First Weekend: Sydney Suburbs
Saturday and Sunday I spent venturing outside of Central Sydney to Glebe, Mosman, and Olympic Park, which was recognized as a suburb of Sydney after the Games were over in 2000. It was nice to get out of the highly concentrated tourist areas, because you really don't get the chance to speak to many Australians. Glebe, to me, was a typical "hippie-type" town. They had an outdoor market, and they call the main road "eat street" because it is packed with really trendy and cool small bars, cafes and restaurants. It is right in the middle of two universities, meaning the area caters to a much younger crowd. Maybe this is why I saw less smoking, or maybe I just came on a good day, but I am hoping it is because University-aged students are smarter about what they put into their bodies.
Sydney Olympic Park, honestly, has nothing to do with my Magellan, but I could not pass up the opportunity to see it. The Sydney 2000 Games, 17 years ago, were called by many people "The best games ever." The area that they build all of the arenas and facilities on is so extremely large that, like I said before, it was turned into an actual suburb. The aquatic facility, where Michael Phelps swam in his first Olympics when he was 15, is still in frequent use today, and there was even a swim meet occurring when I was there. If I had grown up swimming in not even an Olympic sized pool, but an actual Olympic Games pool, I probably wouldn't have quit swim team. Just being inside the building and seeing the gigantic scoreboards and stands makes you want to be a gold medalist, so I can't even imagine the drive the kids must have, who train there every day.
I went on a stadium tour of ANZ Stadium, which is where all of the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as all of the track & field events took place. Let me just tell you, the size of this stadium is absolutely enormous. When it was first built, it had 110,000 seats which is about double the size of Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. After the games were over, however, the stadium was modified so that seats could be closer to the actual field, and 26,500 seats were removed, because they just weren't needed anymore. Rugby, soccer, nfl, and ahl still use this field weekly for games, which is great to hear because millions of dollars were spent on this stadium, and it was nice to know it didn't go to waste like so many other Olympic parks.
Sydney Olympic Park, honestly, has nothing to do with my Magellan, but I could not pass up the opportunity to see it. The Sydney 2000 Games, 17 years ago, were called by many people "The best games ever." The area that they build all of the arenas and facilities on is so extremely large that, like I said before, it was turned into an actual suburb. The aquatic facility, where Michael Phelps swam in his first Olympics when he was 15, is still in frequent use today, and there was even a swim meet occurring when I was there. If I had grown up swimming in not even an Olympic sized pool, but an actual Olympic Games pool, I probably wouldn't have quit swim team. Just being inside the building and seeing the gigantic scoreboards and stands makes you want to be a gold medalist, so I can't even imagine the drive the kids must have, who train there every day.
I went on a stadium tour of ANZ Stadium, which is where all of the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as all of the track & field events took place. Let me just tell you, the size of this stadium is absolutely enormous. When it was first built, it had 110,000 seats which is about double the size of Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. After the games were over, however, the stadium was modified so that seats could be closer to the actual field, and 26,500 seats were removed, because they just weren't needed anymore. Rugby, soccer, nfl, and ahl still use this field weekly for games, which is great to hear because millions of dollars were spent on this stadium, and it was nice to know it didn't go to waste like so many other Olympic parks.
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