Harbour Bridge, Sydney, NSW, Australia. January 1993
"Time, time, time - look what's become of me" - Hazy Shade of Winter (Simon & Garfunkel)
My first visit to Sydney was tacked onto the end of the Big New Zealand Adventure. That part of the world was very distant at the time (Brian and I lived in New York). Maybe it was a combination of the flight to Auckland being via Sydney, and "will we ever pass this way again?" (if we'd only known in the not distant future we'd visit nearly all of Australia!!).
What is funny is how little I remember of my first visit to Australia and its largest and most famous city. We stayed outside of downtown in Paddington (countless cheap places to eat) and took the bus or maybe a train to Circular Quay. From there we walked down around "the Rocks" (which I liked) and took in the views of Sydney Harbour which must be one of the most beautiful in the world. I was truly impressed, yet it didn't make an indelible impression - at least not like other famous cities, which I still remember in great detail. Nothing bad happened on that visit to Sydney - I simply do not remember much of it.
We did climb to the top of the Harbour Bridge (that was an amazing experience, but I don't remember it except for photos). We strolled around the Opera House, swarming with Japanese tourists. At the time Australia was the top destination for Japanese tourists to the point that most of the signage in popular tourists spots was also in Japanese. The Royal Botanic Garden was gorgeous - I vaguely recall. The ferry to Manly with its famous beach was truly lovely. Why are my memories more a series of snapshots or a "list of locations" without detail?
I actually had another trip to Sydney a few years later from Jakarta. We were just staying a couple days as part of a trip elsewhere in Australia. We were there over Christmas Day and saw "Rent". (I must have been the only person alive who loathed that very loud and unimaginative musical). Again, I don't remember much of that visit either, except the sheer frustration of being in Australia on a major holiday and the difficulty of finding something to do. Even that is a clearer memory than the first visit and we only stayed a short time.
My theory is that perhaps with my hippocampus FULL of incredible experiences in New Zealand and our frequent talks with others about them. it was only those memories that migrated to "long term memory". Take note, I remember MUCH more about New Zealand than I do about the few days we spent in Sydney (which we were equally excited about and enjoyed). When I taught at AUK, in a bid to make sense to students of why they should NOT cram and try to hold everything in "short term memory", I did basic research into memory formation. Indeed, first impressions (seeds of memory) are processed and retained in our hippocampi. Like a computer RAM, things need to either move to the hard drive (long-term memory) or get purged so the device can continue to function. Were my New Zealand memories so much more exciting that they simply drove the memories of Sydney out of my brain in a routine memory purge? Why don't I remember a visit to a place I had always dreamed of going?
I feel robbed in a way. I visited one of the world's most beautiful cities and retain only spotty memories of it. I have forgotten much about other travels, too (again, a reason to start to write things down), but the failure to remember Sydney feels like an absolute loss. I feel both cheated and robbed because I really did go there (TWICE) and I can barely tell anyone anything about it.
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