While Andrew and I were living in London we were real touristy tourists. We visited museums, we went to exhibitions and we explored London. I had a list!

When we returned to Sydney I was a bit worried about our homecoming. I was worried that I was going to be bored in Sydney. There is so much to do in London! So many free museums and heaps of cool and quirky events. It's also just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Continent. So if you couldn't find something to do in London you could always hop across the pond and visit another city and another culture.

So, I decided that when we returned we had to be tourists in our own city. The decision hasn't resulted in much action yet though. We'll get there eventually.

Our first attempt at Operation: Explore Sydney was checking out Vivid Sydney. It was on during the time of crazy uni exam stress so we had to squeeze it in. On Vivid's last Friday we headed over to Macquarie Street after work to have a look. This year's theme was Macquarie's Visions. Light shows which explored the contributions made by Governor Macquarie and his wife to the growth of Australia as a nation were projected on to St Mary's Cathedral, Hyde Park Barracks, The Mint, Parliament House, The State Library and The Conservatory of Music. Macquarie is known as the Father of Australia and he played a big role in the transition of Australia from a penal colony to a free settlement. The light shows not only made the buildings look pretty but they were also interesting and educational.

Some of the patterns projected on St Mary's Cathedral were really beautiful. I wish it looked like that all the time!



I was surprised by the number of people who were also out and walking the route. Even though it was quite chilly there were lots of photographers, families with young children and heaps of senior citizens. It's obviously a popular event.

After we finished the route we walked down to the rocks to check out the projections on the Opera House. There doesn't seem to be any sort of theme to the projections on the sails. They only changed every 5 minutes or so, which wasn't often enough for me. It was too cold to stick around for the full rotation so after checking out a few of them we headed home.

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.