Museum of Contemporary Art

I've mentioned it before, but there are a ton of museums in Sydney and for the most part they are free!  Right next to the harbor bridge is the museum of Contemporary Art.

I was lucky enough to go when there were two visiting exhibits - contemporary aboriginal art and young Australian breakout artists. The former I can't get enough of; the later was interesting, but I just don't get some of it, you will see why. The aboriginal art is so colorful and there is so much to look at from far and up close.

Here is a close up shot of this painting, its a complex web of tiny dots on top of dots.

This painting was laid out on the floor. It is depicting traditional landscape with the modern world coming in with cars.

Here is an up close of a simple painting. Even the black background are dots. Its amazing the time and detail that goes into these!

And now on to the young Australian artist exhibit. Ummmm, what? I mean I get it, kind of, but why? Grandma's of the next generation will start making quilts like these as family heirlooms.

Again, why? This "quilt" had to have taken some serious time, but it is seriously strange. I bet the artist is a preppy blond girl.

 And this, art. Some people just don't get it.

The permanent portion of the museum has a lot of fun and thought provoking exhibits. I like this superman, but it's a woman!

This one made me laugh. I don't think Americans would hang something like this in their museums, I could be wrong.

I would definitely recommend stopping by this museum when you are exploring the city!  

Sculpture by the Sea

I've been frequenting museums while I still have some free time. (Did I mention yet that I have a job?!?!?!?! I start 24/11!) Most museums here are free, if there is a pay portion it is generally a special exhibition. The culture geared toward learning and making museums available to everyone is pretty incredible.  

Currently the event Sculpture by the Sea is happening in Sydney near Bondi, one of the famous Sydney beaches (did I mention it is FREE). We had heard about the event from many different Australians and it sounded cool, but I didn't realize just how amazing it really was until I experienced it for myself. If you haven't planned a trip and you want to visit us, I would recommend this time next year - its late spring so the weather is beautiful and if your visit coincides with this event you will have a great Sydney experience! 

There are over 100 sculptures along the coast between Bondi and Tamarama beaches. Its about a 2 km (a little more than a mile) stretch. The walk is beautiful on its own, but add the thought provoking and beautiful sculptures and its stunning. 

The start of the walk, The Iceburg's at Bondi

I'll post some of the photos I took here, but do your self a favour and google image search "Sculpture by the Sea Bondi" and see some of the previous years works - melting ice cream truck, massive toothpaste tube, faucet flowing into the ocean - the creativity is pretty amazing. 

These were my favourites. I was so into this one that I didn't even really focus on taking a photo. The wood it is carved out of is massive. I have a hard time imagining the amount of work that went into completing this. 

This one was also beautiful. Walking around it the reflection would change. The circle actually changes directions and there is other unpolished detail in the closer photo.  

I had seen pictures of this one online before I saw it in person. It reminded me of a slinky. As you walk around it, you see a new and different sculpture.  

This is the perfect place for this wooden whale.

I almost didn't see this peacock. It almost blends in with the bright sun. Its tucked in a tiny corner of Tamarama beach. My Grandma used to have peacocks, so I of course know my family will love this one. 

 

Now on to the experience. This is an overview picture toward the end of the walk toward Tamarama beach. You can see just how many sculptures there are.  

I love this rhino on the beach. 

This is a fan favorite. A big fry pan that really makes you think about what all those bronzed beach goers are doing frying in the sun. Its pretty cool.  

My 10 year old humor loves what number this older man is going to represent :)

Looking though this sculpture you can see the massive rainbow sculpture at the front of the beach. 

I like this one, I wanted to love it, but I just couldn't. I do think it is creative and funny. Its made of lipstick. 

Which way is the horse going???

I was talking to a staff member and these dudes were one of his favourites. The sculpture is called "what you looking at" but we think it should be called "bogans." It makes me laugh too. 

This one was also really cool. Its a massive rock cut into pieces and polished in some areas. 

So simple, but beautiful.

I love this one - the saltwater pools are everywhere in Sydney and so Aussie (at least I think they are). 

There is one stretch that has these massive piles of colorful trash. These are bottle caps all strung together with other trash and filled with trash also. It really makes you think. 

This sculpture sits right on the point looking out across the ocean. I am sure it is beautiful at night, sunrise and sunset. 

Last one, these are everywhere on the side of a cliff. There is something to look at every time you turn a corner.  

I'll definitely be going again so that Chris can see it. I think I might try to get out there for sunrise one morning - 6 am yikes, but I feel like I need to experience a sunrise at the beach before I start working and why not see this again also.

