Went through Sydney

Dec 7, 2006 by Daniel Ross-Jones

(12:03 p.m. Wellington, Dec. 8, 2006)

Well we didn’t find any cheap wi-fi in Sydney, so I apologize for the lack of updates. (We did find a few Internet cafes with broadband and kiosks, so the e-mails I sent from there will suffice as the blog entries.) I’m sitting on the bed at the hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, where I am just itching to get outside and exploring.

(Bryan’s in the shower, so I’m updating you all as I wait for him.)

Let’s backtrack a little bit. Sydney was amazing. I really felt like the city was a sort of hybrid between Southern California and New York, with the cultural scene, the beaches, the laid back atmosphere, but yet the determination and will power was also noticeable. However, for future reference, know that SYDNEY IS FREAKING EXPENSIVE. I thought I had reached the peak of expense when I went to London earlier this year, but apparently I was wrong. It’s next to impossible to find food under $5 a portion, and if you’re expecting meal deals to include drink and side, you’re wrong, too. A few places have good deals (of the approx. $5 variety), but for the most part either the portion is extremely small or the food isn’t something appetizing.

We went and played with the animals at the Taronga Zoo, where I now have been able to see the Australian animal life up close and personal. (Including things like snakes, bats, and rats – which I could have just as soon lived my life without seeing.) We also visited places like the Sydney Opera House (and got to watch a rehearsal of the Australia Orchestra – amazing!) and the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Of course, we had to make a stop at Bondi Beach, where we both proceeded to get redder than tomatoes, and now are in a miserable state of skin health. Like always, my skin can’t decide what it wants to do, so the left side of my face is peeling, my upper arms are tight and painful, and my feet developed burn blisters on top, along with the walking blisters on bottom, so I’m the token child for good health in Australasia.

I met up with a friend of mine, Ryanne, who I hadn’t seen in years. The last night, we also met up with some friends of Bryan’s that he had been studying with for the past semester. That’s where things got interesting.

Before finding them, we were responsible and checked the train schedule to find out when the last train left for our hotel. (We were staying in a remote suburb about 45 minutes south of the city center, so train travel was essential.) We looked at the grid, saw “12:59” and operated under the assumption that we just needed to be at the train station about ten to one in the morning.

Once we got to the station at Circular Quay (a little earlier, because we had been looking at the grid for the St. James station, which is the stop after the Quay), there was only one more train departing for the evening – ending halfway to our hotel station at Leumeah. So we double-checked the grid again and discovered our grievous mistake: the times we were looking at were followed by an F notation. The F means Friday-only service. In actuality, the last train to leave Circular Quay had been about an hour earlier.

Bryan went and asked a cabbie about how much it would cost to get to Campbelltown (the suburb we were staying in) and it was going to be over $100 cab fare. Uh, no, thank you. It turned out fine, since all of his friends were relatively close and we ended up sleeping on the floor in a hotel room, but it completely ruined what was supposed to have been our sleep in day before getting on airplanes and coming here.

That’s the most eventful occurrence so far. Which is good. No missed flights or anything like that.

Now we’re in Wellington, staying at the Downtown Backpackers, a hotel converted from the Victorian era that once housed such dignitaries as the Queen and her entourage. It’s nice and quaint, and very European. We have a mountainside view, and are right in the center of the Wellington CBD. Today we’re just planning on some exploring, some online time, and possibly finding a cheaper car rental place than Hertz. (They exist in the airport literature we found.) Let’s just hope that Wellington isn’t as expensive as Sydney, and we’ll be golden.

On deck this week are two days here in Wellington, then driving up the North Island to Auckland and flying out a week from yesterday. Thanks to assistance from Bryan’s family, we’ll be staying at a hotel in Auckland (originally it was slotted for car sleeping and then showering at the airport), which greatly helps both our sanity and our finances, as we can now cut down the car rental period by a couple of days and save a little cash.

We’re off to see Wellington! Chat with you all again in some time.

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