So at the end of May we went to Sydney for the weekend. Lachy came straight out of work on Friday to the airport and on Monday morning I went straight in once we'd landed. The reason we went was actually to see a talk by Matthew Weiner, the creator of Mad Men, which turned out to be a Vivid Sydney event, which turned out to be a pretty cool festival with a lot of lights and also Matthew Weiner.
On the Saturday we actually had to get some work done in the morning (me proofreading, Lachy writing, and fellow Screenie* Jo was working on her treatment) before we could get going so we scouted out a cafe that served breakfast. Joe Black is around the corner from the Travelodge we were staying in in Surry Hills, which not only serves breakfast, coffee and milkshakes, but has WiFi and lovely staff. They let us sit there all morning (we did order a LOT of drinks) and after Lachy and I left the manager actually let Jo keep working there after he had closed, without telling her that the cafe was shut until he really needed to leave.
We wandered around the harbour, took in the opera house at closer quarters than last time, sat down for a late lunch (there was a lot of eating on this trip) and then Lachy and I took a passenger ferry out to Darling Harbour and back. If you want to see Sydney Harbour, I think this is the best way. It was something like $12 return, you stop at several harbours to pick up/set down passengers and you get to zoom across the water with the wind in your hair (if you're sitting outside, which you should be). One of the main things about Vivid Sydney is that the city gets lit up all sorts of fun colours at night, which meant that we got to see the opera house looking like this:
And that is just a still - the projections on the opera house were constantly changing. Sydney looked pretty cool all lit up, and we took the ferry out at dusk so we got to see the whole transformation from day to night from the water. There was a tourist ferry which would have done essentially the same thing, possibly with some canapes, and that was $25.
In the evening we went out drinking in Surry Hills and then some dodgier parts of Sydney with Jo, another fellow Screenie Jen and her friend Cat. We had some great Mexican food at a bar that also served coffee tequila and which I can't remember the name of.
After a slightly slower start on Sunday morning we had some brekkie at a much busier Joe Black and then headed down to the harbour again, this time heading for Manly. It's a half-hour ferry that takes you right to the mouth of Sydney Harbour and the nice little town of Manly. We took a bus up to North Head Sanctuary and wandered around up there for a bit. From one of the viewpoints at the top of the cliff we could see whale watching boats and next to them... WHALES! We could see them rolling out of the water and blowing water out of their blowholes and soon there was a whole crowd watching behind us. They were too far away to know for sure but a sign on the path suggested they were probably Humpbacks.
When we got back to the city there was time for a jaunt around the Museum of Contemporary Art and a quick trip to Dymocks before the talk, and then we sat down in the Town Hall ready to be blown away by Matthew Weiner. Which we were, but we didn't realise how funny he would be!
We had dinner at Vapiano with some friends, took one last trip down to the harbour to enjoy the lights some more and headed back for an early night before our very early flight.
I have to say though, living in a planned city (Melbourne) you really get spoiled for easy navigation and public transport. But Sydney! I love it. It's green and fresh and sprawling. It looks like a city has emerged out of a forest. It's beautiful.
*Screenie n. student of Screenwriting at the Victorian College of the Arts, class of 2016
On the Saturday we actually had to get some work done in the morning (me proofreading, Lachy writing, and fellow Screenie* Jo was working on her treatment) before we could get going so we scouted out a cafe that served breakfast. Joe Black is around the corner from the Travelodge we were staying in in Surry Hills, which not only serves breakfast, coffee and milkshakes, but has WiFi and lovely staff. They let us sit there all morning (we did order a LOT of drinks) and after Lachy and I left the manager actually let Jo keep working there after he had closed, without telling her that the cafe was shut until he really needed to leave.
We wandered around the harbour, took in the opera house at closer quarters than last time, sat down for a late lunch (there was a lot of eating on this trip) and then Lachy and I took a passenger ferry out to Darling Harbour and back. If you want to see Sydney Harbour, I think this is the best way. It was something like $12 return, you stop at several harbours to pick up/set down passengers and you get to zoom across the water with the wind in your hair (if you're sitting outside, which you should be). One of the main things about Vivid Sydney is that the city gets lit up all sorts of fun colours at night, which meant that we got to see the opera house looking like this:
And that is just a still - the projections on the opera house were constantly changing. Sydney looked pretty cool all lit up, and we took the ferry out at dusk so we got to see the whole transformation from day to night from the water. There was a tourist ferry which would have done essentially the same thing, possibly with some canapes, and that was $25.
In the evening we went out drinking in Surry Hills and then some dodgier parts of Sydney with Jo, another fellow Screenie Jen and her friend Cat. We had some great Mexican food at a bar that also served coffee tequila and which I can't remember the name of.
After a slightly slower start on Sunday morning we had some brekkie at a much busier Joe Black and then headed down to the harbour again, this time heading for Manly. It's a half-hour ferry that takes you right to the mouth of Sydney Harbour and the nice little town of Manly. We took a bus up to North Head Sanctuary and wandered around up there for a bit. From one of the viewpoints at the top of the cliff we could see whale watching boats and next to them... WHALES! We could see them rolling out of the water and blowing water out of their blowholes and soon there was a whole crowd watching behind us. They were too far away to know for sure but a sign on the path suggested they were probably Humpbacks.
When we got back to the city there was time for a jaunt around the Museum of Contemporary Art and a quick trip to Dymocks before the talk, and then we sat down in the Town Hall ready to be blown away by Matthew Weiner. Which we were, but we didn't realise how funny he would be!
We had dinner at Vapiano with some friends, took one last trip down to the harbour to enjoy the lights some more and headed back for an early night before our very early flight.
I have to say though, living in a planned city (Melbourne) you really get spoiled for easy navigation and public transport. But Sydney! I love it. It's green and fresh and sprawling. It looks like a city has emerged out of a forest. It's beautiful.
*Screenie n. student of Screenwriting at the Victorian College of the Arts, class of 2016
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