Walking along George Street

After the light snack at Portobello Caffé, I was ready to jump on any bed and instantly fall asleep. I was exhausted by fatigue and felt my body more and more affected by the long journey that I had made by airplane. But Marc was a little less tired and managed to convince me to walk along George Street instead of taking a taxi back to the hotel.

It was mid-afternoon and George Street was becoming busy. The street started at Circular Quay near the Sydney Harbour and went down passing through the entire downtown. The walk to the hotel, at a pace of curious and exhausted tourists who photograph everything, would last just over an hour.

The first stop we made was in a florist who had a small shop along the sidewalk. Her shop was not that big, but it was filled with many different kinds of flowers. The flowers that were sold fragrant and bright colours, accentuating their appearance innocently beautiful. I explained to the florist that I was a tourist from Canada, and it left me photographing a corner of his dazzling shop.

By continuing our march, we passed by large skyscrapers in commercial offices. These buildings were built with taste, offering a beautiful design for people who work there and people who frequent the downtown. It noted the beauty of the design especially when watching the first floor where often there was an upscale restaurant. Men were almost all dressed in shirt and tie, despite the hot and humid it was.

We saw shops, cafes, restaurants, florists, old buildings and pretty funny bank machines. The George Street made me think a little beautiful sections of Yonge Street in Toronto with of course some stamps austraux. For the unique beauty of buildings and skyscrapers, I am reminded that The Matrix films were produced in Sydney. I imagined some scenes where the characters jumping from a skyscraper to another!

We have entered the Place Queen Victoria. This is a historic building, transformed into a shopping mall to shop chic. We saw shops Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, and several other trademarks popular.

In approaching the hotel, George Street became less well managed, showing us that we were becoming gradually the heart of downtown.

Portobello Restaurant by Circular Quay

After many Kodak moments of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, we discovered a little restaurant by Circular Quay called Portobello. They had tables on a small section of the pier where people can sit, eat, and admire the view of the Harbour.

The restaurant system was different than what we had ever seen. Clients would order as soon as they came in. They would then take a number sign that they would put on the table where they are sitting. The waitress then brings the food according to the number. Nice system!

Marc craved smoked salmon all day, but when we arrived, he had a strawberry shake instead. Myself I had a vanilla milk shake which was very delicious! Marc never did have smoked salmon the whole time we were in Sydney.

Discovery of Sydney Opera House

Sydney’s Botanical Garden had a path that led directly to the Opera House. It was a hot and humid day, and as we were approaching, Marc and I could see how the beautiful construction’s perspective was coming into view. We were taking pictures each two metres of the way!

Behind the Opera House, we could see the Harbour Bridge coming into view. The bridge is a gigantic construction that is also an icon of the city of Sydney, if not all of Australia itself!

I remembered as I walked the episode of the TV comedy series “Facts of Life” when Blair, Natalie, Tootie and Joe went to Australia, and they were all excited while running up the outside stairs of the Opera House. There was a similar scene that was vague in my memory about the “Golden Girls”, but I wasn’t sure I really had seen that.

The big and wide stone stairs that led to the main entrance was exactly like I had pictured it in movies. We climbed up and went inside. There were lots of tourists around us. They must’ve been tourists, even the white ones, because they were all taking group and family pictures in front of the musical building.

We checked for shows. How cool would it be to watch a musical show at the one and only Opera House in Sydney! But somehow nothing inspired us from the list on the pamphlet. Maybe we would skip the show and concentrate on something else.

Sydney’s Botanical Garden

After leaving Darling Harbour, the sun was striking hard and I thought it would be safe to put on some sunscreen.  After purchasing some from a store, we took a taxi to go to the Opera House. But our first stop would be the Botanical Garden.

During the taxi ride, and even when we arrived at the Botanical Garden, I noticed more and more how clean was the whole city of Sydney . It was cleaner than other big cities in the World that I had seen, and we couldn’t easily find rubbish left out on the ground. I thought that when the citizen got used to their surroundings being clean, it would be harder for them to leave out rubbish around, because a certain pride an blalance would have developped in the cleanliness of their city. All I had to do then was to think how to introduce that pride to the citizens of Montreal!…

In the Botanical Garden was fantastically arranged by the harbour and we could see Sydney’s skyscrapers in the background. There were a few people walking around, some were tourists like us taking pictures, others were doing their afternoon run. Although there weren’t many garbage cans around, the garden was completely clean, with not one paper or tissue left on the ground.

