Monday Morning In Sydney

Monday November 2, 2008

Is it strange that I feel dirtier after spending a day in the city than I do after a day out in the bush? Just a different kind of dirty I suppose.

On the nearly familiar train ride now, snacking on some candy corn received in a package earlier this week, ast eh track curve in and out along the southern coastline. At the next stop, Wollongong, I’ll be nearly half way back to Nowra, where laundry, cleaning and general organization (what I tend to call “getting my life back together”) awaits me.

Thursday night I received a text from Laura, a really close friend from WAC: rowing and senior year suite mate; “Did you get Monday off? There is a possibility I could come to Sydney this weekend.” Ever since we decided not to follow through with some last minute plans in October, we had been trying to organize a get-together either in Sydney or in Melbourne / Sale, where Laura is coaching rowing for a private school.

Both of our schedules seem to be uncertain and constantly changing so when we finally united at Sydney’s Central station around 9:30 pm on Friday, following a train trip from each of us and a plane ride on Laura’s part, it was quite a happy moment for lack of better words to describe it.

It was soooooo good to reunite and spend the weekend together! I know I have already expressed over and over how awesome my house mates and coworkers are but I think I’ve also explained how close friendship take time to build and there is just no replacement for a friend you’ve known going on five years – wow!

In attempt to minimize the rambling I’ll try to give a brief summary of our weekend!

Friday Night:
Laura had already checked us into a hostel, which gave us coupons for 15 free drinks at various pubs in Sydney. We were both pretty tired so we redeemed one of our free drinks on the way to the hostel and caught up on each others lives!

Saturday:

Woke up and caught the bus to Collaroy Beach, about 20-30min outside of the city. Stopped by the grocery store first and a coffee shop so we could have breakky on the bus!

Spent a good bit of the day at the beach watching Fiona’s surf boat rowing competition! Very interesting! 4 people in a large boat plus a sweep who does the steering. They row out through the surf, around a buoy (pronounced boy-e) and then back in. It can be pretty dangerous and poor Fiona’s boat actually capsized on the way back in during one of their races. It wasn’t a hot day but not too cool either so neat to watch and gave us more time to catch up.

Had a late lunch at a pub on the beach, found a geocache and dropped off the travel bug from the summer, walked around Colloray, read, took showers, dinner with Fiona and 2 of her friends in Dee Why beach. Spent the night at Fiona’s.

Sunday:

I bought a coffee before hopping on the bus to have with breakky on the way to Manly beach. From Manly we took the Ferry into the city to give Laura the “full Sydney experience.” I had done the ferry back in 2006 and remembered how cool in was to come into Sydney via the water past the opera house . . .
We had a nice day in the city, walking around outside the opera house, along circular quay, to the rocks where we walked through the markets; crafts, prints, books, and free samples of fresh nuts . . . Redeemed two more of our free drinks through out the day.

After lunch we stopped by Rob’s apartment to drop off our bags so we could stop lugging them around! Went up to Hyde Park where we went through the Barracks museum. Very interesting! We learned a lot about the convicts and the history behind the building. A highlight was on the last floor where they had a whole room set up like the old sleeping quarters with hammocks strung in two rows down the room. Laura and I took it upon ourselves to “test them out” and spent longer than intended lounging, talking, and trying to get a good picture!

We were headed back towards the opera house when we heard bells ring and remembered we had meant to check out St. Mary’s Cathedral at Hyde Park near the museum. Then we remembered that it was Sunday. We decided to take a chance on it, turn around and see if there might be a church service. We were 15min late and walked in during the sermon but it was an interesting experience. Neat church, kind of an odd service, and not just because it was Catholic but yeah, I didn’t exactly feel like I had gone to church but it was an experience.

A failed attempt at the Royal Botanical Gardens, a few sprinkles, and a hamburger later, we made our way back to Rob’s where the NRL game between England and Australia was on! Aussie won!!! Gosh, I miss NRL! Never been into a sport but NRL, yeah.

So that was our long awesome day in Sydney, I’m sure I’ve forgotten to mention some things because it was such a full day!


Monday:

Laura’s flight was at 10:00am so the shuttle picked her up from Rob’s at 7:45am. I left shortly after headed toward the block where all the outdoor shops were. Mel, my housemate had told me about it, so I was eager to check it out! I spent the morning trying on shoes and looking earnestly for affordable navy blue shorts, which don’t seem to exisit in outdoor shops!

I took notes on lots of shoes so I can now look online and order from home. I’m pretty sure I can still make out cheaper if I order from home and have them shipped than if I buy them here.

Caught the train home and Mel picked me up around 5 – home sweet home!

Such a great weekend!!!