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Published: August 6th 2007
What an Amazing City - And They Speak English Too
An Incredibly Tiring Day Our flight from Singapore to Sydney left at 8pm which is a good and bad thing. Like I said in an earlier blog, traveling late in the day allows us to be relaxed about getting to the airport, packing and all the other odds and ends having to do with travel. When we travel in the morning we end up rushed, tired due to lack of sleep, and more than a little stressed. The only flights from Singapore to Sydney leave at the crack of dawn or the late afternoon/evening. Thus we chose the 8pm flight but there are difficulties involved in an all night flight as well. Sleep: how do you get it or how do you live without it if you don’t get it? You get the picture I’m sure.
The flight was surprisingly nice considering it was just shy of 8 hours. One of the stewards on the flight told us early on that he was going to make our trip to Australia like our honeymoon. I thought he was just being nice but he really did go
out of his way to make our trip great. Halfway through the flight, while most of the passengers were sleeping (and I wasn’t), he ushered me into the flight attendant’s area. He had snagged a bottle of French Champagne and a bottle of Australian white wine for us. He asked us to be discrete about it and keep it kinda hidden until later. What a nice guy! If Qantas flights are always like this then I would highly recommend using them.
While we flew we watched a bunch of movies. The invention of on-demand movies has made a giant improvement in long distance travel. I watched Borat, The Departed and 95% of Blood Diamond while Kel watched some TV shows, Marie Antoinette, and Dream Girls. Time really flew which was actually problematic. When we landed we hadn’t slept a wink and due to the time change it was just about 7am. This lack of sleep clouded the rest of our first day in Australia.
After a very quick and painless immigration experience we grabbed our bags and a cab to our booked hostel. When we got there (about 7:30am) they informed us that check in couldn’t happen until
2pm. No sleep and no place to sleep is a very unfortunate combination. We left the hostel after locking our bags up in their luggage locker and headed to catch some breakfast at a local café.
With breakfast out of the way I forced Kel to march about 7 blocks to Hyde Park in the middle of downtown. By this point Kel was about to drop where she stood. We had been up for about 19 hours straight and Kel is not built to last for this much time without sleep. I managed to goad her to a shaded park bench and lay her down for a little nap. For the next 2 and a half hours Kel slept on the bench with a large part of Sydney walking past on their way to work (and often looking quizzically at her on the way). I sat with her, read a book and called my parents on our cell phone during her nap. While tired, I have the philosophy that waiting until later for sleep is often the best policy because it keeps you on a semi regular schedule.
After Kel woke up we got a decent lunch at
a café in the park and then went on a walk. The more you move the less likely you are to fall asleep again. We stuck to the parks in downtown which are very large and incredibly beautiful. From Hyde Park we walked to The Domain and finally into the Sydney Botanical Gardens. Sydney has a ton of green space which makes the city feel very open and beautiful. Kel and I both agree that if we ever lived in a big city it would have to be one that is similarly designed.
An hour or so of walking behind us, we wound up back at the hostel to check in. We asked to check the room out before we accepted it because we were not all that wowed by the interior of the hostel when we dropped our bags off earlier in the day. The room was really small and the beds were uncomfortable so we decided to find some place else to stay. We ran up to the closest internet café and found a hotel nearby and booked a room. Within 45 minutes of trying to check in at the hostel we were checked into the more
comfortable downtown hotel on Castlereagh Street right near Hyde Park. The next 3 hours involved some serious nap time for us both which was well needed as I had now been up for 26 hours straight. Whew!
Once we finished our naps it was time for dinner. We took the advice of our hotel and walked to Darling Harbour to eat in one of the plethora of restaurants on the waterside. We chose a Middle Eastern restaurant which turned out to be really good. With our stomachs full we returned to the hotel for a good nights sleep.
The Harbor, The Sydney Opera House, and Soccer Aussie Style Surprisingly we got up at a relatively regular time the next morning which is a testament to our will the previous day. If we had slept as much as we wanted the day before we would have never been able to fall asleep and sleep through the night. Once we got up and really moving it was getting close to lunch time so we decided to skip breakfast to save a bit of cash. We headed to a local food court for some decent and inexpensive lunch.
