Sydney

***Storyline:* *Home to home westward***

Fri, May 3

Arriving at Sydney airport late in the afternoon, it was very easy to find our way to Hornsby, some 40 min by train from the city centre. Sydney’s public transportation is light years ahead of Toronto/GTA or any other big Canadian city, although it appears that many locals disagree. If they only knew…. It deserves a separate post.

We tapped our credit cards in and out every time we used the trains that cover a huge area of Sydney and suburbs all the way west to the Blue Mountains, north to Berowra and south to Cronulla and Waterfall. There are over 800 km of tracks and over 170 stops that cover the urban area of 1,687 square kilometres (651 square miles), and extends to the Greater Sydney area of 12,367 square kilometres (4,775 square miles).

Ella, a long-time family friend, waited for us at Hornsby train station. We’d stay with her and her husband Gerhard for a few days. We had lovely dinner with them and finished with a Jägermeister digestive. Alex became a fan (Alex: mmm).

Gerhard, we now have a local supply.

It is only a 10 min walk to the train station from our new location.

The train took us to Milsons Point the next morning, from where we walked across the famous Sydney Harbour bridge before climbing the observation tower at the north end.

The approaching rain made the skies great for some panoramic photos. Managed to walk to the old Rocks area below the bridge, and then a bit closer to Circular Key before the downpour began.

When it rains, it rains heavily in Sydney. Donning our ponchos, we dodged the puddles on the way to the information centre, where we took a few brochures for tours to the Blue Mountains. It had to be the next day, the only opening for a dry day during our time in the area. After some back and forth with the choices (the early departures from a central hotel were not exactly what we could do, given the extra hour we would need to get there), the lady at the information desk found us another tour, apparently following the opposite itinerary to the mainstream. We could be picked up from a place near a train station at 8:10am, which was reasonable. She also arranged for front seats for me to minimise the risk of motion sickness.

Great, time for lunch now. We found a nice Japanese restaurant where I had ramen for the first time and Alex had his favorite katsu-don.

Should have shared one meal. They were really big. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the Opera House and area in our ponchos, my feet all soaked. Alex, being far more sensible (for once, and having no real choice), wore waterproof shoes.

Tue, May 7
Today was a transfer day. We had booked a hotel in Sydney for a night due to our early morning departure by train for Wagga Wagga.

Despite the rain the previous days we managed to visit many places in central Sydney, and even stopped for a short time at the famous Bondi beach, walking from the Bondi Junction train station.

Didn’t find anything exciting about it. It is a small place with a few expensive pubs and eateries. Didn’t have time for Manley Beach, which was highly recommended, but required taking a ferry.

The best of all: we attended a ballet at Sydney Opera House. Ella, managed to secure pensioners tickets for a performance of Giselle, which made it a bit more affordable for us.

Alex had seen this building (a photo of course) at age of 8, was fascinated by it, but never thought he’d actually visit it one day (or Sydney Harbour Bridge for that matter – A).

Today, our last day, we visited Ella’s sister Joy, mailed some of our warm clothes home and met Elena, the sister of our friend Slavka. We had lovely dinner with her at a Japanese restaurant and it happened that it was also her birthday.

So Happy Birthday Ellie and farewell Sydney!

And about food in Sydney. It is pretty much as in Toronto. And probably better pricewise, since you pay what you see on the menu with no added taxes or tips. You can find many cheap places with really good food and you can find high end restaurants with sky-rocket prices for a small dish.

One evening we ordered take out from an Italian place in Hornsby, since our host didn’t have a car at that point. They ordered seafood fettuccini to share and we ordered fish and chips plus a salad to share. The servings were humongous, freshly made and delicious. The cost for that huge box of fettuccini, which our host not only shared for dinner, but had left overs for breakfast was $14, all included! Where in Canada can one get this? The fettuccini was full of fresh sea food. No, not just a few shells as we had in Athens last year. If was more seafood than pasta!

If you go (travel tips):

So what’s worth visiting if you are in Sydney for a couple of days. In our humble opinion:

Walk over Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is free. We don’t think the hike on the top is worth the money you’d pay for it. If the weather is good, climbing the Pylon Lookout ($15) does a much better job for views. You can see the city, take great photos of the Opera House and the city (no cameras are allowed on the bridge walk).
Walk through the Rocks, on the Circular Key, by and around the Opera House. A concert, ballet or other show is worth attending if you can afford it. If not, but are still curious, there are $45 tours of the House.
Visit Darling Harbour and walk on the Pyrmont Bridge over Cockle Bay.
Visit the Botanical Gardens, walk through Hyde Park and by the Anzac memorial.
Visit Bondi Beach if you like swimming or surfing, otherwise we’ve been told that taking a ferry to Manly Beach is a better option.
If you have one more day, visit the Blue Mountains (next post). If you don’t have a car, you can take a train to Katoomba and then take a public bus or the hop-on, hop off bus to different areas of the Blue Mountains. Or you can take one of the many tours depending on your budget.
One more thing…take public transportation to get around. It’s inexpensive and you don’t need to buy a transit card to take advantage of discount fares. Just tap on and off with your chip-enabled credit card.