Llew Wanders the World

My trip to Australia began with arrival in Sydney following the three hour flight from Auckland. First activities after disembarking were short wait to collect my bag and a less short trip through customs and quarantine inspections (Australia is one of only three stops in my itenerary that required a visa in advance, and the country takes serious measures to avoid importation of foreign pests.)

After completing entry formalities, I went to have a seat in the arrivals lounge (my flight had got in a bit early) and had barely sat down when I was met by George, one of my hosts in Sydney, along with his wife Faye, their daughter Kirsten and mother and father Peter and Vlasa. A few years ago while I was dating Faye’s sister, Kate, George, Faye and the yet-to-be-born Kirsten had stayed at my house in Toronto for a few weeks, and they were overjoyed to have a chance to return the favour.

After the merely warm weather in Christchurch, the 33 degree blast of heat awaiting me in Sydney came as something of a shock, but no matter. In no time, we’d driven back to the air conditioned comfort of George’s parents’ in the Sydney suburb of Bexley.

My first day in Sydney was a quiet one. Given my 05:00 start to the day, not to mention the three hour time change, I needed a nap in the afternoon, and between catching up with Faye and George and introductions to the rest of the family, an early bedtime came quite naturally.

The next day was still bright and sunny, but thankfully had cooled considerably from the previous. This was especially fortunate as I planned to spend the day getting myself oriented in the city, doing a bit of exploring on foot and sorting out the rest of my stay here (at least in Sydney if not the whole country.)

The day began with a train ride from Bexley into Sydney proper. I was amazed at how extensive the Sydney rail system is. The trains may not be quite as frequent as subway trains in Toronto, but they’re more frequent than the GO commuter trains, and appear to extend just about as far.

Upon arriving at Town Hall station I poked my head aboveground, and started searching for an Australia travel guide, as well as a map of the city. I found the former, but decided to wait to see if I could locate a second-hand one. A brief perusal of the guidebook in the shop, however, led me to the tourist information office in The Rocks where I also found the latter.

Aside from being home to the tourist office, The Rocks is an interesting neighbourhood in its own right. It’s Sydney’s oldest in a couple of senses. First, it was here where the original party of convicts and their keepers landed, some 216 years ago, and second it’s the home of the largest concentration of remaining nineteenth century buildings.

As I wandered through The Rocks, formerly the turf of gangs of ruffians and delinquents, I found my way under the harbour bridge. A fascinating sight in its own right, the approach span that I could see from the mainland was particularly interesting for a structural engineer. The construction methods, if not the overall style of the bridge, reminded me of the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal.

In addition to the underside of the harbour bridge, this location also provided fine views of the Sydney Opera House.

After my wander ’round The Rocks, I headed southwards, passing back through the CBD (Central Business District,) through a few of Sydney’s pedestrian malls and into Chinatown, all the while looking for a used bookshop (to provide my Australia travel guide) and an inexpensive restaurant (to provide my lunch.) I found the first in Chinatown, and enjoyed a big bowl of pho (Vietnamese rice noodle soup) and eventually found the second not too far away.

After dealing with the day’s necessities, I took a walk through Hyde Park, Sydney’s main urban greenspace, stopping at the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) memorial.

After Hyde Park, I wandered towards a few (closed) charity shops and eventually found myself at the St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral. Aside from the lovely sandstone neo-gothic architecture (love that neo-gothic stuff) and the nearby swimming pools, the most interesting thing about the area was the skateboarders in front (see photo above.) While they actually looked rather less flashy than their North American compatriots, they scored over them in that they actually landed one of their tricks now and again.

As dusk drew in, I wandered back through Hyde Park, enjoying an outdoor exhibition of large-scale photography and stopping to finish my current book. While I sat I was entertained/confounded by hordes of (from where I sat) invisible corvids (crow-like birds) that sounded partway between bleating sheep and talking human infants. These certainly gave me something to ponder as I headed back to Bexley.

My second day was more of the same (id est, walking around the city,) this time taking me from the centre of town to the nearby suburb of Paddington. The famous Paddington Market didn’t impress me particularly, nor did the area’s flash, fashionable shops, but I did manage to find a new pair of swimming trunks at the St. Vincent De Paul shop nearby (interestingly, it appears that charity shops located near vintage clothing stores raise their prices. Nonetheless, $5 didn’t seem too steep, even if the one in the centre of town charged only $3 for shorts.)

I continued my day’s wanderings past the Sydney Cricket Grounds, and Aussie Stadium (where they play rugby internationals,) through the suburb of Surry Hills, stopping only to pick up a new pair of sunglasses at a garage sale ($2 for 2 pairs thusfar on my trip… not too bad.)

