australiavacation2008.com

Yesterday was a great day.  Except for a couple of passing drizzles, the day was perfect weather-wise: high 70s, good humidity to feel that you’re sea-side, partly cloudy.  The first thing I had to do is get a new charger for my cellphone.  Even though the old was was dual rated, and I’ve used it in five different countries, it decided to literally blow up on Sunday when I was recharging the phone.  A big “boom” and a puff of smoke, and the cover was blown off the charger thanks to an exploded capacitor.  No other damage, other than the usurious price for picking up a new charger in the middle of a busy city and not on ebay.  It gave me a chance to explore the interlocking shopping centers in this section of the city center.

Long post today: click the link to continue reading:
After a little bit of a rest back at the room where I got the photos out of the camera and onto my laptop, I used the Sydney public transport trip planner to get to the Wollomooloo section of town.  A bus to Circular Quay and a bus to Wollomooloo, then a bus to Kings Cross and a train back to Town Hall to get home.  Sounds simple enough, except the trip planner includes the Sydney and Bondi all-day “Explorer” buses in their planner, and doesn’t calculate how much the trip will cost.    Yes, these are the buses with the A$38/day charge….  Nicely done, mates.   Fortunately, the 311 bus ran to the same stop, just from a different quay berth.  I had a funny driver who looked like Mark Addy plus 40 pounds, could hold four conversations at once, asked if I’d been to the Sizzler yet and if so how they compared with the ones in the states (he was serious…), and once he figured out I was not from Australia took care to deposit me at the proper bus stop and showed me how to get back.

Wolloomooloo is an upscale neighborhood on the east side of the National Gardens, nestled in next to the navy base at Potts Point.  I did not see Russell Crowe, who lives there, but I did walk around the neighborhood, very slowly, for about 45 minutes.  It had started to drizzle, so I’m not sure how my photos are going to turn out, but there are some beautiful views from there.

Then I had my lunch at Harry’s Cafe de Wheels, a National Trust “property.”   It’s a 24-hours pie cart, i.e. they sell filled meat and/or vegetable pies, with stuff on them.  They put them on a paper plate and give you a plastic fork, and you go stand around the side or sit on the wharf and eat.  It’s like going to try both Geno’s and Pat’s for cheesesteak in Philly: the locals don’t all necessarily think it’s the best, but you have to go once.   Personally, for A$5.30, I was very impressed: a “tiger pie” filled with beef, with mashed potatoes and gravy on top of it.

After sitting at the bus stop for about 25 minutes and reading the paper, the 311 bus came around again (every half hour) and I took it through a very pretty neighborhood called Elizabeth Bay.  It dropped me off at the Kings Cross train station.  Kings Cross is a seedy neighborhood and still has some red-light elements and characters, but at 3pm on a Tuesday, it also had a bunch of moms with babys in strollers running errands.  After a quick walk up and down the block, I took the train back to my hotel.  I tracked down my second cousin in Melbourne to let him know that I was in Australia, much to his shock (he did the same thing when he visited Chicago 19 years ago, it only seemed fair!), and made plans to see him and his family on Wednesday night.

For dinner, my first choice was an Italian place… but continuing the theme they were closed for another week.  So I went to a Spanish place about five blocks from my hotel, and close to the grocery store I’ve been using.   I had the meal of the trip so far, three classic tapas:  sausage thickly cut and grilled on a plank, patatas “bravas” in a spicy red sauce, and a dozen 36-count shrimp sauteed in olive oil and enough garlic to sink a ship at Potts Point.

But as good as the meal was the weather: I have been leaving the hotel at dusk, and it was a gorgeous night.   For the first time all trip, this really felt like a vacation.

Share This