What a Day

Monday morning I woke up intent on making it from my hotel in Paramatta to downtown Sydney to do the bridge climb and explore what I've heard is a city combining the best qualities of SF, SD and SEA. I was under the impression that I’d be free to roam until Thurs. afternoon. On my way out the door at 8:30am I was informed that we were being moved to the Swissottel on Market Street…right downtown, and that we were invited to the MLB International Christmas Party starting that afternoon at 1pm. By the time we were checked in and cleaned up, I had about 2 hours to wander before the party so I headed straight for Circular Quey and took a 30 minute ferry ride to Manly Beach. I didn’t even have time to get off the boat, so it ended up being an hour long $12 cruise that showed me the whole Sydney Harbor. The Christmas party consisted of 10 people sitting in the back corner of a Chinese Restaurant ordering round after round of food and booze for literally seven hours. It was fun but I couldn’t help but think about how I was basically losing another day of exploration in Sydney.

Tuesday I again woke up determined to do that damn bridge climb, but instead headed to Darling Harbor a mere 4 blocks from my hotel (or otel as it were). I encountered the Sydney Aquarium and ended up getting upsold into buying a double ticket for the Aquarium and the Sydney Tower. The aquarium was interesting but a little disappointing overall. The Shark tank was really cool, but I expected a little more from the great barrier reef exhibit. I then went to cash in on my Sydney Tower ticket and found that the Sydney Tower was actually right next door to my otel, it is basically the Australian answer to the space needle. The view from the top was phenomenal it gave me a much better idea of the geography/natural beauty of Sydney and the harbor. It was perfect weather and I had it in my head that I’d head out to Bondi Beach and I more or less assumed I could just take a ferry. In the tower I met Graciella and Adrianna, Brazilian and Columbian respectively, they are studying English in Sydney. We talked about how difficult it is when they’ve always learned American English to get along with the Australian vernacular. They told me the bus was the way to go to Bondi and directed me on my way. So I caught the bus near Hyde Park and 25 minutes later got off in North Bondi with no real clue which way the beach was. I stopped in a liquor store for some sunscreen and asked the stupid question of which way to the beach only to find I was about 3 blocks away. When you walk out of suburban north bondi and first see the beach it is hard to believe it’s a natural setting. It looks far too ideal with its crescent shaped bay of light blue tropical water framed by steep cliffs and amazing houses. I hung out on the beach for an hour or so, took my Storm around the world photo and started a mini pub crawl. I started on the south end and started making my way back on the main drag stopping each place for a local beer, toohey’s has been my favorite so far, but then again I’ve never been too discerning. The 5th place I went into was a burger joint called Bite Me that had the Steelers/Cowboys game on. The waitress was from NYC and the barkeep a swede. I was there for no more than 15 minutes before the bartender, Jacob, was off work and he invited me back to his flat a 5 minute walk away for some more drinks. After we pinned it up, his friend Pontus came over and we watched the season finale of Entourage as any proper American tv junkies would. Even though they are two swedes they met while bartending as teenagers in the French Riviera and randomly reunited after both marrying Australian women and moving to Bondi. Within an hour they had to go as Pontus was moving with his wife and newborn, Phoenix, to a new flat in Bondi and Jacob was helping. I halfheartedly offered to help but there wasn't room in the car anyway and I wanted to make it back to city center for dinner at the Rocks (the area most commonly compared to SF). We exchanged contact info and I told them I might be heading back to Sydney for my weeklong Christmas break.

I messed up on the bus and prematurely jumped out when I mistook a random suburban park for Hyde Park downtown where I had initially caught the bus. I was still a couple miles out but it didn’t matter, I had the tallest building in Sydney to guide me back, and it was an easy walk on a “chamber of commerce” afternoon. I got back to a note under my door at the otel informing me that rather than thurs. I’d be leaving Wed. for Mildura. Now I had to make it count (It was a little disheartening that in nine days in New South Whales I really only had one day to venture out, but Ruli and I got pretty good at speed-travelling in NY/BOS). I headed for the Rocks went into a small pub ordered a Tooheys and started asking questions on what might be going down on a Tuesday night. The two girls bartending seemed to think Chinatown was the place to go so I headed across the street to take the bus as I was a little over walking and Chinatown was on the other side of my otel. At the bus stop I started talking to a Polish girl who had come to Sydney two months ago to study sports psychology, which she informed me is a concept invented in Australia. She ended up going out of her way to transfer buses and show me the way to Chinatown (even though I had a good idea where it was, but I wasn’t complaining). Eventually, I was there and even though she couldn't join me for a drink, we exchanged contact info and now I’ve got even more incentive to spend Christmas in Sydney…I was also invited to a new year’s party at the Harbor side apartment of a guy I met at the baseball tournament who works in some capacity at the US embassy. Chinatown ended up being more of the same, there was a good amount of people out but not quite my style, I stopped in a few places and made my way back... All in all, as the great Sean McCall would say “What a Day”