I hope the artists and organizers know how special this event is! 

Rugby 7s in the Gold Coast

On our road trip through the States (well before we got to Australia) we got an email from Oscar about a Rugby 7s getaway with some of his mates (yep I said it). He basically said, you're going, its going to be awesome. He didn't need to twist our arms, we were all in. The weekend did not disappoint! Our trip to the Hong Kong 7s in March is being discussed - if you are interested, let me know!

I didn't know much about rugby before this weekend (and I'm not gonna lie, I still don't know that much, but I can hold my own now). Seven's is a different variety of the traditional rugby I had seen, it much more fast paced that typical 15s. There are two 7 minute halves with 7 players on the field for each team. This was a tournament, so there were games from about 9am to 8pm Saturday and Sunday.

The other awesome thing about the weekend is that everyone dresses up. Australian's love a good costume, we should do more of this in the states! Probably 90% of attendees are dressed up. I tried to snap a few photos of great costumes, but I had just gotten the iPhone 6 and was terrified of drunkly shattering it.

Here are our costumes in all their glory - grass skirts, umbrella hats and AUSTRALIA love, oh and Matt's monkey. My sorority days came in handy with the painting of these letters.

Put some bottoms on Jules! 

We had a great time also spelling other words.

Our boys did not disappoint! 

And as the day went on there was a little of this... The other favourite was two A's (AA) walking around together with massive amount of drinks in hand.

These boys had a strong neon Sunday showing.  My other best dressed were entire family of about 15 that dressed up in different Alice in Wonderland charters. Then there were a group of Umpa Lumpa's with Willy Wonka.

Sunday Funday with these bros all in neon - there were about 25 of them 

This poor dude was at his bachelor party...and his lovely friends dressed him.

Not a great photo, but you can see how everyone is dressed up - crayons and pirates

Enough of costumes, back to the rugby. Here is America warming up. It was really cool to be able to get up close and personal to the teams for warm-ups!

I had, I man have, a serious crush on this dude.

Here are the Kenyan's - These dudes are HUGE! They had a massive support section in tow, but didn't prevail.

I don't know what this is called, when they lift someone up to catch the incoming ball, but I thought it was funny. Here are the South African making it look easy!

And then America won! Well, they won their pool, which I think was the third teir group, but they still won. So clearly I decided to take some selfies with them. I'm officially the worst selfie taker....there is no reason the person taking a selfie should not be in the photo or smiling....I have some work to do

These Aussies were obsessed with Carlin Isles (left) - the fastest man in 7s 

Carlin Isles is an native of Ohio. He is a fast dude and people love to watch him and heckle him if he is not running fast enough.

Thanks to Matt (bottom right) for not making me feel so creepy hanging out to see my rugby BF.

Other things I noticed at my first rugby tournament - the kiss cam or fan cam is awesome in Australia - anything goes - I mean anything. People would be kicked out of the venue in the states for way less. I tried to record some of it, but no luck.

Oh yeah, in between games we got some beach time too.

The gold coast beach goes on forever - its beautiful! 

Shark Alarms

Nothing will make you feel more like an Australian than a shark alarm!

On Sunday we headed to Coogee Beach to enjoy the 90 degree weather. We got to the beach a bit late and it was jam packed. Tons of people soaking up rays, playing in the water enjoying the waves and some swimmers past the break getting some exercise. It was a perfect day.

looking South, the saltwater pool is perfect!

Packed beach!

All of the sudden alarms started sounding - the alarms are loud. They sound like tornado alarms, but louder (at least louder than the ones I have heard). At first we had no idea what they meant, my first reaction was to run from a tsunami (hahaha), but everyone on the beach stood up and looked toward the water, parents darted toward the water to grab their kids and everyone got out of the water as fast as they possibly could. We quickly realized shark alarm.

Everyone Standing, just staring at the water, looking for a shark

The lifeguards were on patrol in the water with a few jet skis and inflatable boats (you can see one below); they were also stationed every 100 feet or so on the beach to keep people out of the water. They picked up the swimmers that were too far out and dropped them off at shore. A bigger boat came a while later and they kept scanning to water for about 20 minutes.

Jet Ski is about center, near the rocks

Then all the sudden the boats disappeared, a lifeguard came on the loud speaker and thanked everyone for their patience during the search and deemed the water safe. People did not walk, they ran, back into the water. I stayed out with my ass in the sand.

I'm glad no one was hurt, it was an interesting experience to see, that is for sure. I would say the mood at first was tense, but everyone was calm. Once the last swimmer was out, I think people were kind of hoping to see a shark.