The Sun was shining, my first allowance is credited in my account and it is a Saturday too! What a way to begin a weekend!
There is a day-tripper ticket, similar to weekend pass in London, which allows you to travel in train, bus or ferry through out the city, except for the private services. This costs some AU$15 whereas London weekend pass costs 8 pounds. But the latter is valid for two days! I would have to say transport here is costlier than London!!!
I checked the ferry schedule and we decided to leave by the one at 12. It is just 10min walk to the Ferry from home. We reached the ferry in time; it was big enough to accommodate 100+ people. The water was stinking, but the landscape looked beautiful!
And we started by 12. It was quite sunny. We both chose to stand in the deck with many other people, enjoying the winter Sun. Imagine a single ferry takes you from a canal in English country side (with those small stone bridge, with pavements and meadows on the banks), then in to wet lands like in Pichavaram (any wetlands will do ;) ), and slowly enter the canals of Venice !!! Now you see houses with entrance to the water, and shed for the boat (like a car shed) ! Slowly the scenario changes as you pass through some vacant land - a factory, lots of ship carriage boxes near it- nearing more urban areas. A huge bridge with road and rail, and then you enter water more of a part of sea than a river. Still, the water is narrow; the hilly roads on the banks are so steep that the parked cars seem like waiting for their turns to jump in to the water!
The water starts getting widened; some schooners standing in the middle! It resembles some pictures of Norway, Greece sort of. Then the real Sydney, incomparable, when the ferry taking a left turn and you suddenly see the harbour bridge and all this skyscrapers behind it, the busy port, the Opera house….You can see a lot of big ferries crossing the water , the waves they send out hits your ferry and it sways. And slowly you cross the harbour bridge, and take a right turn, just before the Opera house on your left, the trip comes to an end at Jetty 4 in Circular Quay.
I think I am exhausted with my words now. But just will be able to say this much that it was a memorable trip for us, and the explanation I gave is not even one tenth of what it really is! But for now, let me continue.
We walked to spot the ‘India Quay’ restaurant, which we had planned for our lunch, thanks to Binish Gopal( with his reference in ‘Sydney Badaees’ I could get its map and menu too, on net). The same was spotted easily, we had just planned for a walk around and come back for lunch. But our fate had other plans ! We were just passing a small bus stop and we saw a bus to the Bondi beach ! We had never travelled in a bus in Australia till now, and this beach was on top in our list for places to visit.
We checked with the driver and boarded the bus, to start another new experience. Through the one way steep roads of downtown, and on our both sides, a lot of old Victorian style buildings, and new concrete skyscrapers, a good mix of them! It slowly became a bit less messy, and purely residential, suburb areas. In some 10-15 minutes, we could see the beach in between the gaps of houses and bushes, down the hill!
Got down at the beach – a beautiful one with white soft sand, waves not very strong, but enough to hit and splash at the cliffs on our both sides. We both forgot the lunch and started walking through the beach - watching the surfers, taking some snaps, and continued the walk climbing the cliff which was projected to the sea, and through a path for pedestrians cut through the middle of the cliff. There were some portions of rocks in front of us, which looked like they were under water for a long time. I think this walk went on for an hour or two. Krithi was excited with the sea and I used it well for this long walk J. By the time she felt that we had getting tired, we had come far away from the beach J ! The main road was somewhere behind the hill, we climbed the steps to the nearest road, it was around 3:30 !
We ended up in a residential area, which was almost empty except some cars passing by. Spotted the nearest bus stop, and checked with the bus timings. But we had no clue where this buses goes to is in the same direction. I appreciate the London bus stops, which use to have a map of the routes which ach buses from that stop goes.
I was right in my worry, the first bus turned up in a few minutes and the driver showed me the bus stop for bus in the opposite direction. Another wait for the correct bus, which dropped us in Bondi Junction rail station.
Again, we were ‘fortunate’ in finding that the station is closed for maintenance and replacement buses are running till ‘Edgecliff’. Took a train from Edgecliff to get down at Town Hall, another train to Circular Quay, it was 4:30 by the time we reached ‘India quay’ for lunch! The fortune was again with us, ‘India quay’ was closed! Biniiiiissshhh….
We had no choice other than stupid Mc Donalds ! Krithi was giving me a look, it was her first birthday after marriage ! I was planning a memorable Indian lunch after the romantic ferry and beach, and see where ‘India Quay’ left me !
Took another ferry to Darling harbour, it would have been another good experience with the sky getting dark, Opera house and the bridge getting lighted – but there was this winter breeze which forced us to get in to the ferry and see all through window glass. I still managed to take some snaps, but without my tripod I doubt whether it will come without a shake !
I went too long ? I doubt yes. Anyway, the best part is over. We waited in the harbour for the fireworks, till 7:30. The mercury was dropping, and with the freezy breeze it was impossible to keep on waiting with no idea of when it will happen. A crowd had gathered and some were saying it 8 and some saying 8:30 ! Some rock music was going on and we had no interest in it anyway. Took a ferry back to the Quay and had a good dinner in ‘India Quay’. The last ferry to Parramatta had gone at 7 itself, so only train was an option.
Tail piece:- “ Australia is the land of Kangaroo. When Captain Cook saw the strange animal for the first time he had no one but the natives to ask what they call it. Unable to understand his question, they replied "Kan Ga Roo" meaning "I don't Know"! Tree Kangaroos of Taronga Zoo, Sydney.” Taken from http://sureshgo.tripod.com/, site of my supersenior who was in REC few years ago and in Sydney as well sometime back. He got nostalgic and wrote back when I wrote about St.Leonards, as he was working there.
Information :- The plug points are different from that in UK and India, I think they insisted to keep a different configuration ! It looks like ‘ / \ ‘ compared to UK ‘ ‘ and Indian, ‘o o’. The earth pin is ‘ ‘ same as UK :D. I am not sure whether the whole Europe follows UK’s method, and whole Asian pins looks like that in India.
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