You see the photo with the office buildings? That's the CBD, the central business district. In front of the buildings is Circular Quay, the ferry terminal, which you can see up close in the photo with the ferries and the Harbour Bridge as a backdrop. The left side of Circular Quay has a few apartment buildings, ending in the Sydney Opera House, and behind that is the Domain and Royal Botanical Gardens, which you saw in the previous post. And the right side of Circular Quay is the Rocks, which we just left. Circular Quay is, as you can see, not circular, and pronounced funnily (like Key). It's also ground zero of tourist Sydney, with the bridge, opera house and a ferry ride being the only must do things in Sydney. But it's also the main commuter center for the city, since all the ferries and the train terminate here.



Just between us, I think the Opera House is very overrated. From a distance, such as in Somchai's beautiful photo, it looks very avant-garde and striking, but up close it's very clearly a product of its decade, the seventies. I really like the design, but the materials, concrete and brown tinted glass, and the horrible tiles covering the place which look like kitchen linoleum, really need a makeover.