Botanical Gardens and the Aroma Festival

This weekend was full of adventure. Tom and I started out by checking out an auction with little success. There was not much interesting other than this car along the way.

From there we headed to the city for a walk through the Botanical Gardens. On the way I found a nice example of what I like about the Sydney downtown. A few old houses right next to a skyscraper, around the back was a museum or gallery.

I really wanted to see the fruit bats and cockatoos, so as soon as we got there I began my search. The gardens are huge and I really loved that you could walk and sit on the grass. A big difference from the Public Gardens in Halifax.

Right at the entrance was an installation. Each stand had a very detailed model of a famous building that was war related, i.e. the Pentagon, the Arc de Triomphe. Due to a low battery I didn't take any close ups, which on reflection would have been really good.

Some of the paths were very jungley, as we walked through these I was madly looking around for fruit bats.

When we got to some slightly higher ground I spotted my first one. In seconds I say my first hundred. They were everywhere in the trees but weren't really visible till you knew where and what to look for.  Can you spot the other 20 bats just under this one? hint* At first they look like shadows in the tree.

With the flying foxes found my next goal was the cockatoos. Tom and I found them down by the water. I managed to get close enough to a couple for some good shots.

This one kept edging around the fence as I crept toward it.

Further walking towards the harbour found us a giant moving flower!

Right next to it was this funny looking bird. 

As we left the Gardens we passed a flock of cockatoos. When a bird flew in from somewhere else they would call to the others. Then it would join the others as they walked along the ground eating the grass. They looked a bit like a mini-feathered heard of cows with a mob of humans following them around taking pictures. 

The beautiful sounds of a cockatoo. 

The city!

In contrast with the loveliness of the cockatoos, Tom and I got to experience what it's like to get hassled by birds right after leaving the Gardens. We stopped to get a snack and sat down to eat in a common eating area. Unfortunately the people at the bench next to us started feeding the seagulls. Which then resulted in them getting aggressive with us swooping over my shoulder to get at Tom's food and nearly hitting me in the face with their wings. They got worse when we left, following us and more frantically swooping at us. One even manged to go between our heads and snap at Tom's food in his hand. Kind of impressive, mostly annoying.

One of the culprits. grrr. 

We checked out part of the Sydney Biennale at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was very good. I particularly liked how it looked like this sculpture was attacking the opera house.

The tents behind it were part of the set up for the next day's Aroma Festival. Speaking of which, Tom and I went to. It was waaay bigger that I thought and absolutely packed. It turned out to be a collection of coffee and various chocolate, cupcakes and food stalls. Most of them were a bit on the expensive side but it did smell very very good. Side note* the familiar looking man in the lower right hand corner is Tom's brother Max showing a strong family resemblance.

We walked up this street and I got very hungry from all the yummy smells. 

This festival was in The Rocks, which is the oldest part of Sydney and the site of the original landing. This area has some really beautiful old buildings and little alley ways. Now it's filled with very expensive stores and restaurants.

This little guy just keeps popping up.