Lane's Ramblings

Ahhh, Sydney... Everybody has to go to Sydney, right? It is the premier city of Australia.. Arguably of the Southern Hemisphere. When you tell someone that you've been to Sydney the most likely responses are "Oh, I've always wanted to go to Sydney," or "I loved Sydney". Well, I have a different story to tell...





**Caution** - If Sydney is your dream holiday location or even on your "Top 10 Places Before I Die" list then you may not want to read this post.

**Disclaimer** - I'm not saying that it was a horrible city or that I had a bad time - it was a lovely city and I enjoyed it for the most part - I'm just saying it wasn't as advertized. 1) I could have been tired.. I fell asleep on the plane. How significant is that? My first trip to Australia back in 2002, or whenever it was, I flew from Boston to Detroit to Tokyo to Singapore (had a 7 hour layover) and finally to Perth.. it took me 35 hours and I slept for maybe 2 of those. I've been known to fly for 24hrs straight without sleeping. This was an hour flight in the middle of the afternoon and I slept most of the way. 2) It's winter, it got up to 60F but that's not the Aussie weather that you're looking for. 3) I'm not exceptionally familiar with the city and spent all of my time downtown.







But here we go..

Friday
The flight out of Melbourne was easy, of course, Qantas must run 15 flights to Sydney a day and the approach into the airport went right by the city and had great views (try to get on the right side of the plane for this approach). Getting to city central is easy too, the train station is under the airport and takes you right downtown. My first impression came as I left the Central train station and found myself in a flood of people. This doesn't happen in Melbourne unless you're in a tourist area - Sydney is a real city. The next thing I noticed was that the streets were dirty.. and then somewhere behind me I heard a famiar sound; something that I haven't heard in a while - somebody just honked their horn! And at someone else for doing something stupid. Again, this doesn't happen in Melbourne, they're too tolerant. I was beginning to like this place.

I had a map of downtown Sydney imprinted in my brain, I didn't have a hardcopy, I knew where my hotel was and where the major landmarks were, I just didn't know where the train station was on that map so I didn't know my starting point. So I wandered a little bit through Chinatown and eventually found my way to Darling Harbour where I found an Information Centre that gives out free maps and my hotel was at the corner of Liverpool St and College St, right on the corner of Hyde Park. The hotel was kind of nice and my room was on the top floor (15th) and had a balcony that can fit one person standing and maybe a plant but it had some views anyway.

I wanted some food and was looking forward to seeing the town at night and some of that "outdoor culture" that I was told about. This is where the problems started. I wandered for hours through the shopping district, again to Darling Harbour, even through Pyrmont, then the outskirts of Chinatown, and back to Hyde Park and didn't find anything. I finally settled on a pizza/kabob place that was good for finishing the meal and then scurrying off but not so much for having a relaxing dinner. The next idea was to find a pub but even though there were a few hotels (pubs) on some corners, they just didn't have the right feel to them... I was tired enough as it was and would be walking all the next day so I just called it a night.

Saturday
The plan was to see the Harbour Bridge, the Opera house, the botanical gardens, the art museum, and finish the day off with some dinner and the Australia vs New Zealand rugby game (which, incidentally, was being played in Melbourne). I grabbed some coffee and a pastry and started to wander north through Hyde Park (very nice), up through the shopping district where I caught my first glimpse of the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge, along the east side of Darling Harbour, and to the Observatory, which was surrounded by a nice park and was on a hill that provided some good views of the harbor. But most importantly, the observatory is right next to the Harbour Bridge, which can be crossed by pedestrians. I made it halfway across to take some pictures of the city and of the opera house, which was just off to the side. It was a nice walk and I could see some people doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge walk, which I am told could be the best thing to do in Sydney but it's expensive and I wasn't going to do it by myself. I was walking on the road level - for the bridge walk you go up onto the top of the bridge.




After coming off the bridge I found myself in my favorite part of town - The Rocks. The Rocks is the oldest neighborhood in Sydney and it still looks that way. There are many old buildings and some nice restaurants and cafes in the area. There's also a small market where you can buy some useless stuff.. I'm sure some people would appreciate it. I stopped at the front of a souvenir shop to look at some postcards and this woman came up to me and asked if I would like to come into the store. I will but I'm looking at these postcards, I tell her. Of course - so she doesn't say anymore.. but watches me... from three feet away. She was freaking me out so I grabbed a couple of the cards, paid for them and got the heck out of there. I went to a nearby cafe and picked up another coffee (I was drinking flat whites this weekend) and a muffin (raspberry, toasted with butter) and made the short walk through Circular Quay to the Opera House.