My walking trip carried me north, up to Kings Cross, Sydney’s “red light district.” In truth I wasn’t particularly scandalized by it. It was pretty bland compared to the main streets of many cities I’ve visited (including Toronto.)

My final stop for day two was at the Queen Victoria Building, built in 1898 as a monument to that illustrious monarch. Within the building are several large clocks, the most famous of which displays six clockwork vignettes of the British Monarchy, from Canute ordering the tide to stop coming in through the death of Harold the Saxon to kinighting of Sir Francis Drake.

After a bit more wandering, I eventually found my way back to the train station and Bexley, where I caught a nice sunset out over the Norfolk pines of Sydney’s western suburbs. Since I’d already done a bit of grocery shopping while in town, it was fortunate that I’d managed to convince George and Faye to let me make dinner for them. (This time it was Italian rather than Thai. Marinated mushrooms and Pasta primavera con pollo.)

The next day was much less appealing than the previous two. It was drab and rainy, which threw a wrench into my plans of heading over to Bondi Beach. Wrench or not, I headed off to the beach, a mere 20 minute train ride and 20 minute walk away. Even in this miserable weather, there were still plenty of surfers out on the beach. I can only imagine how heavily populated it would be on a sweltering day like I’d experienced on Thursday.

My afternoon was spent wandering along the coastal trail from Bondi to Tamarama to Bronte beaches. Of the lot, the smaller Tamarama looked like the most fun, with crowds of people barbequing and playing volleyball even on this miserable day. (Gotta love using the sunglasses as an impromptu filter for photography.)

Although this day hadn’t demonstrated it fully, Australia and Sydney are known for their beach culture. The lovely tans of the residents were brought into some kind of perspective as I walked back to the train station and saw more and still more advertisements for skin cancer clinics and testing services. Maybe working on a tan to fit in with the locals isn’t such a good idea after all…

My final full day in Sydney was to be spent with further touristy activities. Sadly the weather didn’t seem to like this plan, and had provided a windy, rainy backdrop for me to work with. Ignoring the meteorological difficulties I began my day with the ferry to the north shore suburb of Manly. This heavily trafficked ferry is supposed to provide some of the best views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, and despite the miserable weather it didn’t disappoint.

In addition to the views of well known landmarks, the Manly Ferry treats riders to a view out through the entrance to Sydney Harbour along with the accompanying (at least during blustery days such as this) rolling seas.

Manly itself featured (what would have been in better weather) a lovely beach, as well as lots of outdoor restaurants (once again, not as pleasant due to the weather) and a lovely walk over to nearby Shelley Beach, with a beautiful seawater pool and accompanying sculpture along the way. It was only near the end of the walk to Shelley Beach that I noticed the eco-sculpture garden on the inland side of the beach. The garden features (pewter?) sculptures of the flora and fauna native to the area, appearing one after another every few metres along the trail.

With the conclusion of my brief walking tour of Manly, I headed back towards the city by bus, stopping halfway through for a lunch of Thai green curry (Thai restaurants are even more ubiquitous [can something be MORE ubiquitous than something else? Editor friends?] here than in Toronto.)

The trip back to the city was complicated by the fact that all of the buses return via an expressway and I’d hoped to walk back over the Harbour Bridge. It took quite a bit of wandering in the general direction of the bridge with no real idea of where I actually needed to be going before I eventually found a signed pathway leading me up towards it.

Thankfully the walk across was worth the difficulty finding its start, not to mention the hard windblown rain that dogged me throughout. The views out over the city were wonderful, even on a miserable day such as this, as were the views of the rooftops of The Rocks at the south end of the bridge.

After finding my way down from the heights of the bridge, I made my cold and sodden way to The Lord Nelson Hotel and Brewery, Sydney’s oldest licensed pub, and one of its small number of microbreweries. I spent a pleasant afternoon there drying out, watching highlights of the current Australia-India cricket match and sipping at several of their fine ales.

Eventually I did have to leave the Lord Nelson, but I did manage to make my way to one more brewpub, the James Squire in the tourist-heavy area of Darling Harbour (not nearly so tourist heavy as usual on this yucky Monday night.) After a couple of pints there, I made my way back to Bexley where, after a fine Macedonian dinner provided by Vasa, I sit here writing.

So, before heading out to Tasmania tomorrow morning, big thanks are in order for George, Faye, Vasa, Peter, and of course, Kirsten, the mistress of the house.

Tags: Australia

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 17th, 2004 at 8:16 am and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.