Weekend in Sydney

For those of you inured to the American domestic airline system, here is what happened on our one hour discount economy coach flight from Melbourne to Sydney. For those of you residing in Minneapolis-St Paul, this flight is equivalent to a trip to Chicago. First, they served dinner. Not just a pretzel bag that you only get in US business class (although we got that too), but a real hot dinner with rolls, tray wrapped tin, etc. Now I never liked airline food and still don’t, but still – not a US coach experience. Next, there was free alcohol. No five dollar beer, but instead a can of beer or bottle of wine, gratis. Finally, there were headsets with a television show (daily news + a .5 hour comedy) and 8 radio channels. Little things all, and we can certainly do without them on such a short trip, but what a pleasant change of pace. Oh, did we mention security takes about 1 minute and there’s no “put your 3 oz. bottle of shampoo in a baggie and run through security xray” rule? We’re planning to bring a big jug of shampoo in our carry on bags next time…just because we can.

After a pleasant flight, Sydney was a rude awakening. We’ve been there a few times in January -- each time there was glorious hot sun. Not so now. The rain gods caught up with us and it rained steadily all weekend. With the drought, you can’t really complain about rain, but couldn’t they have held off until next week?

The first night we headed to the Rocks section of Sydney for dinner at Pony’s. delicious Tapas style food. The restaurant also had free entertainment -- in the form of the two drunk women next to us. They were so inebriated, the server cut them off – which they did not take very well, causing one of them to roar “I’ve been drinking all day, so how can I be too drunk now?” Good to see an Aussie on holiday can make an ass out of herself as well as the next person.

Saturday was spent dodging rain and going to the Sydney museum – small collection but a lot of cool information about the city and its history. There was an excellent exhibit dedicated to Sydney photographers who have documented their impressions of the city.

Marlys & Dave

That night we headed to Shangri La hotel bar on the 34th floor - spectacular (but grey) views of the harbor! We were joined by Dave, Monica (PDI co-workers – Dave’s in from Brussels and Monica works in the Sydney office) and Monica’s partner Wazza. (Wazza is short for Warwick – some day I’ll explain Aussie nickname rules). After drinking in the views (and the champagne) we headed to Darling Harbor for good food and great fun with new friends.

After Sunday brunch on Circular Quay (the heart of Sydney with views of the Harbor Bridge and Opera House) we took advantage of the clearing weather to head to our absolute favorite Sydney to-do: the ferry to Manly and then a few hours lazing on Manly beach. All was well at first, but after 30 minutes it started to mist, then drizzle, then rain, and then a full scale downpour. We had brought a little umbrella with us, but unfortunately Marlys had also brought her leather purse. So as everyone but the surfers abandoned the beach, we sat under our little umbrella, guarding her bag from the rain and getting ourselves soaked in the process. Funny thing was, after 20 minutes of torrential rain, the clouds opened up and the sun came out and we enjoyed a beautiful hot beach day the rest of the afternoon.

That’s it for Sydney. This weekend is Australia Day – which is the antipodean Fourth of July - so another long weekend for us. We are spending it at the family farm of a co-worker, which is located in a gorgeous area of Victoria called Wilson’s Prom (it's the bush). We anticipate cricket on the beach, hiking in the rain forest and barbies for three days. Just like all the Januarys back in Minnesota.