A Night to Remember

Last night was incredible! We made dinner, got changed and walked down to the opera house.

Before I go on there are a few things I should tell those who have never been to Sydney.

Number one, it gets dark here really early. This makes two things difficult: staying up late enough to adjust to the time change and stating warm, as it gets cold much earlier.

Number two, this place is basically an Australian new York city. Roads are winding and everyone drives backwards making it difficult to get you bearings. Also, none of the streets have numbers, just names, so bring your map! This place is packed with people! There are people running, going to work, having coffee at a streetside cafe and biking everywhere.

Number three, the Sydney opera house is incredibly beautiful and detailed up close. There are a few things David and I noticed when we were there for the ben folds show last night. The entire outside of the opera house is covered in white ceramic tile which gives it the appearance of having scales which I talked about in my last post. Each shell houses something different. The largest shell contains the main concert hall and the two attached to it on either end are it's lobbies which also contain bars. The shell seperate from the others is actually one of the most beautiful restaurants you will ever see. It has full glass walls and a massive vaulted ceiling which allows you to see all of downtown. The last thing I will tell you about is the Sydney opera bar. At night the lower level outside of the opera house turns into a bustling, well dressed group of people all there for a drink or a chat. Many of them are the after work crowd (could you imagine being able to do that everyday!) or those waiting to get into a show and there are slot as there are five concert halls.

Ok back to our night. The reason we had gone to the opera house in the first place was to see ben folds do his solo act. Being in the actual concert hall was unreal, especially because the seats were all bright pink and you realize you are in the biggest shell. The opening band was a band called No Mercy from Melnourne. They were a really mellow indie band that sounded great. Then ben came out and the crowd went crazy! He made us laugh all night and at one point he had the entire crowd singing three part hamony... In the opera house! He had a suprise guest come out on stage too... Amy Mann! It was so cool. The entire thing was done with just ben and his grande piano in the centre of the stage. At the end of the show we managed to (after alot of effort) catch a cab home and pass out.

We are off to bondi now!

Talk to you soon!

D&S