Bright Lights, Big City, takeways, civilised opening hours, people, cars...yes it's Sydney

Are bank holidays the same everywhere in the world?

Phil had very kindly invited us to Sydney to stay with his parents over the Easter Long Weekend, so of course we jumped at the chance to leave our rural idyll and immerse ourselves in urban decay for a while. He drew up an itinerary for us which i faithfully reproduce here:

Philby’s Tours Down Under

“She’ll be right, mate…”

Itinerary: J McInnes, L Grant and C McInnes

Date	Time	Destination/Accommodation Details
Thursday, 20th March 2008	18:00	Check-in at Casa del Philby, Grafton’s finest ½ star hotel. Location: ?? Kent St Grafton, Ph: 664????? Inclusions: bugger all…
Friday, 21st March 2008	8:00	Depart Casa del Philby for Coffs Harbour Airport, enjoy the thrill of travelling along one of Australia’s most dangerous roads. Sit back and relax in the sheer absent luxury of Philby’s Universal Coachlines and Livestock Transport Co.
	10:05	Flight to Sydney, on Plummett Airways, Flight #1. Enjoy the pure nostalgia of flying to Sydney on an original 1908 Wright Flyer. Arr Sydney 11:30am (there’s always a first time) Note: Passengers are required to assist with engine starting procedures.
	12:30	Check-in at Blackford (formerly Bates) Motel Location: ?? Valley View Cres Epping. Ph: ???? Inclusions: More than at Casa del Philby…
	14:00ish	Trip to Chatswood to view Asian supermarkets, Rugby paraphernalia shop, and a shopping centre which is everything that Grafton Shopping World isn’t.
	19:00ish	Dinner, venue TBA (Probably at Blackford Motel)
Saturday, 22nd March 2008	6:30	Wake-up call, courtesy of Caitlin.
	7:57	Train to Meadowbank station, arr 8:07, 10 minute walk to ferry wharf.
	8:40	Ferry to Circular Quay. Arr 9:20.
	9:20 onwards	Explore Sydney-town, the Rocks, ferry to Manly, the Manly Aquarium, options include Darling Harbour, Chinatown
	19:00ish	Dinner @ Blackford Motel
Sunday 23rd March 2008	Morning	Sydney Royal Agricultural Show. Trains leave Epping at 30 minute intervals on weekends, Change trains at Strathfield and then alight at Sydney Olympic Park. Too Easy…
	19:00ish	Dinner. Venue: Sushiya, Chatswood
Monday 24th March 2008	Morning	TBA – more shops??
	13:30	Check-out Blackford Motel
	15:35	Flight to Coffs Harbour, Aeroflot Flight # ЯЙФБ. (1 night stop-over in Vladivostok, Siberia) Arr Coffs Harbour 16:40.

So we landed safely in Sydney despite our travel agent's best attempts...and we were met not just by Phil's dad, Gregg, but also by the universal welcoming grey skies of the Bank Holiday Weekend. In much the same fashion as i had carelessly thrown aside all woollens and warm clothing on leaving British shores, i had also abandoned any waterproofs, safe in my delusion that it neither gets cold nor rains in Oz. Despite having been rained on for a fair part of 2007 - 2008, i was resolutely clinging to this misguided notion so had not brought anything remotely useful with me. Luckily, Yuki (phil's Mum) and Lynne (phil's sister) were able to dig up a rain coat for me, notwithstanding the basic difference in body types between me (er, robust Scot) and them (slender Japanese)

So off we went into the thrall of the big city, with me repeating to myself the sage words of billy connolly, 'there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes' (only a scot could think that up). Our ferry station name amused us,as did the morningside of ashby. maybe i'll grow out of this, maybe i won't.

We reached Circular Quay and had the obvious tourist moment and uttered the same obvious words as every tourist has since it was built: 'crikey it's smaller than you think, eh?'. We then wandered around the Rocks and were reminded how hick we had become. I mean, god, who expects your shop assistants to be informative, helpful and friendly? where are you from, anyway? Maclean? where? Managed despite some determination on the seller's part to be as disinterested and dismissive as possible, to buy some purple fairy wall stickers for Caitlin. i remember when all her toys were going to be wooden and non gender specific...christ this world beats you down....cheap plastic? more please. but still struggling to maintain some integrity in the theme of her toys....anyway, we had a good explore and it was nice to see some builings than were older than a week or two ago. it was at moments like that when you finally experience some sense of dislocation, when you suddenly become aware of a disjuncture between our new world and our old one. anyway...we headed back to the ferries for a bumpy ride to Manly...any member of the grant family will understand the whitening of my knuckles during that trip!

The weather started to perk up (honest) once we landed safe at Manly. in this pic you can see our travelling compadres plonk in the centre -phil, gregg and lynne. all gamely showing us around AND dealing with the non stop chat machine otherwise known as a wildly over excited Caitlin .
We wandered down to beach and Caitlin built the obligatory castle before we repaired to the pub for lunch.




we then headed to the Manly Aquarium where we got these pics...i apologise for the lack of pics at this point, james had the camera and that's never a recipe for a gallery of pics from which to choose.

after this we headed back into town, lynne and gregg peeled off to head home and we headed into the CBD and had a peek amongst the fantastically expensive shops in the lovely Queen Victoria Building of course, by this point we are smelly as we have been on the go since 8am and have done a lot of walking...so i was bit scared of the super chic shop assistants so we just pressed our grubby noses against the windows and felt mildly superior. We finally hopped on a train home, worn out and city sated. Yuki and Gregg welcomed us back into their house for dinner where we supped aussie wine and japanese whisky and watched james' erstwhile boss morph into a brother in front of our eyes, teasing his little sis relentlessly before exhaustion hit. You see, he made the same mistake as Charlie...he tried to listen to Caitlin all the time....


here endeth the first day (thank god).