Here is the travel diary I wrote after I came back from two nights in Sydney recently. I hope you-all will find it amusing.
WARNING: There are quite a lot of photos. I have re-sized a lot of them for easier downloading though. All names have been changed to protect the naughty. ;)
DAY 1: THURSDAY
Boy and I got the 1.30pm flight from Avalon Airport to Sydney. Avalon is so small, it's almost cute. At least you dont have to worry about getting lost.
I was excited when I saw them wheeling the stairs up to the plane. I love going up the stairs - it makes you feel like it's the 60's and the guy from
Catch Me If You Can might be your pilot. Everything went smoothly. We had coffee and cheese and biscuits and a chocolate muffin on the plane.
They were reasonably priced and everything!
We flew over Sydney and saw the islands in the harbour as we landed. I can't believe that people actually live on islands and get around by yacht in the centre of a city!
I was a bit disappointed that it was cloudy, and it looked cold. But no - as I stepped out of the plane door, the disgustingly muggy heat was like a slap in the face. It was gross.
Boy and I retrieved our suitcase without any troubles and headed out of the airport. We were told by a very glum looking woman that the train to the Central Station would cost $12.50 each. Thinking that surely a 12km taxi ride wouldn't cost that much, and even if it did, it would take us straight to the hotel, we passed her by.
Our taxi driver was wonderfully eccentric, even down to the reggae playing softly in the background and the digitally controlled air conditioning set to 18oC. He gave us the choice of toll or no-toll, and seeing as we had no clue, and he said they would cost about the same anyway, we chose toll. So, we got to see some sights, experience Sydney's version of the Burnley Tunnel, and have some interesting chat on the way. It was informative chat as well - he even told us which way to walk to get to the city centre.
The fare ended up being $28.50 plus $10.00 for the tollway. But the sight of traffic banked up to the rafters veering to the left while we sailed into the almost empty tunnel at full speed almost made up for it. The hotel was in Ultimo, about a kilometre from the city centre. The area was densely populated with lots of student accommodation for the UTS at the end of our street, but very quiet. It reminded me of Carlton. The hotel itself was quite nice, with a comfortable room that had a balcony overlooking the crappy part of town. The air conditioning worked very well.
The Mercure Hotel Ultimo
After unpacking, Boy and I went for a walk. After a false start, we found Haymarket and Chinatown. It's a much larger Chinatown than the one in Melbourne and seemed to have more of an 'authentic' feel. There were lots of little arcades and neon signs and a great diversity of people.
Gateway at Chinatown
I bought a bag from the biggest Morning Glory store I have ever seen. We wandered up George Street, goggling at everything and only getting slightly lost, before making our way back to Chinatown and a restaurant we had seen in the guidebook: the BBQ King. It had a whole bunch of very authentic-looking ducks hanging in the window. The inside was decorated with lovely paintings and wood carvings... lots and lots of them.
We had spring rolls, Singapore noodles and barbeque pork on rice. It was all very delicious. In fact, I would even say it was the best barbeque pork I've ever had, and possibly the best Singapore noodles, too. It came with copious amounts of chilli on the side as well, which we like. Boy and I had tickets to see
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical at the Lyric Theatre, Star City Casino at 8pm, and we were concerned about finding it on time, so we left the restaurant without too much mucking around. We walked along the foreshore (well, one of the foreshores, anyway), past the Chinese Garden of Friendship, the Sydney Convention Centre, some posh waterside restaurants, under the Cahill Expressway and up a huge set of steps. We walked around a corner, and there it was! See, Sydney is actually very easy to get around after all. We were still too early to even pick up the tickets, so we had a look at the old ships that were moored nearby at the Maritime Museum. One of them was the Bounty! The actual Bounty! That was pretty cool. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me.
[See photos here]
Then we went into the Star City Casino to check it out. There were some pretty cool water cascades out the front and trees clipped into giant cube shapes. I noticed overall that Central Sydney has a lot of water features - waterfalls, spouts, cascades, ponds, etc. I guess they don't have the water restrictions that we do in Melbourne.
The casino itself was rather disappointing. In keeping with Sydney's reputation for over-the-top glitz and glamour, I expected the casino to be an insane folly of cheesy kitsch, but it wasn't half as big or glittery as Crown. Perhaps all that was behind the scenes in the member's areas though. Not very democratic of them, if you ask me. The actual gambling floor was up an escalator guarded by some very frightening bouncers, so I didn't get to see what it looked like.
