Sydney – Fish and wine, Darling?
One of the plans that Andy and I had formulated the night before was to go and see Darling Harbour in the morning, followed by Manly in the afternoon. Of course, this meant waking up in the morning, not an easy thing to do after such a big night. However, any hopes of a lie-in were shattered by the arrival of our new dorm-mate. She issued a loud and cheery “Hello!”, followed by a comment that we were all still asleep, had it been a heavy night? I think I managed to nod in reply, when she announced to us all that her name was Nicola. I spotted another northern accent, and it was lovely to find out that she was another Manchester lass. Turns out she’d been through a bit of a time in the last couple of weeks before the start of her trip, and she was wonderfully brave coming out and starting it anyway. She’s a star, but by this time, Andy and I were in total fits of laughter just at the randomness of the morning, combined with memories from the night before. He kept catching my eye across the room and had me roaring with laughter. We set off again when another new room mate, Martin, came in and greeted us with what we later learned was his trademark, “ooh, hello”. Wonderful.
Now that we were both up and awake, we rallied and firmed up the plans over breakfast. We’d get the ferry round to Darling Harbour, have a walk round, see the Aquarium, some lunch, and then on to Manly on the other side of the harbour. We got the train down to the Rocks, where the ferry left, and I was able to show off with my superior knowledge of Sydney’s rail system. I tell you, just a couple of days in the place and I had it sussed. We laughed our way on to the ferry and were distracted by a school party on there, and soon it was time to get off and see the Aquarium.
I’d briefed Andy beforehand on my fear of sharks, so he was on hand to fend any off should they get too near. I don’t trust that glass (and I used to work for a glass company, so I should know, although, to be frank, I never paid that much attention). The aquarium was fantastic, and I’d definitely recommend a visit. They have so many varieties of aquatic life, from platypuses (is that the correct plural? I have a feeling it should be platypi or something), to crocodiles, stingrays (oh the irony!),
sealions and seals, nemo fish, to sharks. And get this – I touched a shark! I real living one! OK, I admit, it was only a baby and was about 20cm long, but I touched it. And the lady didn’t let me hurt it. I kept my fingers clear of its mouth, though. Baby or not, it was eeevil. I had a strange feeling, though, when there was a glass walkway over part of the aquarium tanks. I’ve seen them before at towers, and have no fear whatsoever of the heights, but although it was only over a few feet of water, I was scared of falling through, and would only jump from steel rafter to rafter.
Coming outo the strong sunlight, we decided our first priority was lunch. Because, dammit, the sun was out, we were in Sydney and, as Andy kept reminding me (though I’m sure he was just looking for an excuse), it was my birthday WEEK. We found a lovely bar overlooking Darling Harbour and we had lunch and – here’s where I get my excuse in early – I started off on a Diet Coke, I swear. Jonesy though, on the other hand, was nowhere near as restrained, and started on the wine. We finished those, looked at each other, and ordered a bottle of wine. And there went the day. That bottle turned into another, and the day turned into evening. We were just laughing and talking too much to move, literally falling over our words and our shared interests and coincidences. Is there any better feeling?
The night turned into our typical random funny night, though. We were soon joined by a VERY drunk man called Trevor, who kept stroking my hair and massaging Andy’s shoulders. “Get off me, Trevor” became our anthem that night. I was sure Andy was more his type than I was, although he denied it and swore he was straight. We eventually had to tell him we were married, it was our anniversary, and we wanted a bit of alone time before he would leave us alone. Great stuff.
By the time we’d left the trains had stopped running, so we had to walk home. One of the things we’d discovered was a shared love of karaoke, so we were delighted to see a karaoke bar open on the way back to the hostel. It was an Asian-style one, though, with private rooms for hire. We soon launched into all the old favourites – I did a top (in my mind) version of “You’re so vain”, and got the giggles at some of the typos in the lyrics – instead of “wife of a close friend”, I was told I should be singing “wife of a clothesman”. Legendary. I also did, for my family on the other side of the world, “Here, there, and everywhere”. We busted out the duets, honouring the Aussies with “Especially for you”, and my birthday with “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” (number one when I was born, fact fans), Andy did the valleys proud with a rendition of “The Green, Green Grass of Home” followed by “Sweet Caroline”, and we ended, for some reason that made sense at the time, with “Santa Claus is Coming To Town”. Don’t ask.
Fully karaoked up, we laughed our way back to the hostel, once again delighted with new friendships, and new plans for the morning.
Tags: Australia, Travel
Suzanne
“That’s a nice tie” “Where did you get it?”
Suze, you know the next line… classic!