St. Mary's and the RBG

I had seen this church on my visit to Hyde Park on the first weekend in Sydney. The name was St. Mary's and I had thought even then that it was a beautiful church. I decided to attend a mass this weekend to see the inside of the church and to see what a mass was like in Sydney.

Thoughts on mass:
- Listening to mass in an Australian accent kind of cracks me up. It just doesn't sound like church, and it's difficult to take the priest seriously.
- St. Mary's is a gorgeous cathedral! While I didn't take a lot of photos, I was able to snap a few. Check Picasa if you'd like to see them.
- I don't feel that Australian's are huge into religion. There were hardly 250 people in this mass, and the church was larger than the Basilica. It seemed empty, and almost sad.
- We had joked about/discussed the lack of organization that Australian's seemed to have. This didn't stop at church, either. When going to receive communion in American church, things are very orderly, there are sometimes even usher's telling rows when they can go up to receive communion. Not in Australia. It's more so "go as you please". I found it interesting that even the Priest was giving communion, and even more interesting that I was able to receive communion from the Priest. That was pretty special.

I'm happy I went, and just like when I left to go to Australia, I'll be going to church the Sunday before I leave (next Sunday) to pray for safe travels home.

St. Mary's is located right near the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG). I have a photo of myself in Australia five years ago from a point called Mrs. Macquarie's Chair. In the spirit of watching the passage of time, I decided to head back to this point to get a photo of myself again. Last time I was at the RBG, five years ago, we did not take the time to walk around the gardens. Today, I decided to do so! I hadn't realized just how big the Royal Botanical Gardens really are. There were quite hilarious signs that were inviting visitors to walk on the grass and hug a tree. I walked on the grass, but never hugged a tree. :( Oh well. Throughout the gardens there were different themes (there were trees, plants, some flowers, etc): tropical, roses, endangered and threatened, and then just "lower gardens" and I think a "side garden" section. These lower and side just included species from all over the world that didn't need special conditions to grow.

As a shout out to my mother, I am sorry that there are yet again so many pictures of trees. The trees down here really are just spectacular, Mom, and if you had a camera in your hand and saw the greatness of them, you'd take a million pictures too! At least this time I tried to switch up the species of the tree, instead of just taking pictures of the same kinds of trees!!! :)

I was going to try to go to Centennial Park today as well (a park with a lot of Victorian Era statues in it), but after walking so much yesterday and already walking so much today, I was completely exhausted and decided to head home to relax before starting the work week. Maybe next weekend I'll be able to see Centennial Park. If not, I think maybe another trip in five years may be in order!