Ruminations upon Saturday March 15, 2025 in Sydney, Australia

We hadn’t had the opportunity to daven/pray in a synagogue since leaving Mumbai, and I was excited to visit a new shul and see how this community’s customs compared to those of other Jewish communities we’d encountered. On Shabbat morning, we woke up and walked to The Great Synagogue. It was a long, forty-five-minute walk—up and over a steep hill, in hot, humid weather. By the time we arrived, we were as sweaty and thirsty as we could be. Except for the hills, the experience reminded me of my childhood walks to shul in Houston.

The Great Synagogue continues the tradition of having a chazan/cantor lead services, accompanied by a men’s choir on special occasions. The music was beautiful—a nostalgic reminder of holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur growing up. We stayed for kiddush/after services light meal, which did not disappoint. It was robust, with many kinds of fish, salads, vegetables, and desserts to enjoy. This served as our lunch before the forty-five-minute walk back to our Airbnb. I was relieved the boys found food they’d eat.

By the time we got home, we were drenched in sweat and our feet were killing us. As soon as I lay down on the couch to rest, the boys decided it was the perfect opportunity to pile on top of me for over an hour. I felt like a giant lioness with her cubs pawing and gnawing at her as she drifted in and out of sleep. As tired as I was, I wouldn’t have changed it for anything.

By 4:00 PM, it was clear the boys still had plenty of energy and needed somewhere to run around. Our Airbnb had a Sydney guidebook that recommended the Ian Potter Wild Play playground in Centennial Park. Although no one wanted to go back out into the heat, we rallied and set off in search of this magical playground.

When we reached Centennial Park, we stopped to review the map at the entrance. Chaim and I disagreed about which path to take—never a great sign. Eventually, the path we were on felt wrong to me, so I steered us off-road through wooded trails to rejoin what I thought was the correct route. (Chaim maintains that if we’d just continued on the original path, we would’ve made it… eventually.) We emerged at the edge of the sprawling fields of the adjacent Moore Park. I asked a passerby if he knew how to get to the playground. He told us to cross the park—it was about 300 meters ahead. Amazing!

Right around where he said we’d find it, I saw a small sign—but no playground. So we kept walking. And walking. And walking. About 1000 meters past where we were supposed to be, we stumbled upon a beautiful lake in the middle of the park, full of Australian pelicans, parakeets, cockatoos, ibis, and more. The pelicans were massive, and the cockatoos were obnoxiously loud. We felt like we’d landed in a zoo, but apparently, these are just some of the typical birds that hang out here.

By now, the boys were exhausted, and our feet ached. Still, I was determined to find this playground. I asked another couple if they knew the way. After checking their phones, they suggested a route, and off we went—again in a meandering loop through more lovely (but misdirected) parts of the park. Finally, with the help of several more parkgoers, we found the Ian Potter Wild Play playground. Frustratingly, it turned out to be that small sign I’d noticed an hour earlier. And even more frustrating—it was now 5:00 PM, and the water playground had just closed.

It was a great lesson in so many things: humility, better planning, clearer communication, and maybe doing just a bit more research. But even more than that, it became a powerful reminder of how to take a disappointing experience and turn it into something better.

The playground was directly across from the field we’d passed earlier, so we coaxed the kids into heading there instead. Amichai came up with some silly and some competitive field games that had us all collapsing in laughter. Eventually, we decided to attempt a family pyramid. It took a few tries to get it right, but we pulled it off! Then we experimented with different versions to see who could go on top. This unexpected turn of events turned out to be one of my favorite memories of our time in Sydney.