Sydney 2014 day 1

Sydney 2014 day 1

Stairs to nowhere

Today was really nice before I flew to Sydney even though it was bright and early in the morning before light. I didn’t need to get to the airport several hours early as it was only a domestic flight to Sydney and I think I was around the first flight out of the airport. I was also 15 mins early before the shops opened for food, but I was able to get my coffee and my breaky before the plane even thought about loading. I did watch the sky lighten and the planes that were waiting were appearing out of the darkness with workers prepping them.

The flight was uneventful other than he fact I was sitting in the second row seat, which was pretty good. I wasn’t concerned about the little bit of turbulence that we got either. I was reading my magazine the entire way. I did get a multipass that lasts for 7 days, which means I can get any Sydney bus and train with certain ferries. Outside was overcast compared to what it was like at home. I did catch the bus to Paddington where I am staying, but did get off a stop too early as I wasn’t sure of the location as the bus doesn’t talk. Some tell you the destination. I did get to meet Panda and Lucy with little Harriet, which are all dogs with two greyhounds. I did help Dawn, the friend I am staying with, with several things she wanted done. After some lunch I was off again into the city.

I wasn’t worried about which bus I caught so long as it got me near to where I wanted to be, which was Hyde Park as I wanted to visit the Barracks. I did wander along part of Oxford street until I found where I was wanting to go though I did wander off the path too. I started with the war memorial at Hyde Park and then slowly made my way to the Barracks. I did walk around inside the grounds before entering the building itself. Several of the building displays did show the old court rooms and where the judges had to walk along with everything else to do with. Inside the barracks building it took you through the history of the building including the many uses it has had. From convict barracks to offices for the judges and other legal council. There was even talk of knocking the building down too. I took the audio tour with me and it gave little bits of insight into the area like Aboriginal people like Bungaroo who greeted many convicts on their arrival and that some people would wear a second layer of clothes they had stolen to buy rum and other things. There were holes cut into the walls where the men slept as the officials wanted to make sure the men were not getting frisk though the building did hold 600 people so it did get cosy with the hammocks.  The early town was spoken of and shown on a map on the floor like the brick works that are now Surry Hills I think along with where Central is too. I wanted to find more about the tank stream too, which was the original fresh water stream for the area and now only certain tours a year are done there. Also there was many historic remains they had found on the site including complex tunnels made by rats under the building and things they stored too. The building is well worth the visit.

After leaving the museum I was on a quest for coffee and the Barracks coffee shop was closed and I was sad, but another one was open where I ordered a coffee and didn’t have to pay until I had finished the coffee. That was unusual and a coffee shop across the road from the Sydney hospital. That was some trust they had in a customer too. I did then take off and bumped into Martin place where I had research that there was a monument to the Tank Stream. I found it on the George Street side where it was beside the war memorial. It wasn’t much to go on though and I did wander looking for more including the entrance, which I didn’t find. I did find a nice one in Alfred Street across from Circular Quay and I was happy with that find. I did find the police museum by accident as well, which I was thinking I could see sometime if there was time. Along the way I did find an obelisk that had the distance to other locations from that very point like Bathurst or Parramatta. Nearby as the cannon and anchor that could have been from the Sirrus one of the first fleet vessels.

 It was getting late and had started raining so I had my brolly up as I took a short cut through The Rocks looking for the stairs to nowhere and I did walk past some interesting parts that I didn’t know about as I hadn’t been there the last time I wandered through. There was the big dig archaeology site under the YHA and also Susannah Place another tour place that you can book to learn about Sydney of old. I was on a hunt and then I did get stuck above Hickson road as I wanted to get to that road, but couldn’t from Argyle. Munn Reserve didn’t take me anywhere either and the drizzle was constant. I did find a set of stairs that took me to that level and on I wandered to the other end of Hickson before turning back as I couldn’t find what I was looking for. I did find those pesky stairs as my brolly had hid my view as I wandered past below them. They supposedly had been blocked off at the bottom as they never reached the top of the cliff to the street above.  I then headed back to the train and a bus where I wanted to head back to Paddington for the night as the next day was another day. I did make a shop assistant happy when I said thank you as I needed water and I was damp and thirsty.