So long, Sydney

30 July 2011

It’s 10:45 pm on a Saturday night and I’m not curled into the hotel service apartment’s tightly done beds. Tonight, I’m in my family friend’s home, spending the night in Lindfield before my week long trek across the country. My flight leaves to Ayers Rock tomorrow morning at 10:20. It hasn’t completed processed, but I think I’m set to go.

I woke up early this morning in order to say goodbye to my fellow program participants. People come and go in your life, and I believe that everyone has a purpose for entering in. It was nice, in its own way, to say goodbye to the majority of the program participants. Our trip had its own side platter of drama and so saying goodbye was a nice weight off all of our shoulders. But it was also strange given it would likely be the last time I would ever see the majority of them again.

I checked out of my apartment at 11 am… handing the key that had provided me access to and from my apartment building over to the front desk. 

My apartment building.

Oxford Street... the main street that leads into the center of the city. My apartment building is visible on the right.

My cousin was in town. He's spending a year abroad in Melbourne and on a whim, had purchased a flight to Sydney. We had arranged to meet up for brunch. I haven’t seen my cousin since I was probably around 9 and I was unsure how our get together would go. I met him and his friend at Town Hall and the three of us had lunch in Darling Harbour. The boys wanted to walk across the Harbour Bridge and so I walked with them to Circular Quay (where the Opera House is located… a short walk from the bridge) before parting ways. The morning turned out to be absolutely wonderful. It was a really worthwhile experience reconnecting with a cousin, a cousin that prior this morning, I had barely known. 

My friend had given me his multi transportation pass given that he would no longer be needing it as he left this morning. Transportation in Sydney is expensive (a week My Multi pass, which allows unlimited access to bus, trains and ferries, costs around $40. I only used the train to get to and from work so I purchased a $90 monthly train pass.) but seeing as I had a free pass and time to kill, I decided to hop aboard a ferry.

I boarded a ferry headed to Wastons Bay, with the initial plan of staying put on the ferry rather than getting off to explore. The better half of me objected, however, and ended up getting off the ship to make my way into the small, quaint area of Watsons Bay. It was when I turned around to look at the view from the bay did I know just how good of an idea it had been to disembark the ferry.

 

I caught a bus back to Bondi Junction. The bus ran through the coastal lines of the city, allowing for glimpses of the harbour to my right.

I leave for my week trek across the country tomorrow morning. I’ll be spending three days and two nights in Ayers Rock (the iconic outback photograph used to advertise Australia), a night in Alice Springs and four days and three nights in Melbourne. I’m grateful that I’ve extended my trip to travel. Not only will I gain a greater perspective on the country I’ve spent my summer in, but it will also leave me with a different set of memories of my experience in Australia. I’ll be sans internet and computer for the week (oh boy) but will be documenting the week travels through my photos and jotted notes that come next week, shall be transferred here.

Six weeks ago I had thought they’d all say G’day. But that’s an Australian stereotype.

I’ll end this off with Cheers! Much more legitimate Australian if you ask me…