Sydney weekend

Hello everyone.

Here is a short story, written by John-Paul, about a long weekend spent in Sydney. Enjoy.

Bea and I arrived back home, Sunday evening around midnight, aftera very enjoyable three-days' weekend in Sydney, where we met one of my Dutch cousins (from Mom's side of the family) with her husband. They have been travelling through Oz and departed Sunday evening also, on their way back to The Netherlands.

Friday morning, Bea and I got up very early, to catch our three and a half hours lasting flight out of Wellington into Sydney. Despite of the forecasts, there was no fog in Wellington, so without any delays, we arrived at Sydney International Airport around nine, local time in the morning. It took a while to get past immigration, since a boat load of Brazilian travellers were in front of us in the queues, of which hardly anyone was able to speak English...

After taking the train from the airport to the city, and getting out of the railway station, we experienced a big disappointment: rain. Torrential. Cats and dogs, cows and horses, you name it, it all fell from the skies. And who would ever think of taking an umbrella, when travelling to Sydney!

Since we had agreed to meet my cousin and her husband (travelling through Oz for the last five weeks) around ten at the hostel where they were staying, we put on our coats and started walking. Just one minute walking in the rain resulted in becoming soaking wet. After approximately twenty minutes walking, we arrived at their hostel, where our relatives already were waiting for us. They offered us to get dry first at their room, where we dropped most of our luggage (we travelled light, so no suitcases) and then we thought about what to do that day; the raining still continued.

We decided that a good start would be a. buy two umbrellas, and b. go out for a coffee and catch up. So we did. They had great stories about their trip, which roughly consisted of in Alice joining an organised tour to the Red Centre and subsequently continuing from Alice to Cairns via the outback near Mount Isa, and finally self-driving from Cairns to Sydney. They visited many of the small islands on the East coast and all in all had a great time. Bea and I envied them.

While the raining still continued, after the coffee we walked through Hyde Park to the Botanical Gardens and enjoyed the famous views on the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We saw very many birds and we sheltered to have lunch at a small cafe in the Gardens.

We continued our walk alongside the water front, passing the Opera House, to Circular Quay and from there we wandered into the City to seek shelter in the dignified Queen Victoria Building. Nice shops with way too expensive items, but an impressive old building with two beautiful clocks hanging from the ceiling, which both display a historical story once every hour. Those clocks are a bit comparable with the clock in The Old Bank Arcade in the Wellington CBD.

After that, the time was nearing five in the afternoon and we departed, for a brief time. Bea and I picked up our remaining luggage and walked to our hotel to check in. The rain was not torrential anymore, but still continuing. We had a glance at the weather forecast on TV. That Friday turned out to be the coldest day in Sydney in ten years time! And we had to be there... According to the weather forecast, the sun would not show itself, until next week Tuesday. What a weekend we had to pick for our trip...

At seven, we again joined our Dutch relatives and wandered back into the city, to have dinner. We ended up at a Greek restaurant. Great food. After dinner, we said good night to each other and Bea and I walked back to our hotel. It had been a very long day, two hours longer than normal, being on Australian NSW time.

The next day, Saturday, we got up around eight, had a quick breakfast at a small cafe nearby and walked to the hostel where our relatives were staying. Around nine we met them and decided what to do. The raining had now changed from continues to showers and even some patches of bluesky were visible. Nevertheless we concluded that we had experienced enough rain falling on our heads and walked to the Sydney Museum. For two ours we enjoyed watching displays with marvellous collections of animal and human skeletons, stuffed birds, stuffed insects (huge spiders) and natural minerals.

After departing the museum, a Starbucks coffee was the next on our list. We stayed indoors and saw two rain showers passing. Then we took the mono rail train to Darling Harbour. At that time, the sun was shining brightly and we chose to take a boat trip on the Sydney Harbour. Despite the few rain showers while being on the boat, we saw great sights of the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, the sailing yachts and the shores with multi-million dollar houses and apartments...

The boat trip took two hours. Back at Darling Harbour, we had a drink at a cafe and attended an entertaining aboriginal music live show. Closing off the Saturday, we had pizza for dinner in the city and there we said goodbye to our Dutch relatives. We had a great time together. Bea and I ended the day with a stroll to Circular Quay again, to enjoy the nightly views of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

The next day, Sunday, Bea and I got up at nine and checked out at the hotel at ten. We could leave most of our luggage at the hotel, to be picked up by us, later that day. The weather was sunny, with some shattered clouds. The weather forecast had been completely wrong! Lucky for us :-)

On our way to the city, we had a quick breakfast, again at that same small cafe nearby the hotel. We had decided that we wanted to see Sydney from above, so we visited the Sky Tower. Marvellous views from the observation deck and a good coffee on the restaurant deck, while enjoying the views and getting warmed up by the sun. A great spot!

After having been up in the tower for more than an hour, we descended again to street level and after a quick stop for consuming a Dutch Kroket (croquette), we wandered to China Town. Where ever we are in the world, China Towns always attract us. The atmosphere, the people, the smells of prepared food, it's all great. From there we continued our walk to Paddy's Market, which houses indoors a large giftware and fruit market and upstairs a modern shopping mall. Browsing the stalls downstairs and drinking freshly squeezed fruit juice upstairs, while watching the diversity of people passing by, was very enjoyable.

Then it was nearly time to say goodbye to the city of Sydney and while strolling back to the hotel, via Hyde Park, to pick up the rest of our luggage, we already started to cherish the memories of the past three days. A short shuttle ride from the hotel to the airport, and a short (three hours) smooth flight back to rainy Wellington, ended just after midnight another great weekend.