2004-2005 Australia Trip, part 10
It's now Monday the 27th and as we find out, still a holiday. Because Australia celebrates both Christmas and Boxing Day, and those both occurred on the weekend, the holidays extended through Tuesday. It was starting to drive us nuts. Don't need a bank at this time of year! Barb and I decide to head a few blocks away into the Haymarket area, to Paddy's Market. (http://www.paddysmarkets.com.au/PaddysMarket.html) The lower level of this place is like a combination farmers market and flea market, although the farmers market is not very active today. It is a great place to get Aussie souvenirs for less. I start checking out the Aboriginal design t-shirts but Barb finds an opal dealer. His opals were beautiful, large and fortunately, reasonably priced. Barb did purchase from him. I ended up getting some really nice t-shirts, bull roarers and boomerangs at the best prices I had seen so far. Most of the boomerangs available were probably poor returners but there were hundreds of them. If you couldn't find a boomerang here, you never would. I am really pleased with the aboriginal design shirts, and tried to make sure that the ones I bought we licensed that the aborigines got paid for part of the sale.
From there we headed to the shops at Darling Harbor. There was a really great store, the Gavala Aboriginal Art & Cultural Centre, (http://www.gavala.com.au/) which was loaded with Aboriginal paintings, didges, boomerangs and almost anything else you could think of. I was eyeing up a really nice natural elbow boomerang that was $55. Now I regret not buying it, since I saw similar ones elsewhere for $80. This one had nice figure in the wood grain. I just wasn't too sure if t would really return, and they frowned on me wanting to take it outside for a test.
After a bite to eat, we hitched a ride on a water taxi, and toured the Sydney tourist sights from the water. It is a special sight to go under the famous harbor bridge and see the Sydney Opera House. It was worth the time and money spent.
On our return we saw a sign for a didge concert at the Northern Territory Aboriginal Center and headed on over. This was a free 30 minute concert and visual display. (www.outbackcentre.com.au) While the performer played, various images of Australia were displayed behind him. The musician was very good and used one had to mimic the animals he was imitating in the didge. This gave us sound, images and hand motions all at once. We got to speak some with him after the performance and discovered he was 50% Aborigine, 25% Scottish and 25% Italian. He said the Italian part allowed him to do the hand motions while playing. He is planning a trip to the US next year, and may need some contacts here. After the concert, Barb and I looked around the store and I tested some didges available in their didgeridoo "forest". I have never seen so many in one place!
Finally it was back to the hotel to get ready for our trip to the outback.
Photo: Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge
From there we headed to the shops at Darling Harbor. There was a really great store, the Gavala Aboriginal Art & Cultural Centre, (http://www.gavala.com.au/) which was loaded with Aboriginal paintings, didges, boomerangs and almost anything else you could think of. I was eyeing up a really nice natural elbow boomerang that was $55. Now I regret not buying it, since I saw similar ones elsewhere for $80. This one had nice figure in the wood grain. I just wasn't too sure if t would really return, and they frowned on me wanting to take it outside for a test.
After a bite to eat, we hitched a ride on a water taxi, and toured the Sydney tourist sights from the water. It is a special sight to go under the famous harbor bridge and see the Sydney Opera House. It was worth the time and money spent.
On our return we saw a sign for a didge concert at the Northern Territory Aboriginal Center and headed on over. This was a free 30 minute concert and visual display. (www.outbackcentre.com.au) While the performer played, various images of Australia were displayed behind him. The musician was very good and used one had to mimic the animals he was imitating in the didge. This gave us sound, images and hand motions all at once. We got to speak some with him after the performance and discovered he was 50% Aborigine, 25% Scottish and 25% Italian. He said the Italian part allowed him to do the hand motions while playing. He is planning a trip to the US next year, and may need some contacts here. After the concert, Barb and I looked around the store and I tested some didges available in their didgeridoo "forest". I have never seen so many in one place!
Finally it was back to the hotel to get ready for our trip to the outback.
Photo: Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge
Added on August 28, 2006 by bvdrangs
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