This is where I'm going to start with the whining. Sydney has some very nice architecture - except for Sydney Tower, that thing is horrid - and the Sydney Opera House is probably the most famous. But the feelings on that building go either way, some people think it's the most beautiful thing they've ever seen and others say that it should be dragged out to the ocean and sunk to the bottom. No matter which way you lean, it's instantly recognizable from the multitude of photographs that are splattered anywhere Sydney is mentioned. There are many things that fit this profile, you know them well, everyone does - the pyramids, the White House, the Taj Mahal (I'm not putting the opera house in the category of these landmarks, I'm just comparing its fame). But even when they are so well known by photos, even enhanced by the photos, there are some that make you stop short when you see them, maybe even take your breath away, or just surprise you. The Sydney Opera House did not do this for me. It was big - huge even - but it was just there. The same with the Harbour Bridge - it was a very nice bridge, artistic and functional, but, again, just a bridge.




Next was a walk through the Royal Botanical Gardens, which I liked a lot because it had a collection of very strange trees and some cool birds walking around but not too much for flowers or smaller plants. The path brought me around Farm Cove to Macquerie's point for a view of the Opera House with the Harbour Bridge in the background and then I stopped at a cafe in the park for lunch before I went into the art museum. I spent a couple of hours in the museum, which was a lot busier than anything outside. I won't bore you with my thoughts of the art - let's just say that it was less than inspiring.

I had accomplished just about everything that I had intended to for the day and there were still a few hours before the rugby match started so, again down near Hyde Park, I stepped into a pub. The young, woman bartender, whose pulchritude did not go unnoticed by this bar patron, came over with a "What ah ya aftah?" - "I'll take a Carlton" - "Schoonah?" - "Do you have pints?" - and she returned with "Not in this country, mate" with just enough accent and sass that anyone would feel smitten. And I - with my renowned smoothness with the ladies (sarcasm) - responded, rather defensively, with "Uhh, well, we have them in Melbourne." To which she said in a soft, possibly hurt voice, "Well, I've nevah been to Melban." I felt bad - I really did - but I can't help it if I'm socially inept. Right? Anyway, when I ordered my second schooner, she gave me a huge smile - she even smiled with her eyes, which had me smitten all over again and I felt that she had forgiven me (or, more likely, had forgotten who I was) and I never asked for another pint the rest of the time that I was in Sydney.

I went to the hotel to drop my gear off (books and such) before I headed out for the dreaded search for dinner and pub for the game. Dinner came easy enough at a pizzeria and I found an alright place across the park and over a couple of blocks from the hotel to watch the game. I even had a seat. I was drinking VB - schooners, of course - and watched the Aussies come back from a terrible first half to beat the All Blacks for the first time since 2003. Go the Aussies! With that last item crossed off the list, I headed back to the hotel for some sleep.

Sunday
There was only one thing that I wanted this morning: a coffee with breakfast outside under the sun. Would I find it? You bet I would. I walked over to Darling Harbour and found a few cafes with outdoor seating and a great view of the city. From this spot the city looks very familiar.. like a place that I've been to before but I can't think of where. It's been bothering me all weekend. I had a coffee and brekkie, read my book in the sun on a Sunday morning and I was happy and loving Sydney.

I took a walk back to the Opera House (feelings hadn't changed) but the wind forced me back away from the harbor and I then met up with a parade going down Macquerie St for Reserve Forces Day. I watched that for a short while, walked past the Sydney Tower (still horrible) and thought about some lunch and how I might get back to the airport. A couple of streets into Chinatown I saw an Irish pub and knew that I had to go in. Stepped up to the bar and ordered a Guinness and while she was pouring I had a perusal of the menu, which I wasn't very interested in so I took my Guinness over to a table and had a go at finishing the book that I was reading ('The Wayward Tourist' by Twain - it's good). About five minutes in I noticed a sign on a pole near me that said "Guinness - beer of the month; $5 pints". I thought, "that's pretty cool and, yes, I do recall only paying $5 for this, it's not often that you can get a pint of anything... wait a minute.. I'm drinking a pint. They do have pints in Sydney!" My thoughts even warranted the exclamation point. But rather than run off to tell my old friend from the day before, I finished off my beer (two of them, actually - just to be sure), finished my book, and got on the train to the airport.

And that was Sydney. A nice town but it didn't strike me the way that I was told it would. Going through a guidebook after my wanderings, I really didn't see anything in there that I had missed. I haven't given up on it yet, I fully intend to go back in October when the weather's nicer and I know more of what to look for and I don't have to see the bridge or the opera house (although, that is why I'm going) or the god-awful Sydney Tower. The trip was frustrating and a lot of the places just didn't feel welcoming. But come October I'll be able to make a better estimate, I think.

And the pictures:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=s8e95zp.600fer39&Uy=-ojo94n&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=1