The day had come where I would be returning home from Sydney
to the Gold Coast. I made sure I had packed up and was ready to go early
enough. I was not flying out until the afternoon, but I wanted things to do
first like some shopping and exploring. The other plan was to visit the
Discovery museum in The Rocks. I knew the locker had 4 hours and that would be
my limit before I had to leave for the airport.
Once I had my locker secure and I had checked out of the
hostel, I got a coffee and a veal sausage roll from a boutique bakery that
called me Brian. I didn’t correct them as I knew the coffee would find me. I
made sure there was enough money on my Opal card to get me to the airport and
there was. The one thing I wanted to find before anything else was a bank and
the Google search did not actually find one as the location for an ATM meant it
was not there, but I looked. Into the depths of the City, I did find one. There
was quite a few people around in the morning and it was a little overwhelming.
Once I did find the bank, I was looking for Kings Comics, a comic book shop
that I did wander through and across the road was Elizabeth’s Bookshop that had
mystery books that I had seen posted on Facebook once before. They call it a blind
date with a book. You have a description of the book, but its wrapped up. I was
looking at the time and it was getting closer to when I wanted to be on the
other side of town.
I had planned to look in a bookstore, Dymocks on the way and
a quick look in JBHIFI along the way thinking I could check some of the movies
out. The JBHIFI store had me a touch bored and I wandered off to look in the
bookstore, which had some interesting novels, but I left both without buying anything,
which is good as I was worried about my bag weight. I did make it back to The
Rocks area to find there were many little terrors in the area with the schools
that were there. I had a drink while returning a phone call, especially since I
did need a rest. Once I was refreshed, I visited The Rocks Discovery Museum. It
was free entry that gave you a tour of the area known as The Rock from before
white settlement through to modern days. They had artefacts that had been dug
up including a greenstone that had belonged to a Maori. The rooms gave
different aspects to life in the colony including the shipping and diseases
that were in the area like the black plague. It was interesting to see the area
in context to the older photos. The displays went right up to the 1970s where
they included the unions and Mr. Mundy with the green bans on bringing the older
buildings down. By this time I knew I had to go get my gear from the locker
before it timed out. I was getting a little worried as I didn’t want the locker
to open as it had been 4 hours exact. Turns out if you are outside the time
then you have to pay the extra before they would release your bag. Good to
know.
Once I collected my bag it was time to head to the airport.
I had laughed at some people several days before who wanted to get to a train
without going down stairs with their bags. There are two stations nearby and I
prefer Circular Quay over the other one. I soon found one set of stairs clogged
with children, slow moving children stuck on stairs. Luckily I knew my way
around as I went another direction to get down to the station. The funny thing
about going to the airport was the two different charges. I was charged $17 to
get to Circular Quay and when I went to the airport I was charged $15. I don’t know
if there was a surcharge for using a card or the Opal card meant the trip would
be cheaper. It never bothered me as that was the easiest way to get around. I
had caught a later than expected train, but it turned out to be all good in the
end. I had already checked into the flight so all I needed was the bag drop.
Turns out once I had printed the ticket, I was 1 min early for the check in,
but all was good and I was asked to be put in the emergency exit. It’s a seat
and I had pockets to store my belongings so I wasn’t too worried.
It was time that I needed food and made sure I got something
to eat. The airport was pretty busy so I got my maccas meal and found a seat
down near the Rex terminal. A guy was trying to work out some sort of monetary
problem as he was heading to Brisbane. I found my burger had fallen apart
inside the bag, but it was easily fixed. A couple with their two kids sat
beside me and since the arms were metal they were banging their lollypops on
the arms./ The phone man glared at them and I looked back with a smile. As I
ate the kids went back to banging a tune and I was laughing quietly to myself
though you could see me shaking. I still had plenty of time before the flight
so wandered the airport and found two books that looked interesting so I got
them and a drink before I waited for my flight. The trip home was a short one
and the flight itself was uneventful.