Boy and I had some ice cream at the boring corridor that served as a food court before going in to the show. At least the Lyric Theatre itself was up to par. It had a fancy bar, and glitzy, 80s style mirror-lined walls in the corridors leading to the stalls. The seats were comfortable and upholstered in navy blue with reddish wood panels on the backs. There was a very interesting 50's style mural of musical instruments and clowns on the ceiling.
The show was brilliant. It was as fun and glam as its reputation promised, and seemed the perfect way to experience Sydney. The costumes were fantastic and it was a lot of fun. It got a standing ovation. Boy enjoyed it a lot too. I bought some Priscilla fridge magnets from the stall.
(Disclaimer: I received the tickets for free from my work.)
We managed to find our way home after stopping off to buy some snacks and wine. We fell asleep after scoffing mini wagon wheels and sipping a nice semi-sweet Verdelho while watching the first half of
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest on the hotel movie channel. Yah, so we are not really creatures of the night, okay?
DAY 2: FRIDAY
After hotel breakfast of fruit, yoghurt and toast, Boy and I set out with a vague idea of seeing 'stuff' today. The weather forecast today was 28oC and we were disappointed to discover on going outside that it was still very muggy. But we sucked it up.
Our first stop was the Chinese Garden of Friendship. It cost $6, but it was well worth the price of admission. It was amazing. We took more photos here than anywhere else. It had a huge pond system, a mountain, pagodas and waterfalls. It had ducks, carp and some very bold lizards:
Lake & Pagoda
The Moon Gate
Rock Formations in the Forest Section
A Cheeky Lizard
The Large Waterfall
The Decorative Dragon Wall
Carp In The Pond
It was so lovely and relaxing that I wanted to stay much longer, but after about an hour, we thought we had better get moving. I bought a bookmark and a fridge magnet, and a neck pendant for boy.
We walked to the other end of the foreshore and all the way up George Street to Circular Quay, goggling at everything and everyone along the way. I noticed that the streets weren't really more crowded than in the Melbourne CBD, but there was a higher proportion of young people (i.e. under 40) and the standard of dress was in general more professional for the corporate types, and more surfy for the casual types, with more bright colours. No-one was wearing black, which people do even on a 30oC day in Melbourne. In fact, the whole time I was there, I didn't see any goths or punks at all, and hardly any emos. Then again, I might have been hanging out in the wrong areas. But I digress.
When we got to the Rocks foreshore though, things were very different. We were in the tourist mecca of Sydney, with ye old Harbour Bridge on one side, and ye olde Sydney Opera House on the other. After taking the obligatory cheesy tourist shots of the Opera House arcross the Quay, we sat down for a rest on a bench at what was apparently busker central.
There was one busker there who:
a) refused to perform if anyone was taking a photo of him;
b) refused to perform unless he was paid first;
c) kept engaging in passive-aggressive conversation with other buskers near him with the intention of making them go away;
d) was a massive tool.
After exchanging a bit of eye-rolling with the tourists sitting next to us, we moved on.
Our first view of the Harbour Bridge was pretty much straight on:
The Bridge
The unbelievably huge cruise liner parked at the quay,
The Statendam, was a much more impressive sight. By this time, I was gagging for a coffee, and Boy didn't object, so we had an average flat white at an average ye-olde-style cafe with an average friand and average service into the bargain. Actually, the froth on my coffee was in the shape of a loveheart and the second waiter was extra polite to make up for the rudeness of the first. So I shouldn't really complain. A quiet moment like this is another good chance to reflect on how different Sydney is from Melbourne. There's a stereotype that Sydney is the gay capital of Australia, but you can never judge a book by its cover.
Next, we walked around the Rocks. I have to say it was very disappointing. At least half the buildings were built in the 70's and 80's, and of the genuinely old ones, they had all been sandblasted to within an inch of their lives and housed tourist-oriented indigenous art galleries and Ken Done sales centres. There
was a really cool shop which sold candles in the shapes of everything you could possibly think of, and a maritime-themed antiques shop called
Bottom of the Harbour, which was only slightly overpriced.
I was vaguely impressed with the fact that you could walk right up the the Bridge and even walk over it. We didn't do that though - my feet were already sending me strong signals that if I did that, I wouldn't live to see Day 3.
We did see one fairly cool thing though:
Argyle Street and Argyle Steps [to the right]
The bridge and the steps leading down to Argyle Street were very old. The stones stuck out at odd angles and they were all covered in moss and little ferns. Here finally was a small taste of the historic Sydney I had always heard about. Unfortunately the effect was spoiled slightly by the workmen halfway down the steps fixing something with lots of wires sticking out and playing loud rock music on their radio.
