Loving Sydney
Trip Start
Feb 04, 2008
1
71
105
Trip End
Jan 19, 2009
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Sydney,
Australia
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Hmmm...what was that?
Is it...?
Canberra?
Really...are you sure?
Have you been there?
Well I never. Seems like an odd choice but fair enough I suppose.
Anyway as I was saying... It was a lovely day, our first in Sydney - Australia's largest city don't you know. We tumbled out of bed and within a few minutes Debs had befriended the middle aged German couple on the next site and their breakfast guests. These two birds (the parakeets not the Germans) were wild but at the same time amazingly tame. In a minute they had hopped onto Debbie's arm to continue munching on the crumbs that were now there.
After both we and the birds had eaten we caught a bus (about 25 min) into the city centre and spent the day wandering round the sites of Sydney. We got some great pics from circle harbour of the harbour bridge and the opera house before having lunch in the park nearby. We toyed with the idea of doing the bridge climb but baulked when we saw the price tag and made do with taking a stroll across the bridge at road level. When we got to the other side we wandered briefly around Luna park - a kind of retro funfair/theme park deal - but weren't blown away.
We returned over the bridge and back into the city to 1 Martin Place (the old general post office turned upmarket mall/eatery) where our friend Nick had very kindly booked us into the very swanky Westin Hotel for the night as a belated birthday/Christmas/going away present.
Pretty Bird
We checked in and were soon on our way up to the 15th floor where our awesome room was. Not only did it look out directly onto the old GPO clock tower but it also had a full glass wall between the, very cool, bathroom and the bedroom. The upshot of this is that as Debbie lounged on the bed flicking through all the hotel info I watched the Simpsons on the huge Plasma TV in the bedroom whilst lying in the bath - Legendary!After soaking up our luxuriant surroundings we went back out into the city to look for some dinner and a drink. In typical Will n' DebsÔ fashion we walked round and round for ages before returning to the first place we saw. It was a pub, the Jackson on the George, which had something like 150 beers, on tap! There was a slightly odd smell in the place but the food was good. Despite the smorgasbord of ales available the lure of a big bed and cable TV was too strong so we returned to the Westin to order some pudding.
Having been together pretty much all the time since the beginning of February we were sick of the sight of each other (Just kidding (no we really were (I'm only fooling (no it's true!)))) so we'd decided to spend the day apart exploring the city each on our own.
After a fancy brekkie together in the Queen Victoria Building we popped into a convenience store to quickly check something on the internet. Jackie had emailed us Dave's (her brother if you didn't know) number as he's living in Sydney so we dropped him a text to see if he wanted to meet up.
New house mates
He called back almost immediately and said he was in the city that minute and which street were we on. After a few minutes of confusing conversation and upside down map holding we both twigged that he was actually talking about Melbourne! He was down there for the weekend and thought we were still there. Typical. Anyway we agreed to catch up in a few days when he was back.With that sorted we headed off solo to experience Sydney.
Within seconds of leaving the convenience store the heavens opened and it started to bucket down. With this in mind I walked straight to the Powerhouse museum and ducked in to keep dry. Using my YHA card I got my discounted entry and spent the next couple of hours checking out their excellent exhibitions on Design (kind of 'through the ages'), space exploration, the future of the internet and Australian engineering marvels (did you know that the spork was in vented by an Aussie?). When I'd had my fill of education for the day and the rain had cleared a little Then I wandered back onto the streets and explored China Town and Darling Harbour before wandering over to Glebe where Debbie and I had arranged to meet later that evening. After walking, definitely not the most direct route, I made it to Glebe. The guide books and leaflets that I'd read described the area as a backpacker haven and I was expecting it to be reminiscent of The Lanes in Brighton but, in reality, it was just another central suburb which was a bit rough around the edges. A little disappointed I decided to head back to the hotel to pick up our bags which we had left there that morning when we checked out to save us having to do it later on that night.
Sydney Harbour Bridge
If you know Sydney you know it's quite a walk from Glebe to the city centre and when I got there I realised I'd run out of time to get back tom meet Debbie so I jumped in a cab and cheekily got a life back to Glebe to The Friends Hotel.Debs first spent her day wandering round the various markets (indoor ones
I found Debbie already in the pub nursing a G&T in a splendid new top (clearly her day had been a successful one). We decided that Glebe probably wasn't for us so after our drinks we walked back to Darling Harbour where there were plenty of waterside establishments. Here had been a little confusion between us over our plans for the evening and Debbie was surprised to see I had the bags as she was keen to dance the night away, but in the end after a nice meal at Nicks Seafood Restaurant and several cocktails later we were both happy to get the night bus back to the campsite and pass out.
The next day was spent locally food shopping, doing laundry and catching up on a few bits online. Having had lots of recommendations of places to go out we thought we'd make up for the night before and try and find somewhere a bit more exciting than Glebe for a night out. After easing ourselves in gently at the campsite on some cheap supermarket booze we caught the bus back into the city and headed for the infamous Kings Cross area. Armed with a list of recommended venues (mainly courtesy of Ally, my replacement at work and a Sydneysider herself) we'd soon had cocktails in teapots at The World Bar and more cocktails (in normal glasses) at Darlo and even more cocktails (in smaller glasses!) at The Green Park Hotel.
Sydney Opera House
A good night was had, interesting people were met and sushi was ate! We caught the last bus back.Awoke the next morning just in time for my hangover to kick in. After peeling my tongue from the roof of my mouth and checking Debbie for signs of life we pulled ourselves together and took a short drive east to Manly Beach. It's a beautiful part of the city and after walking on Manly Beach pottering around the manly shops we headed over the manly marina for a manly lunch and generally enjoyed the manly vibe. You should see the manly ladies!
After lunch we stopped at a shop to buy some dinner for that evening and then experienced our first Cold Rock ice cream, the first of many. For those of you who have not had the pleasure Cold Rock is an ice cream parlour in which you can choose your favourite flavour and then add anything from Twix to sherbert, gummy bears to passionfruit pulp, Oreos to chocolate brownies and watch the ice cream technicians bash it all to a pulp on a frozen slab in front of you. That day as CRIC virgins we ordered from the staff recommendation board and soon had in our hands a Fergulicious! Ferrero Roche ice cream mixed with jaffas (choc orange balls), chocolate fudge brownie and chocolate sauce. Needless to say it was legendary!
Still on a ice cream high we drove up to North Head which is a lookout point from which you can see all of Sydney city and across to Bondi etc on the other side of the water. We also looked out over the ocean and saw some humpback whales in the distance. After sunset we drove back to our campsite at Lane Cove and spent the evening recovering from our hangovers with a nice dinner and some tv.
