Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

I arrived in Sydney on Tuesday morning and hopped a train to Pierre’s office. Pierre and Tracey are the other Australian couple that I met while in Peru and are best friends of Paul and Nicole from Brisbane. Pierre and Tracey were kind enough to put me up in their lovely suburban Sydney home. They were both working when I arrived in town, so I dropped my luggage at Pierre’s office (which has a wonderful view of Darling harbour in downtown Sydney) and went out to explore. Sydney is just as I left it 13 years ago – in fact it’s the only city I’ve visited on this trip that remains largely unchanged in comparison to my memories of it. I repeatedly visited landmarks that triggered memories and it was reassuring to know that my entire collection of gray matter hadn’t melted in the intervening 13 years as I was starting to suspect.

I had been staying in touch with Michael who I had met in Byron Bay about 6 weeks previously and who lives in Sydney. He was working in Kings Cross that day and we met for a lovely lunch on a patio overlooking the porn shops and strip clubs. (In case that last sentence requires any clarification, Michael works in the wireless industry, not the sex trade.) I continued my sightseeing in the afternoon and then met Pierre at his office for the commute to the ‘burbs. Tracey cooked us a wonderful meal and we spent the evening catching up.

Wednesday was a full day of running around for me. I had several visas to obtain while I was in Sydney one of which proved to be somewhat problematic. After several sprints across town from the embassy to Pierre’s office to use the internet, telephone, fax and photocopier, I managed to get everything sorted. I did a bit more sightseeing and was sure to take the train to Bondi Junction but did not meet anyone or find true love as suggested in the 1973 song of that title.* Tracey and Pierre were in the process of buying a house so that afternoon I went with them to view the property and offer my expert advice. I gave the house my stamp of approval (which I'm sure was the deciding factor in their decision-making process) and they placed their offer while we were there. An event such as this required a celebratory toast so we went to one of their favourite haunts for a drink. Back home we continued to celebrate until Paul and Nicole arrived from Brisbane after a very long day in the car. This was a great reunion for all of us, and the festivities continued well into the wee hours. The men were a little more sensible, but Tracey and Nicole didn’t see their beds until about 4:30 (I dropped somewhere in the middle). Needless to say, Thursday got off to a pretty slow start. We ran some errands at the local mall then came home for a nap.

Michael had managed to take the Friday off, so I headed into town in the late afternoon on Thursday to join him for a day or two. We spent the evening at his place – he has a wonderful downtown location with views looking out over Sydney harbour. Late into the night we went for a walk down under the harbour bridge and enjoyed the beautiful city lights. He gave me a bit of a lesson with my camera and I got a couple of great shots of the harbour bridge and the opera house.

The next day we took his “tinny” (small aluminum boat) out on one of the tidal rivers that run into middle harbour. We found a nice secluded beach and spent a few hours sunning, swimming and snacking. Later in the evening, we went back out on the main harbour in the boat. There was quite a wind by this time so the water was a bit choppy. We cruised around a bit but also stopped the boat to drift in several spots: in front the opera house, under the bridge, near Fort Denison etc. While this all sounds so relaxing, it really had an edge to it, as the harbour is full of big boats and I felt very small and unprotected by comparison. We cruised beside a replica of the Bounty that was motoring through the harbour virtually unlit, which was very eerie - just a dark outline against the black sky. We had to keep a constant vigil for ferries, which seemed to materialize out of nowhere. (It was somewhat chilling to hear of the ferry crash in the harbour just a few days later.) Michael lives by the credo that you should do something every day that scares you – I’m not sure I could keep it up for more than a few days. Still, it was really neat to get this view of the city and Sydney is an absolutely stunning city. I think it’s one of those places that you’d never get tired of looking at.

The next day Michael and I parted company fairly early as he had a family gathering to attend and I had to get back to my friends for Paul’s 40th birthday party that evening. We went to a local pub where we had a great dinner and were joined by Paul’s family and friends. It was a great time – they were a really nice bunch of people and they didn’t hold back on the shooters. We left the pub and continued the party back at the house until the last solider had fallen.

On Sunday Paul and Nicole headed off to Canberra to visit some other friends and Pierre had a soccer game, so Tracey and I headed up into the Blue Mountains. The weather didn’t really cooperate for us, but I was still able to appreciate the views. We had lunch in a quaint tourist town (think Merrickville in the mountains) and explored the shops.

On Monday it was back to work for Tracey and Pierre so I went back into the city. I took the ferry to Manly which I hadn’t done before. I got some good daytime views of the harbour from the ferry. They offer harbour bridge walks, where you actually walk along the top of the bridge arches. I can’t imagine how much they’d have to pay me to do that, but apparently a large portion of the population is actually willing to pay them for the privilege. I saw a couple of groups on the bridge when we went by on the ferry and I got an ache in my gut just watching them up there. Once in Manly the weather was iffy so I didn’t stick around too long. There’s not much point hanging out in a surfing town in the rain. It was nice to have seen it and I imagine it is really lovely in the summer sun. After I returned to the city, I walked around “the Rocks” which is the oldest settled part of Sydney. It is very pretty and provides lots of interesting historical information.

I had my final dinner with Tracey and Pierre that evening. I spent the following morning packing and caught an afternoon flight to Melbourne where I met at the airport by Brian.

* For all of you in Australia who never heard of the song “Bondi Junction” and who thought I was totally off my nut for wanted to go there, I Googled it for you. It turns out it was done by a guy named Peter Foldy who was born in Budapest and grew up in Sydney. His family moved to Toronto when he was a teenager and he has lived there ever since. The song only hit the charts in Canada so you’re all excused for not having heard of it (especially those of you who weren’t born yet in 1973).