Just down the road there was a small, very 80's-looking shopping centre called the Clocktower. We bought water from the smallest supermarket in the world, before heading over to the Sydney Visitors' Centre, in the hopes of getting some good souvenirs. We weren't disappointed. I got a fridge magnet, some bookmarks, badges and a Bonsai Potato Kit. Boy got some postcards and a Chinese Seal Kit, which he was very happy with. There were some cool build-your-own Harbour Bridge or Opera House push-out wooden model kits, but I passed them by. The Visitors' Centre did have a very good range of specifically Sydney-related, minimally cheesy souvenirs for the discerning tourist. The service was totally incompetent though. Oh well, you can't have everything.
We next walked back round Circular Quay, gorping at the ferries going in and out. Fancy getting a ferry to work every day or to your lunch appointment! Nutty!
As we walked along the Quay towards the Opera House, I commented to Boy: "Oh, so this is a bit like Docklands, except people actually come here." The terrace was lined with expensive-looking cafes and gelaterias. In fact, there were a lot of ice cream outlets throughout central Sydney. Considering that it's a tourist hotspot and has 300 days of sunshine every year, that's not really surprising.
A Better Pic of the Bridge
As we passed the Kino Dendy Opera Quays cinema, we had our first view of the Sydney Opera House emerging from around the corner. It was crawling with sunburnt English backpackers, large men that looked like Dolph Lundgren walking around in groups of 2 or 3, and touristy types in fashions from 10 years ago. We climbed the steps to the summit and took some photos.
The Opera House
Me in the Middle of it All
Giant Bonnet
Boy is so excited he can barely keep his eyes open
The Sydney Opera House is actually very shiny, and I have to admit that it
is quite impressive. I saw people inside, and I was determined to get in there myself. Finally we found an entrance in the basement that led to the box office. There were ushers guarding the stairs going up the the foyer, and they were only letting people with tour tickets through. Foiled!
We left via the lower concourse, past gift shops and expensive-looking cafes and bars. I get the feeling that the native Sydneysiders wouldn't be caught dead at the Opera House unless they had tickets to 'the Opera' or 'the Symphony'.
Boy and I had lunch at a cafe on the mall at Circular Quay. Our focaccias were quite good, but the man who took our payment complaining that we'd interrupted his own lunch was a bit much.
After lunch we walked back down Pitt Street, turned right at King Street, past some expensive-looking restaurants and went to the Sydney Aquarium at Cockle Bay Wharf. The admission price was quite a lot ($27.50 ea.), but it was just about worth it. We saw fish, a crocodile (it moved!), octopus, seals (asleep), penguins (either sleepy or terrified, I couldn't tell), sharks and rays, etc.
A Real Crocodile
Sleepy Seal
'Sleepy' Penguins
Ray In The Oceanarium
Iguana
All in all, it was great, though I was thoroughly sick of ramps by the end of it, and my feet were sending me strong signals of hate and resentment. It was still very hot and humid when we came out, even though it was heading past 5pm. Boy and I made a mutual decision to stagger back to the hotel and flake out.
After a nap (awwww!), we headed out to try and find the K-Mart we could see out of our hotel room window. It was at a shopping centre called Broadway which, quite frankly, sucked arse bigtime. I did eventually get what I needed there though, and on the way back we stopped off at a Chinese takeaway to get dinner. We had to wait a little while, but that was only because of the large table of eat-in diners who ordered endless dishes and devoured them all with gusto, like a huge, eight-mouthed monster. It was like a
Miyazaki movie or something. But our plastic bag was finally ready and the very nice lady gave us some free prawn crackers by way of apology. The food was delicious. I highly recommend the Hong Kong Restaurant and Takeaway on Mary Ann Street, Ultimo.
We had curry puffs, beef satay with homemade noodles, and garlic chicken on rice. We also had fried bread which I'd never had before and which was surprisingly good. The noodles were the best though - soft and melting in your mouth.
We watched
Boytown on the hotel's movie channel and had M&Ms and Skittles from the vending machine in the foyer for dessert, along with a blended red we had bought the day before. Classy all the way.
Then we saw that the second half of
Pirates of the Caribbean was on the other channel, so we thought, 'why the heck not?' And by the time the crew had decided to rescue Jack from the Kracken's jaws, it was beddy-bye time.
Stay tuned for Part 2, coming up soon!