We saw beautiful flowers, majestic trees, huge spiders, and strange looking birds. We even saw bats, hundreds of them, all assembled on top of the tall trees. They were communicating with each other using a hideous sound. I was told that it was the season where bats would pass by this place.

Darling Harbour

After our first Australian breakfast at the deli, with a full stomach, Marc and I continued walking along the streets of Sydney. We were located somewhere near Hyde Park. Following the map we had from the hotel, we decided to walk towards Darling Harbour, which was not very far from the place that we were. We had heard that that area had nice places, including a few tourist attractions like the Aquarium, the restaurants on the pier, and the Chinese garden.

When we arrived there, we suddenly realized that we had been through a twenty hour flight and our eyes were getting tired. More coffee was therefore necessary. We found a nice lounge and café in the IBM building. Inside, Marc noticed nice bouquet arrangements with perfumed flowers. As for myself, I noticed the stars that were displayed on the roof of the building, right on top of the lounge. After having my mocha, I woke up a bit and walked around. I went outside through the backdoor where there was a beautiful garden with beautiful flowers and plants, and a few people taking cigarette breaks.

After coffee Marc and I walked towards the Aquarium, one of Sydney’s attractions, which was about ten minutes away. But as we stood in front of the main entrance, we had a feeling that it wouldn’t be that appealing to visit and we decided not to go inside. We then walked around Darling Harbour and saw many restaurants on the quay. They were of course closed because it was too early even for lunch, but I thought that it would be nice to come back and have dinner in one of them. I couldn’t help but notice that some restaurants didn’t have any ashtrays on their outside tables and that made me want to come back even more!

Dream Queens

We had just landed in Sydney. Marc and I were full of energy even if we had travelled for two days to get to Australia. We showered in our hotel room and went outside through the streets of Sydney.

The gay village wasn’t very far, and it was not hard to find it. We engaged in Oxford Street which was very quiet on that early Friday morning. There were a few cafés that were open, but nothing really attractive to stop and have breakfast.

Marc spotted a drag bar which could be recognized from the posters that were hanging all over the outside window. The front door was closed, but on it was a very funny event sign. There would be a signing contest called Dream Queens! How hilarious! Marc and I had just recently watched the movie Dream Girls and we loved it! Coming across that event announcement made us both laugh out loud. I couldn’t help but thinking that it was just another demonstration of how everything can be turned gay. The poster was very amusing and I curse myself for not having photographed it. But I used my memory and my imagination to make the following representation on Photoshop!

We didn’t stay for long on Oxford street. We were getting a bit hungry and it was hard to find a restaurant that served breakfast. It wasn’t like in Montreal where they could be found all over. As we were walking, we did find cafés that served snacks and sandwiches. They were located at each street corner, but were all different, with no apparant chain café except for Starbucks.

After searching and asking for help, Marc and I did find a deli that served eggs and sausages. It was operated by an Asian couple, but it wasn’t the nicest place in Sydney as the restaurant lacked windows.

Pensione Hotel Sydney

The taxi stopped at 635 George Street. Pensione hotel was a boutique hotel that Marc had found on the internet. It was located on a very busy street in what seemed like China town of Sydney. We entered the building and had to take a lift to the second floor.

The receptionist was very kind and led us to our room which was ready. It was very clean but it looked nicer on the web pictures. The bed was comfortable, and there was no separation between the shower and the toilet, just like in Greece apparently. There was no window view. I checked another room with a window, but it was too loud as it gave to a busy street. We therefore decided to keep our room.

Landing in Sydney

It was 6:30 a.m. After 2 days of travelling all the way from Montreal, taking many flights, and even missing one, the old Air Canada Boeing 767 finally landed in Sydney Australia. The sun was slowly rising, giving Marc and me a spectacular view of the City from the skies. As the airplane arrived at the airport’s gate, the flight attendants sprayed the carry on luggage to kill any dangerous foreign insects. I remember the same thing happened when I landed in New Zealand in 1998.

We left the airplane and went through Australian customs. I was stopped to be searched, but in a very polite and genuine way. The agents were kind and the whole ordeal lasted just a few minutes. We were soon out of the airport and looked for a taxi to get to our hotel.

Even if I hadn’t slept for hours and hours, and my back was aching from the economy class seats, I was very excited to be in Australia. The taxi ride from the airport is always an introduction to the city. The streets were still empty because it was early Friday morning. The sun was giving warm rays, a sign that it would be a beautiful first day in Sydney for us!