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Published: January 2nd 2009
Lorenza and I were really organised with our celebrations to see in 2009. We booked a hotel on the northside of the harbour many months ago, with the promise of harbour views and a short walk to some great vantage points to see the New Year fire works on Sydney Harbour.
We took the two hour train trip to Sydney, with Lorenza spending the time doing sudoku and me just gazing out the window wondering why we do not do more with so much of the land close to the city that could be used for growing food, rather than weeds and car wrecks.
Once at Milsons Point we discovered our hotel room had a lovely view over Lavender Bay, plus over toward Balmain and Gladesville in the distance. We emptied the mini bar of it's over priced contents and filled it with the drinks and food we had packed. Why pay $8 for a beer when you can bring your own?
Once we had unpacked we took a short walk to the water front, just under the bridge, near Luna Park and checked out where might be a good vantage point for fire works watching later. Lorenza
view from room
View from roomis ever the optimist and claimed we would have no problems finding some good spots to make ourselves comfortable later. She even had herself convinced that the crowds would go home after the 9pm children's fire works - how optimistic is that!
We dined at the hotel, and enjoyed the seafood buffet that was on offer. We were lucky to get a table as it was fully booked weeks in advance, but thanks to some sweet talking the barman got us a table which was so nice of him. He was a very happy chappy who was obviously very good at his job and told us he was looking forward to a very busy night. So, dinner was lovely, one of the great things about Sydney is fresh seafood - oysters, Balmain Bugs, Calamari, prawns, so much to pick from - yum!
One of the girls serving the food was Filipino, and I told Lorenza something really nice to say to her in Tagalog (one of the may languages yours truly knows how to say something stupid in!) - I promised Lorenza that if she went over and said "mabaho kili kili more" to her she would get
a big smile. It sure did the trick and Lorenza soon learned she had just told this lovely young girl that "your armpits smell!" Oh, it is amazing my wife trusts me so much isn't it!
After dinner we wandered back toward the harbour and the crowd was getting thicker, but still not so bad. We found a spot just near Luna Park, over looking the harbour toward the Opera House and settled in sitting on our cushions from our backpack. The 9pm fireworks for the children were not bad.
Where are you from?
We got chatting to some folks seated around us - a very international crowd - the great opening question "where are you from" is always a good one - the first response from a large family group was that they were "Persian" from Canada, Iran and also Sydney. They told us their story of why they had all met up in Sydney, apparently the "Mother" who lived in Iran could not get a visa to visit Canada, but did get one to visit Sydney. So, the family in Canada packed up and came to Sydney to rendezvous with the "Mother" to see in
the New Year.
Our next “Where are you from” was directed at a young lady sitting next to Lorenza. The response was “I am from Nepal, I am studying nursing in Sydney”. We found out that her husband of two years was living in Brisbane working as a chef. We then find out about the differences between life in Kathmandu and Sydney through her eyes. She had such a lovely smile and soft personality that we could not help but like her so much in a very short space of time. She was a really lovely person and very nice to talk with. We were happy we got talking and spent some time together and saw in the New Year with her because it was obvious she missed not only her husband but also her family in Nepal.
We didn’t bother asking the woman sitting in front of us where she was from. She was far too busy talking to herself very loudly about how stupid her family was, so we left that one alone.
The fire works at midnight extracted lots and lots of ooohhhhhs and aaaahhhhhs from us all. Sydney harbour is certainly a great
location to see such a spectacle. The crescent moon and Venus were off to the west and there were lots of boats and yachts lit up on the harbour. We did ponder the fact that $5 million dollars just went up in smoke to keep us all amused, which could obviously feed and awful lot of needy people. But, what’s done is done I guess!
Not long after midnight the crowd thinned out and we also wandered back to our hotel. In the lobby I had a “where are you from?” directed at me - and got chatting to some folks from Moscow who had only arrived in Sydney 3 hours before, they were looking rather lively for people who had just had a 26 hour flight to see the fire works. They made a very kind offer to join them in sharing a few bottles of Vodka, but we wisely declined the offer.
Zzzzzzzz, sleep was welcome!
Foreshore walk, ferry rides and more “where are you froms”
After breakfast we took a walk down to Lavender Bay and along the foreshore. Then took a ferry ride on the inner harbour to Balmain, Darling Harbour and
back to Milsons Point. For a few dollars the ferry ride is such a wonderful way to see one of the worlds great harbours and it reminds us of what a great city we live a few hours from. Onboard, thanks to our great “where are you from” opening line, we met some British folks who live in Singapore. They shared their New Years Eve experience of Sydney with us, which left us feeling happy they got such a great impression of our city. Plus, some folks from China who had come to Australia to see their daughter graduate from Hobart University.
We took a swim at the Milson Point pool, just under the Harbour Bridge. Then we ventured via ferry again to Circular Quay, then over to Manly. On the ferry we got some good insight from a local guy about what bay is what and also some commentary about the virtues of various boats and yachts that sailed on by. Oh, plus a British foursome who were recovering from the night before!
At Manly we grabbed a few beers in a bar over looking the beach, which also had a very cool DJ playing some relaxed
beats for us all. We got in another “where are you from” conversation and met a couple from Newcastle in the UK. Our conversation with them wove its way around Australian beer, cricket, rugby, how weird it was for them that it was so hot on New Years Day here, plus more about beer and cricket.
In the line up for the city bound ferry we got in a few more “where are you froms” and met a Pastor from the highlands of Papua New Guinea, some folks from Ghana who were absolutely stunning. On the ferry we met a Thai couple, Tom and Gub who were studying Business and IT at a Sydney University.
Then on the ferry back to Milsons Point our next “where are you from” found us conversing with a couple from Saudi Arabia who were studying in Brisbane - mathematics and chemistry respectively.
What a great few days - we saw in 2009 in good company, plus got so many different perspectives on life from so many people how could we not be happy?
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liliram
liliram
We're in stitches!
That "kili kili" line really drew some laughter here. We enjoyed reading your blog. We wonder where you learned that line. Lol. And btw, that photo in the pool under the bridge looks really cool.