Sydney Holiday 2014, April 19 (Written In Blood)

The first activity of the day was a train trip out to Auburn. It was an express train so there wasn't many stops, but it still took about thirty minutes. When I got off I had to walk about a kilometre up to Paramatta Road, which at first looked like a big empty road, but then...the Nike Factory! Krispy Kreme! McDonalds...well two out of three isn't bad. Normally I would leave shopping to the end of the trip, but I wasn't sure what would be open on Easter Sunday and Monday.

The outlet was alright, I got a pair of shoes for myself and another for Jason at 40% off, and some shorts. No idea how I am going to fit all these shoes into a travel backpack, but that problem is two days away... The woman put the shoes in two bags with crappy drawstring handles - which are impossible to carry for any length of time before they start to resemble fishing wire, so it was good that I only had to walk another three kilometres to my next destination then. Along the way there was an Adidas and Rebel outlet that I wasn't aware of, I was actually contemplating buying a backpack for all the shoes, but otherwise I didn't find much, although it did bring back memories of old Smith Street.

The perfect combination.

After a long walk I arrived at Olympic Park, I just planned to look around for a bit and then jump on the train at the station nearby. The area was a lot busier than usual because the Easter Show was on at the Sydney Showgrounds - I didn't want to spend a whole day hanging around crowds and kids, but some showbags might have been nice. I couldn't get through to some places because of the show, such as The Brickpit, so soon after I took the train back to Sydney Central to finally drop off all of the morning's shopping.

The brick pit.

It was already 12pm by the time I left the hotel. I went down to the CBD, passing the Anzac Memorial and Pool Of Reflection - nowhere near as good as Washington DC - in Hyde Park and also discovered a comic book store called Kings Comics which was alright but just a total overload of comics - I own and am familiar with exactly zero comic book series. I did see a couple of volumes of The Stand graphic novel again though.

The poor man's reflection pool.

The ANZAC memorial.

Once I reached George Street I spotted two asian bakeries in the same side street by accident. One was called Barby's which had lots of weird and interesting combinations, the other called Fuji Pan Bakery was more traditional Japanese and artistic - the staff even greet you with "irasshaimase" when you walk into the store. At the second store they were even selling baked recreations of Totoro!

Has cheezburger.

My lunch totoro.

I walked up George Street to Town Hall, sadly having to skip more bakeries and frozen yoghurt stores on the way. After a lunch break I looked in on the shopping centres on each side of the road. To one side was the Queen Victoria Building (QVB) which has maintained a classic old English interior, on the other was Galeries which was more modern and just had a Kinokuniya book store and little else.

QVB.

Pitt Street Mall was a little disappointing too, it had a Myer which seems to be the requirement of any mall, and a Westfield shopping centre, I don't know if it had another name. It had one of those crap electronic directories where everything is broken down into subcategory and the directions to stores are confusing, so I got out of there pretty quickly. I took a shortcut through The Strand Arcade to get back to George Street, this was another classic old walkway that has retained it's authenticity, only the JB Hi Fi in the basement was a bit out of place.

The Strand. No sign of Fleet Street.

The next stop was Martin Place, where Channel 7's "brekky central" is filmed I think, one of the few places free of traffic in the city. There was some Anzac memorial in the middle and a grand building which seemed to just be called One Martin Place, otherwise nothing else was happening in the rest of the CBD until I reached The Rocks. Apparently this was the old Sydney city, an interesting change of pace to everything else nearby. I walked through First Fleet Park and came to Cadman's Cottage - some old house, since I forgot to read the sign to find out anything else. The Rocks market was also on for the weekend, selling all that market stuff that people keep forgetting they aren't interested in buying.

The creatively named "No. 1 Martin Place".

Cadman's Cottage.

Despite all of the suggestions otherwise, I found the entrance to the harbour bridge easily enough and started the long walk across. Lots of people were doing the same, but the crowd seemed to fade about halfway along, so most must have been turning back at the first pylon. They have a lookout in that pylon where you can climb to the top for a slightly better (or higher, at least) view of Sydney for $13, but I didn't really see the point. After reaching the other end in about twenty minutes I went down underneath the bridge which has a nice perspective up to the bridge and across the harbour to the city - probably better than what you would get from the pylon.

Under the bridge.

My legs were about to give up for the day but due to bad planning I still had to get back across the bridge. Taking another route down to The Rocks I found the other half of the market which had all of the food stalls - a lot more exciting than homemade wood carvings and kids toys. All of The Rocks promotional material was talking up this Discovery Museum they have, it was free so I had a look. I think I made it through and out again in under five minutes, it was just four small rooms with a few items on display and some accompanying reading, nothing worth hanging around for.

I made it back to the hotel by 4pm, just enough time to pack for the evening and then hurry out to Centennial Park. I was pretty sure I was heading in the right direction, but that wasn't confirmed until I later came across the first Sydney Swans supporters who have to walk out from the city - since there isn't a train station nearby. It's a bit poorly planned that the closest station is probably Sydney Central, a good three or four kilometres away - you could try to get a bus as well if you were really desperate.

I arrived at the SCG just a few minutes before the match start, but still got a good seat in the front row of the upper deck - the crowd for the evening was just over 25,000. I'm not sure what the stadium looked like before the renovations were done, or which of the stands was renovated for that matter, but the stadium looks pretty respectable now. The old member's and ladies pavilions have been left as is, which looks great. The noise from the small crowd seemed to echo around quite well, especially given the stands were half empty.

Also known as Sydney Football Stadium.

SCG.

Before the match.

The game started quite slow and defensive, which few scoring chances and only two goals each for the quarter. The second was more of the same, with Sydney gaining control and scoring three more to zero for Fremantle. The game came alive after half time with a lot more attacking, it felt like Sydney had dominated the quarter again but Fremantle were able to sneak back at the end as both teams added six goals. The quarter went forever because of this, something like 36 minutes. Sydney were up nearly six goals in the last quarter and the win seemed obvious, but then Fremantle got three quick goals and the players and crowd started to get quite nervous, before the players managed to regain composure and hold on for the win.

During the match.

On the way back to the hotel I learnt my lesson from the previous day and got a burrito from a proper Mexican restaurant, and then a new energy drink from the local food jobber. They only had one new product, which was some Italian energy drink called Boca Lupo. From the first taste it was not very carbonated and a bit sweet, then I looked at the label to find it had 12% fruit juice and the mystery was solved. Not a great drink, only 4 out of 10. A good travel tip then, when trying out new drinks or snacks - always have a backup plan.