It has been a wonderful stay in Sydney so far. This morning we visited the Bourke St School, a colonial style building with a strong architectural character and students of many nationalities.

They responded spontaneously to the torch and the message of the Run.

 

It just so happens that this school was meant to be a small and limited ceremony and became quite large and included many more children than originally planned.

This illustration of the beauty and power of the Harmony Run to reach into peoples' hearts and bring to the fore their own smiles and inner warmth and spontaneous joy really fuels us in our journey to encircle the continent with the light and love and happiness embodied in our torch. We left in a glow of happiness and wish to thank the principal and staff and parents and students for their heart-warming embrace.

 

 

Sydney has so many iconic and powerful symbols that represent the whole of Australia – today we visited the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

 

 

Its construction was a rich and storied saga full of milestones culminating in the final connecting of the two sides and we got a wonderful history from our hosts there.

 

 

 

They kindly allowed us to bring the torch to the top of the south-east pylon to take photos of the surrounds: the bridge...

 

 

the Opera House...

 

 

beautiful Sydney Harbour...

 

 

and skyline of the city.

 

 

We enjoyed a visual feast of the beautiful architecture and nature surrounding Sydney.

 

 

The highlight of the day was a visit to the NSW State Parliament House.

 

 

We had a wonderful visit with the Hon Barbara Perry MP, representing the New South Wales Premier:

 

 

she graciously held the torch with us and spoke very eloquently of her efforts within her own electorate which she told us is very multi-ethnic and had tremendous diversity but was succeeding with a powerful effort to value everyone's uniqueness and cultures. She was very hospitable to us, offering us a pin and then a tour of the Parliament building.

 

 

While we were awaiting her arrival we were surprised to meet two mayors from cities along the route down from Brisbane that could not be there to greet us when we had run through but were very happy to say hello and hold the torch with us today, as well as a Member of Parliament who knew us and very happily greeted us:

 

Mayor of Coffs Harbour, Keith Rhoades

 

Clr Greg Piper, MP and Mayor of Lake Macquarie

 

Katrina Hodgkinson MP

 

Today we bid a fond farewell to Garbitashri Webster, a terrific runner who helped us carry the torch through the first couple of weeks of the Run who is heading back to her home in New Zealand – thanks Garbitashri!

 

 

Lastly we have here in Sydney a wonderful friend and artist Pranavanta Montefiore who generously hosted the whole team for a meal and happy evening at his home/studio. Thanks Pranavanta for a great evening!

 

– Prabhakar Street (Canada)

Catch up with some 'Reflections from the Road' in Julie's web log.

If you would like to place a link or a write a story about the World Harmony Run on your website, click here to Link to Us. We'll be happy to place a reciprocal link and list you on our Friends Online page.

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Team Members:
Prabhakar Street (Canada), Edi Serban (Romania), Standa Zubaty (Czech Republic), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Runar Gigja (Iceland), Misha Kulagin (Russia), Dima Lehonkov (Ukraine), Angela Muhs (Germany), Anubha Baird (Australia), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Garbitashri Webster (New Zealand)

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

Gallery: See more images!

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