Travel
I left on Valentine’s Day, my sister drove me to the airport and picked up her friend Miles in the same trip, so that was convenient. I said my goodbyes and got on the 1am to LA. I landed at around 7am and my flight to Sydney wasn’t until 530pm. None of my travel options were particularly good. This one was the least travel time and put me in Sydney at 730am.
I thought about leaving the airport, but I wasn’t interested in seeing or doing anything in LA, so I spent the layover reading and listening to music and podcasts, walking around and people watching. The flight from LA to Sydney was 15 hours, I think. I was served dinner, did some reading, then slept, when I woke up I had some breakfast and talked to my neighbor. She was the manager in the Hot wheels department at Mattel. She gave me some recommendations for things to do in Sydney (most of which I had planned) and some restaurants to check out; The Grounds of Alexandria, Ms. G’s, Bar Totti’s, Mr. Wong’s.
Day 1
Once landed, I switched over to my Australian eSim for mobile data and tested it out, everything worked, though slowly through the next couple days, my contact name and pictures became just numbers. I could figure out who it was based on the conversation, but it meant I spent less time updating people with my trip. I collected my luggage and used public transportation to get to my hostel, which I was staying in for the first two nights. I took a train to circular quay and then walked the half-mile to YHA Sydney Harbour. It was in a section of the city called The Rocks which is a historic district and holds some of the oldest streets and pubs in Sydney. I wasn’t able to check in until the afternoon, so I took a bird bath, changed, and stored my luggage while I went and explored.
My first stop was to get some coffee and an early lunch. I decided to go to Alexandria on the Grounds and I choose to walk because I wanted to get a sense of the area. Maps said it’d would be an hour and a half, but I was ok with it. The temperature was in the low 80s and I was just taking in the city. After 30 minutes of 75 degrees at 85% humidity, I checked to make sure I was heading the right direction and I noticed that one street over was The Grounds in the City, same restaurant, different location. This one had a higher rating on google and I discovered that had I kept walking I would have arrived at the one in Alexandria 20 minutes too late. It was delicious; zucchini, tomato, chickpeas, eggplant ratatouille, kale pesto, herbed labneh, and sourdough toast.
Before I had arrived there were at least 3 people that had mentioned the coffee being a lot better than in America. This was my first experience of it and I came to realize, they were just going to the wrong places in America. At this place you could choose your type of espresso and the bean (just like any reasonably nice coffee shop in America), most the time you just choose your espresso drink and it is exactly as you would expect, many places also did pour over.
I happened to be right next to the Queen Victoria Building (QVB). This is a building constructed in the late 1800s, inside is a long narrow mall. I ended up going through here a couple times because there is a train stop in the basement and a light rail just outside.
I spent an hour or two just wandering the streets in this area. I stumbled across some cool shops and a bookstore that I would later learn were recommended points of interest on reddit. Because of how little space I had I ended up just buying a single thing to bring back and it wasn’t until the day I was leaving, but it was nice to just explore the area.
I decided to head back towards Barangaroo, Dawes Point, and The Rocks. All through out this area there are plaques and signs explaining the history of the area. One particularly interesting section was the Nurses Walk. It’s a short walk through some alleys passing by some cafes and galleries and explains that it was the site of the first hospital, setup in the late 1700s and the walk commemorates the nurses who worked in the area.
In the late afternoon, I realized I have been outside in the sun all day and completely forgot about sunscreen. I picked some up on my way back to the hostel, took a quick tour around. There was a small museum displaying the things found on the dig site in the center of the hostel, mostly plates and pottery. The most depressing part was that they put a piece from 1994. Museums are for old things!
After 40-something hours, I was finally able to properly clean up and it felt amazing. I did a little bit of reading and just as I was drifting off to sleep we had a fire alarm. I don’t know what caused it, but it gave me 20 minutes or so to chat with some other guests while we waited for the fire department to give us the all clear. At that point, I went straight back to bed and passed out.