First Day in Australia

We finally arrived in Sydney today after roughly 30 hours of travel. It was a long trip, but I have no doubts it will be worth it. In Sydney we took no time to delay. We dropped our luggage off at the YHA hostel where we are staying, and then set off to explore. We took a bit of a walk around, then made it to the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corp.) memorial. Then it was off to the Hyde Park Barracks. This is where convicts were brought in to Sydney and served time for a variety of crimes. Hyde Park is one of the least severe place for convicts to be sent, regarding punishments that are given to convicts. Still though, some of their punishments are still harsh. For example convicts could be strung up and whipped for seemingly minor trespasses. At Hyde Park we learned about the different purposes the building served: as a basic prison, home for Irish women, as well as a governmental building. We also got a chance to experience a bit of what it was like to live as a convict at Hyde Park. The convicts would sleep in hammocks in a crowded room, and there was a room set up with hammocks that we could try out. It is hard to imagine sleeping in such conditions. There would be a hammock set up with another hammock above and a person laying on the floor below, it was crowded to say the least. Next we went to the Australian Museum. Here we learned a wide variety of information about the indigenous people of Australia, as well as some other natural history of Australia. It is amazing to learn about how well the indigenous people know the land that they inhabit and how close their relationship to nature is. Their paintings at first glance are beautiful abstract works of art, but a lot of them are actually maps of the land showing land marks and their relative location to other landmarks. As a whole it has been a busy couple of days, but we made it! Now let the fun begin!

-Kathleen D.