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Australia travelogue: part 1
OK! So, as promised, pics and storytelling to follow.
So, after going through customs and immigration and all that, and finding my way downtown and checking into the hostel, I set out to explore Sydney. Which seemed like any other big city at first, until I got to the park and saw this:
The GIANT BATS in the Botanical Gardens the next day were another surprise:
I saw Faustus at Sydney Opera House, which was, unfortunately, rather odd. It was billed as an "adaptation" of Marlowe's play, and the first hour was fine: basically, a really stripped-down and heavily cut version, with some nice staging moments (Faustus first appears as a paunchy middle-aged man, in a grey wig and spectacles. When he signs his soul over, a curtain drops. In silhouette, you see female demons stripping him down. And then a young, sexy Faustus emerges, with a mirror. And he can't stop looking at himself.)
Then, rather randomly, the adaptor decided to splice in a big chunk of a modern-English translation of Goethe. So all of a sudden, the play turned into this whole soap opera about Faustus's love affair with this girl named Gretchen. In rhymed couplets. It SO did not go together. And then there was a random chunk of Paradise Lost, and some bits from the Bible, and then for some reason Faustus recited "Batter my heart, three-personed God." And then we were back to Marlowe for the last ten minutes. By that time I was totally distracted wondering what they were going to throw in next, which was a shame, because the Marlowe parts were actually quite good.
The next day I took the bus to Canberra, which is a rather confusing city of concentric circles. It was also where I went hiking and saw my first kangaroos:
The parrots were also a highlight.
So then I took the overnight bus to Melbourne, which was enough to convince me that I'm getting too old for overnight buses. I had a seat to myself, so I could sort of curl up, but it was still not at all comfortable, and very cold to boot. We went through Wagga Wagga at midnight, but I didn't see any werewolves.
So, after going through customs and immigration and all that, and finding my way downtown and checking into the hostel, I set out to explore Sydney. Which seemed like any other big city at first, until I got to the park and saw this:
The GIANT BATS in the Botanical Gardens the next day were another surprise:
I saw Faustus at Sydney Opera House, which was, unfortunately, rather odd. It was billed as an "adaptation" of Marlowe's play, and the first hour was fine: basically, a really stripped-down and heavily cut version, with some nice staging moments (Faustus first appears as a paunchy middle-aged man, in a grey wig and spectacles. When he signs his soul over, a curtain drops. In silhouette, you see female demons stripping him down. And then a young, sexy Faustus emerges, with a mirror. And he can't stop looking at himself.)
Then, rather randomly, the adaptor decided to splice in a big chunk of a modern-English translation of Goethe. So all of a sudden, the play turned into this whole soap opera about Faustus's love affair with this girl named Gretchen. In rhymed couplets. It SO did not go together. And then there was a random chunk of Paradise Lost, and some bits from the Bible, and then for some reason Faustus recited "Batter my heart, three-personed God." And then we were back to Marlowe for the last ten minutes. By that time I was totally distracted wondering what they were going to throw in next, which was a shame, because the Marlowe parts were actually quite good.
The next day I took the bus to Canberra, which is a rather confusing city of concentric circles. It was also where I went hiking and saw my first kangaroos:
The parrots were also a highlight.
So then I took the overnight bus to Melbourne, which was enough to convince me that I'm getting too old for overnight buses. I had a seat to myself, so I could sort of curl up, but it was still not at all comfortable, and very cold to boot. We went through Wagga Wagga at midnight, but I didn't see any werewolves.
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