Crazy Urawa Fans
Machines I tell you, they were machines.From lunch we walked up to the main part of Sydney Harbor for an afternoon of exploration of the harbor area and the Rocks area near the Harbor. The harbor really is the heart and soul of the city with its constant hustle and bustle. We spent the next couple of hours walking around enjoying the views of the Opera House and the surrounding landscape. With multiple restaurants, businesses, street performers and sites there is plenty to do in the area to keep one busy for at least a few hours.
We got some pictures of the Opera House and the proceeded to walk through the Rocks to get to the Sydney Harbor Bridge. While in the area we stopped at a few art galleries (and some jewelry shops) to see what the local art scene was like as we headed towards the bridge. Once at the bridge we walked about half way across to get views of the city from the middle of the harbor. While on the bridge we noticed how close the botanical gardens were to the harbor side so we figured it would be a great way to wind up our day on the town.
Friut Bats
These bats are everywhere! After a stop for some drinks at a local convenience shop we took the half hour walk back to the botanical gardens to enjoy the plants while we were actually awake. We hadn’t enjoyed them much the previous day due to our official “walking-dead” status so it was nice to get a chance to see them while fully alert. After a walk through the lush greenery we decided to waste some time in the local style by laying on the grass enjoying the view of the harbor. With the chatter of fruit bats in the background (These flying rats which have a wing span of about 3.5 feet are all over Sydney. They are perfectly harmless other than the large quantities of poop.) we laid on the grass and enjoyed the breeze. The gardens really are a great addition to the city center.
We realized we needed to get back to the hotel so we got up and took the half hour walk home. On the way into town I had seen a sign on the highway announcing a soccer game for Wednesday night. Kel had done some research and we went ahead and bought two tickets for
the game because we have been dying to see some real pro “football”. Thus we needed to head back to the hotel to get ready for the night’s festivities.
We spent some time doing some booking for our next leg of the trip and then headed out to the game. We took a city bus over to the stadium and grabbed hot dogs and chips (French Fries) for dinner and took our great seats nearly midway down the field in row T. Thankfully we were surrounded by home team fans since Sydney was playing the Japanese league champions from Urawa, Japan.
The game started long before the first kick. A huge section at the end of the field was filled with Urawa fans. Even before the teams came out to practice the Urawa fans were chanting and really putting on a show. We later found out that Japanese fans are all wild and crazy but in a uniquely Japanese way. They seem to do nothing on an individual level, everything is done is a thoroughly group manner. One guy with a bull-horn and a headband stood at the front of the section with his right hand man banging
on a large drum. These two successfully led the Urawa fans through almost two hours of straight chanting and singing. While the Aussie fans cheered at the appropriate times these Urawa fans were like machines. They never stopped waving their huge flags, chanting in unison, and waving and clapping. It was almost like a military exercise. I’ve never seen anything like it!
Once the game began the Sydney team moved ahead by two goals within the first ten minutes of the game. Kel and I figured it was going to be a blow out because the Aussies were maniacs who controlled the ball steadily for the first 30 minutes of the first half. But, by about 35 minutes the Aussies began to flag and the Japanese took advantage of the situation to score a goal shortly before half time.
With half time behind us we were hoping to see more life behind the Aussie team but the Japanese team was back with a vengeance. For almost the whole half the Japanese team controlled the ball and showed much better ball handling skills than the Aussies who just looked tired. Midway through the half the Aussie’s goalie fumbled a
Mike and Kel at the Soccer Game
That's Urawa in the red in the background. ball which lead to the Urawa Red Diamonds (named because they are owned by Mitsubishi who has three diamonds as their symbol) scored their second goal which tied the game up.
Despite being a little frantic at this point the Aussies never gained the advantage. The game ended up being tied and everyone shuffled out of the stadium while the crazy Urawa fans continued to chant like the machines that we were convinced they were. I was a bit disappointed that the Aussies didn’t win but was glad that my first professional soccer game was a good one.
Kel and I wandered home with smiles on our faces. What a great beginning to our time in Australia. Sights, sounds and excitement all in the span of 36 hours on the ground. Awesome!
Hope you are all well at home. We are now 15 hours ahead of you which is crazy. So while I finish writing this at 1am on Thursday it is 10am on Wednesday for you. Crazy how time works, huh? We miss you all!
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Katie M
non-member comment
Glad you're having fun...
Glad you had a safe trip from Asia to Australia. Sydney looks like lots of fun, especially all the green space and plants :-) I'm enjoying all the vicarious travel! I have six weeks left until new baby comes, so home and nearby is about as far as I am going these days.