{"id":549,"date":"2011-07-31T19:10:09","date_gmt":"2011-07-31T19:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/?p=549"},"modified":"2023-10-27T22:27:29","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T22:27:29","slug":"harry-potter-in-sydney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/?p=549","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter in Sydney"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"549\" class=\"elementor elementor-549\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-11359ed e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"11359ed\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f371c66 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f371c66\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.17.0 - 01-11-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<div class=\"separator\">\n<div class=\"separator\"><a href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-i2qWUzzmOBs\/TjU5lZaS_2I\/AAAAAAAABTI\/VTKPACLpQSU\/s1600\/IMG_0529.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/IMG_0529.jpg\" width=\"320\"\/><\/a><\/div>\nWe left Melbourne this morning and flew to Sydney.  We have been sort of getting the lay of the land.  Since our rooms weren&#8217;t ready, we walked to the Sydney version of Victoria Market&#8211;not like Melbourne&#8217;s of the same name.  This Victoria Market is like a Melbourne arcade, and we found some lunch.  Then back to the hotel to unpack, visit a grocer, and get set up with internet. (I needed to rent a Vodaphone mobile internet access for this leg of the trip.)\n<div class=\"separator\"><a href=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-yu2QbFAL6k8\/TjU9bu4iQ7I\/AAAAAAAABTQ\/DCKRRCxfhwE\/s1600\/IMG_0532.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/IMG_0532.jpg\" width=\"320\"\/><\/a><\/div>\nSydney apparently has the largest IMAX screen in the world, and guess what is showing? Right&#8211;I know you read the title pf this post.  Believe me, Hagrid was HUGE on this screen!  Harry Potter is really over:  no more books, and no more films.  We have had a whole series of summers with Harry Potter.  In 2000, we were driving cross country when the fourth book was released.  We found a little book store in Mitchell, SD a few days ahead of the July 8th premier.  The bookseller was very low key and set aside a copy for us.  I read it out loud to everyone over the road noise as we drove.  The sixth book also came with us on a summer vacation, to Acadia National Park in Maine.  The family had me reading that one aloud until I couldn&#8217;t hold my eyes open any more.  (Right, it must have been past 9pm&#8212;but we did spend all day hiking, I earned my sleepiness!)  I remember that one day we got up and realized we would not be able to go anywhere until we finished, so we stayed in cottage and I read.  Dumbledore dies at the end, and Mark still swears that his vacation was ruined.\n\nSeeing the last movie in 3-D on a great big screen was pretty exciting.  I also think it was a nice experience to see it with such an international audience also.\n\nSydney has a reputation of being a bit more hectic and with less charm than Melbourne.  It is a bigger city population wise and in area.  It&#8217;s too soon to be certain of its character yet.  It is Sunday after all, and things seemed a bit quiet.\n<div class=\"separator\"><a href=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-TyamLpcnOzU\/TjVBCLQtwsI\/AAAAAAAABTU\/EhKAyHbycF4\/s1600\/IMG_0528.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/IMG_0528.jpg\" width=\"320\"\/><\/a><\/div>\nThe IMAX theater is at Darling Harbor, which has a boat show at the moment, and this added some glamor to the evening through the boats and the people who own them and came to see them.  It&#8217;s a few degrees warmer here and definitely feels like spring.<\/div>\n\n\u200b\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We left Melbourne this morning and flew to Sydney. We have been sort of getting the lay of the land. Since our rooms weren&#8217;t ready, we walked to the Sydney version of Victoria Market&#8211;not like Melbourne&#8217;s of the same name. This Victoria Market is like a Melbourne arcade, and we found some lunch. Then back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-august-2011","tag-31"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=549"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1171,"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549\/revisions\/1171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graceffa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}