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Published: February 2nd 2009
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The Sydney Star
After a long flight to Sydney, with some of the worst entertainment United has to offer, we arrived early in the morning on our first day in Sydney. After going through immigration and customs, getting Eric’s bag, and going through “quarantine” - where I was luckily able to keep my granola bars and starburst, we left for our first hostel experience. Many of you have asked about where we are staying during the trip. Because Eric and I have spent the last several years of our lives spoiled by both work and personal travel with upgrades, United status, and fancy hotels like the Four Seasons, Shangri-La, W, Westin, etc., this is a challenge. We are compromising by staying at hostels, but only in private double rooms with our own private bathroom (aka “ensuite”). Our first hostel experience is at the Sydney Star Accommodation in Darlinghurst, Sydney. It took us about 1.5 hours to check in, while waiting for “Steve” to arrive, which gave us an opportunity to remember we are slowing down, in no rush. We have a simple double bed, up against the wall, with one window which looks out onto the courtyard which
is a bit of a hangout site at night for the hostel occupants, no air conditioning, and a very simple bath with shower and no towels. We can rent towels for $2 each, or use our small “pack towels.” We do have a fridge and microwave, which meant we could shop at the super market for fresh fruit, water, and yogurt. But, what more could you ask for at $50 a night in a major international city?
Travel Karma
We assumed we would land, check in, and crash, but we were surprisingly awake. You will learn that occasionally, Eric and I are all talk. We told many of you we were going to check in, and head straight to the beach to veg out for the day. But, because we were so awake, we felt that we would not really feel like we were in Australia until we got out, walked around, and saw something truly Australian. We instead went for a quick walk through the neighborhood and grabbed lunch. Then, we kept walking, and walking, through the Royal Botanical Gardens and over to Sydney Harbour. It felt as though we were not in Australia until
we see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. We sat for awhile on a bench overlooking the harbor and were just in awe. Although, Eric was disappointed that the Opera House was not as white as he hoped. It is more of an off-white, eggshell color. Then, we had our first Travel Karma experience. A gentleman came up to us and offered us what remained of his 24 hour ticket on the Sydney site seeing double decker bus. We accepted thinking we probably would not use it. Double decker buses are just not our thing, even of the hop on - hop off variety. The last one we did was during our very first trip abroad to Dublin about 10 years ago. But, we had walked a great distance from our hostel, and our feet were starting to hurt, and this bus would drop us off about 3 blocks from our hostel at no cost. Have I mentioned we are on a budget? So, we rode the bus, on the top level of course, for over an hour seeing the sites. I am glad we did because, although it is not an expense we would normally occur, it was
Harbour Bridge
We are really in Australia now. nice seeing most of the city, putting things in perspective. We learned that you do not exit a bus, but you “alight” at the next exit. It also let us see from the bus several sites which were on the list of things to see, that we realized are not really for us, i.e. Shopping at Darling Harbour - touristy, over priced, like South Street Seaport in New York. As we enjoyed the ride, we realized we would need to pay it forward at some point - Travel Karma. At the end of the ride, we realized Travel Karma was biting us in the rear. We were out way longer than we had anticipated, and after spending over an hour on the top of the bus, we realized we left the hostel with no sun block. We were thoroughly roasted!
We returned to the hostel, drank a ton of water, put on lotion, and took a nap around 5pm, before dinner. Of course, with the jet lag, we woke up about 8 and went to bed, waking around 6 am the next morning. We slept for about 12 hours, with ear plugs in (party scene on a Saturday night at the Sydney Star). All in all, a good first day. Aside from the sunburn.
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kayla
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i love seeing tom the traveler everywhere. what do you think the chances are of you getting him on the bridge with a picture? miss you!