G'day Australia
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
48
93
Trip End
Jun 20, 2009
Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
Monday, November 24, 2008
Aesthetically it's a very pleasing city, particularly down around the harbours where we had several pleasant rambles. The Opera House is an amazing piece of architecture and it's setting is spectacular overlooking Sydney Harbour and the bridge. You could sit and watch it in different lights at different times of the day and still be fascinated. My only regret is that we didn't actually get a tour inside or better still get to a show. Darling Harbour lined with the city skyscape, is also beautiful. We did take time to explore the inside of some of its buildings, primarily the Sydney Aquarium
view of the city
. My child hood obsession with sharks is alive and well. They have amazing water tunnels inside where you can watch sharks and sting rays glide over you, which I did for about forty minutes, mouth agog, camera in hand. We also got to see a freshie (Fresh water crocodile. The Aussies have an annoying habit of shortening all their words so for salt water crocodile, "saltie", fresh water crocodile, "freshie", crocodile, "croc" and so on. They also like to add the letter "o" to the end of things and sometimes they like to combine the two. Bottle shop, "bottlo" etc etc.... We know, we know I hear you shout! We've all seen Crocodile Dundee!! It just amazing how true the stereotype is sometimes!!)On the subject of some of our favourite things to tease Aussies about (all being descended from convicts), we had a great fun learning about Emmet's criminal roots at an exhibition about the old prison ships and gaol in Sydney. One William Bunting was shipped over in the 1800s for being drunk and impertinent (sounds about right!) locked up and the key thrown away! Jokes aside, the museum was amazing. It showed the conditions on prison ships, what petty misdemeanors people were sent over for, the work they had to undertake in the gaol, the horrible punishments they were forced to endure. It also traced the history of thousands of young Irish girls who were shipped over during the time of the famine, mostly from orphanages and work houses, as there was a shortage of women for the men
China Town
. Mary MacAleese opened a memorial to the Irish Famine victims outside the old prison a few years ago, which you can see himself posing in front of in a very un-PC manner!! Other highlights included trying to inadvertently crash the premiere of Baz Lurman's new flick "Australia." (Which incidentally looks like a heap of shit.) Woops. Apparently Nicole already had a date.
On the downside, there does seem to be a missing ingredient to Sydney. On the social scene it definitely takes itself too seriously. We headed down to the supposed trendy section of town with all the good pubs and nightclubs, Kings Cross, known to locals as the Cross. The place was pretty seedy for the most part, full of strip bars and bums; although parts of it were clearly undergoing gentrification with delis and cappuccio shops popping up on several corners. The bouncers are obnoxious, don't let you in wearing flip flops, or in some cases suits and ties...in other words they are all Napoleans on little power trips and it doesn't matter what you are wearing if they don't like the look of you, or if they are bored. Reminded me of Dublin 10 years ago. When you do manage to get into a place they are also very quick to ask you to leave if you look like you are having any craic at all.
Darling Harbour
It's not that we were suffering from lack of local knowledge either. We had met up with some of my old DCU buddies who emigrated over four years ago; they were picking the spots to bring us to and agreed on the whole about Sydney lacking soul.We also had a disappointing day trip to the Blue Mountains, although we'd have to chalk that one down to Mother Nature and not the Sydnonians. It was a dull cloudy day and the incredible view we travelled out for was hidden under a cloud of fog. We took some half hearted snaps for your viewing pleasure anyway.
We also undertook a day trip to Manly, the Court Town of Sydney. Nice, but uneventful, although it might have helped if I had remembered to bring my swimming cossie.
So all in all, whilst we had a pleasant time in Sydney, I'm not sure it ranks as one of the great cities of the world. It's no New York, Paris, Venice....it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. So unless I win the lotto and / or am offered tickets back here I doubt I'll be returning to its shores.
