Sydney, yet again...

A little over a year later, after I had neglected this blog as I was traveling all around the continent, I came back to visit Sydney over the weekend, seems like a good excuse to start writing here again, but I make no promises.

It feels strange coming back. A hint of nostalgia, as I trod down familiar streets and landmarks, places reveal themselves and bring back memories of a time not so long ago when it all seemed new.

We travelled by train. An 11 hour trip in each direction (between Melbourne and Sydney). Travelling at night, I was hoping to catch some Z’s, and start the next day fresh and ready, and save some on accommodation. I usually manage to catch some sleep in flights, so it only seemed reasonable. But while the train seats are more spacious then a plane’s, they are far less comfortable. The folding tables are metal, with hard edges, painful to lean on, and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t find a comfortable position. Occasionally I would dose off, only to wake up with a cramped neck, a painful back, or a “sleeping” limb.

And then there are the stops. The train has a stop every hour or so. The train to Sydney was fully booked, and it so happens that the seat next to mine was often empty, with an occupant only for a few segments. So every hour or so, the conductor would come by to check who was seated there. That would typically happen just as I start snoozing.

In Sydney, we paid a standard visit to the Opera House, and the Botanical Garden, one of my favourite spots in the city. Not too far from the CBD, the highways and the commotion, the place feels like a library, quiet and tranquil, green patches of grass and trees by a small bay. We then moved on to Darling Harbour, to see some light shows, part of the annual Vivid festival, and went on to a cruise around Circular Quay, expecting to experience the lights from a different perspective, which turned out to be 90 minutes of having the worst view of the festival, with stale food, cheap beer, and bad music. The on-land experience of the festival is much superior.

While in Melbourne, from where we came, the temperatures are single digit (Celsius) this time of the year, in Sydney it turned out to be a beautiful weekend, and good opportunity to enjoy its beaches, but as all things, this get away too came to an end, and so back to the train we went…