{"id":331,"date":"2008-04-18T22:03:45","date_gmt":"2008-04-18T22:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hinchy.org\/wp\/?p=331"},"modified":"2014-01-11T07:00:12","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T23:00:12","slug":"sydney-on-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hinchy.org\/travels\/sydney-on-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney on Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Our plane trip from Melbourne to Sydney went smoothly\u2026 if you blinked, you would have missed it \u2013 about 10 minutes after finishing the ascent, the captain announced we were beginning our descent!\u00a0 An hour trip overall.<\/p>\n

The first thing we noticed about Sydney was that the city\u2019s drivers aren\u2019t quite as laid back as Melbourne\u2019s \u2013 our taxi driver managed to beep and abuse before we had even left the airport.\u00a0 He was quite engaging, however, even if he did have a disturbing habit of constantly creeping at red lights, ensuring we were regularly in \"\"the middle of the intersection before the light went green.
\nOur hotel was a step up in class from our Melbourne one.\u00a0 We had booked into an executive suite on Albion St in Surry Hills \u2013 king-size bed, living area and huge flat-screen TV.\u00a0 What a shame we will spend most of our time exploring, not hiding in our room!
\nA good 90 seconds after arriving in our new room, we were out again, ready to explore.\u00a0 Walking out, we quickly discovered we were in the middle of Chinatown.\u00a0 We stumbled across Paddy\u2019s Markets, and being around lunchtime, chose a little curry place.\u00a0 \"\"I had a simple (and mild) lamb curry with naan bread, and Em had a vegetable curry.\u00a0 Both were fabulous.
\nHaving left the hotel room so quickly, we had no idea where we actually were.\u00a0\u00a0 Using the mobile WhereIs, we were pleasantly surprised to discover we were only about 2 minutes from Darling Harbour.\u00a0 Darling Harbour is interesting \u2013 initially, it appears there is plenty to do, but there is that real contrived \u201ctouristy\u201d thing happening here.\u00a0 The idea of having an Australian Wildlife Park crammed onto a pier seemed to smack of inappropriateness.\u00a0 The Aquarium next door was more at home in the area, but the advertising of \u201cjoint-pass\u201d tickets for \u201conly\u201d $68 per person sent us packing.
\nInstead, we shot across the harbour, walking underneath the monorail, and visited the National Maritime Museum.\u00a0 We began with the submarine and destroyer walks \u2013 HMAS Onslow and HMAS Vampire respectively.\u00a0 The submarine was surreal.\u00a0 So small, so thoughtfully designed to contain so many people, it really would take a special person to serve on one.\u00a0 In the main control room, nine of us crammed in tight as a tour guide informed us that on a normal operations day, 22 men would man the same space.\u00a0 The HMAS Onslow spent its life listening and following Russian submarines around the Arctic Ice, obviously listening for either the grumblings of a Cold War or the first grunts of Anna Kournikova.\u00a0 Like Anna Kournikova, the HMAS Onslow never fired a shot in anger during its career.
\n\"\"HMAS Vampire was also a stunning walk.\u00a0 Built in the 1950\u2019s and decommissioned in 1998 (I think), there are still remnants of the last crew\u2019s activities, like sports rosters, and graffiti in the mess.
\nThe main part of the Maritime Museum was also full of interesting history \u2013 the obvious things like Sydney to Hobart memorabilia, First Fleet information and famous passengers cruiseliners were on display, but the highlight for us was the Summers of Australia exhibition, which was walls upon walls of colour photos from the 1950s to 1970s, highlighting Australians affinity with water.\u00a0 There were images from all around Australia \u2013 including 1960s golf in Port Hedland!
\n\"\"We finished off our day hanging around the habour until Simon finished work.\u00a0 We met up with him and his workmates at a bar called The Watershed, which had a stunning view of the city skyline \u2013 and Little Creatures on tap!\u00a0 Simon\u2019s workmates seemed cool, although they spent most of the time trying to extract embarrassing \u201cfamily secrets\u201d out of Emma.\u00a0 As always, Emma was able to put up the brick wall and maintain a code of silence.\u00a0 I think this will only encourage Andrew, Simon\u2019s boss, to just make up embarrassing stories instead.
\nWe finished off at a charming little restaurant near our hotel called Mint.\u00a0 Simon recommended it highly, and he wasn\u2019t wrong.\u00a0 With Moroccan themes, Emma and I both tackled a lamb dish which was brilliant, while Simon\u2019s dish also looked yum.\u00a0 Dessert was probably the highlight, with all of us ordering pistachio and orange icecream, with a little baklava on the side.
\nA good start for Sydney!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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