We decided to head over to Newtown, an area Helen had visited before and is built up to be a more artsy district with vintage clothing and second hand book shops lining the streets along with eateries, café’s and bars. It’s definitely a more eclectic place especially if you’re looking to escape the city vibe. We started our day at The University of Sydney, there was an exhibition taking place there as part of the Sydney Festival 2012 which was free involving the architecture and space of certain buildings and galleries on campus. It was a modernist walk across the campus involving contemporary installations by artist Narelle Jubelin.

The exhibition titled Vision in Motion was inspired by some of the distinctive, modernist buildings including The Chemistry Lecture Theatres, The University Art Gallery and in the windows from Sci-Tech Library. We really enjoyed taking it all in and gave us an alternative take on the space around us. Walking back through Newtown we enjoyed drinks at the popular Café Newtown and a spot of window shopping.

Back in the City we enjoyed a trip into the Sydney MCA which currently under construction only has one floor open to the public but it’s not about quantity. The interactive exhibition ‘Recorders’ by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was fantastic, full of fun and intrigue. God only knows what happens with those recordings but they now have our thumb prints, eye scans, heart beats, shadows and voices recorded as part of a human documentation, this is more than an art exhibition.

The next morning we sorted out a repair job for our Leica camera which thanks to Foto Riesel was organised and sent to Melbourne for repair. We only had to pay $22 for the postage in the end and the repair was done under warranty so we were pretty relieved about that. I guess there should be some bonuses for being Leica owners! We were told we may even get it back by the end of the week which was way more than we expected AND to top it all off they lent us one of their loan cameras which mean’t we would be able to take at least a few lovely shots from our time in Sydney.

Later on we took the metro to Bondi Junction and a bus to Bondi Beach where with packed and weighted backpacks we walked to Bronte Bay and back. It’s one of those must-do things when people come to Sydney and so we joined all the hundred or so other runners, speed-walkers and general sight seers on this famous coastline. It is a pretty part of Sydney with smooth rock formations, accessible beaches, swimming pools and big, expensive houses to keep us entertained. This was part of our training for our hike, got to get in the walks when we can! When we got back to Kirribilli later on we decided to eat at our local Thai ‘Stir-Crazy’. Lovely food of which there was more than enough for us to take home for the next day and a great atmosphere. This place is packed nearly every night of the week.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)