weather... well I could start to see how people fall in love with the city.

I continued my walk, heading south-east toward fox studios; and although I was only 2-streets east of where I had walked into the city, everything was different.

sure, there were still hundreds of people yakking away on their phones, but they didn't seem to be as hurried and stressed. All the people that dressed-to-impress (whether goth, or bogan, or polished, or grunge-d; metro-ed, or retro-ed, or "what-the-hell-is-THAT?"), became a cosmopolitan mix of hundreds of little groups, finely defined and accepted (don't know which group I belong to yet - confused-medium-sized-city-film-technician-tourist perhaps?)

As I wound my way through some of the "better" inner-city suburbs, I could see the attraction of living here (although forget about parking a car on the streets... IMPOSSIBLE)

when starting out this afternoon, I was ready to hate it here, now I'm slightly changed in my opinion, I still prefer Brisbane (nothing compares), but now, after my 10+km walk, I can at least UNDERSTAND why people love it in Sydney.

NO photos this afternoon, as I felt it important to not focus on being a tourist (though I was scoping out the nice photogenic places - and I've got a feeling that It'll be quite fun with my camera in this city.)

Ian