The Chronicles of Sydney I

Don’t get me wrong, I was hesitant, quite hesitant actually. After all the negativity I had read about Tiger Airways over the last few months, I had wondered if our plane would even make it off the tarmac and up into the sky. Then again, given the controversy surrounding Qantas as of late, I don’t think reputation was anything to go by when selecting an airline carrier this time around. The difference between Tiger and Jetstar for a round-trip from Melbourne to Sydney was $60 – might not sound like much, but hey, that’s 10 beers! Crises averted. I was rather surprised that our flight was only delayed by 30 minutes, well, that and the fact that it wasn’t cancelled!

I’m one of those weird people that love flying. I don’t know whether it’s got to do with being heavens above, lost within fluffy, marshmallow-like clouds that makes me feel so relaxed or whether it’s the fact that being on a plane means I’m usually about to venture off to new (or familiar) territory, either way, I just absolutely love it. Nicole and I checked in separately so we ended up sitting apart from one another – this I didn’t mind as it was only a one hour and six minute flight (much shorter than what I’ve grown use to). I spent most of my time admiring the cloud formations on the other side of the glass.

After some minor turbulence, we touched down Safely in Sydney (Melbourne’s less-popular cousin). For those of you who read my blog regularly, you will already know that Sydney is a city I am not too fond of; it lacks culture and that welcoming, friendly appeal that Melbourne owns. Why Sydney then? There is kind of this group of awesome people I know that live in different cities all around Australia. You might remember them from such adventures as Thunder from Dowunder I, II and III. We all try very hard to congregate once a year at the very least. These gathering usually takes place in Melbourne but we figured it was time to switch it up a little so that the two of us that are from Melbourne can experience life on the wild side and live a little!

We all arrived from Adelaide, Melbourne and Harvey Bay at different times, but Sydney-native, Nicole, did the rounds and collected us from Sydney Airport, one by one, like the good little mum that she is (not really, only to us). We made our way over to Potts Point and checked in at the The Maisonette Hotel. It was no five-star resort, but was central to everything  and according to Nicole, it “smelt like pizza”. We hardly planned on spending time in our rooms apart from sleeping, bumping (to produce multiple Nadia’s), hair wrapping and showering, so it worked a treat, even if I did catch a cold from sleeping under the fan for two nights.

Time is scarcely ticking away. After all, there is only an hour remaining of happy hour at the Mezz Bar at Hotel Coronation on Park St in Sydney. We try to scurry out the door but to no avail – Nadia notices none of us wearing our lanyards and scolds us like a mother scolding her pain-in-the-ass kid at the grocery store. The fear of being seen wearing this in public is similar to that of  a raging bull galloping towards me at 70km an hour, but lucky for me, I’m not from around here so I can walk around without that uneasy feeling of possibly having to bump into an old high school friend at any given street corner – phew. After seeing them on, Nicole wonders if our lanyards are all longer than hers or if we just have shorter necks. Oh, sweet, innocent Nicole, I just want to hold you and tell you everything is going to be alright.

Alright, so even though I’m not from around here, I still decide to tuck my lanyard down my shirt and am rather excited when it fits snugly down there.  I am quick to shoot Brendon down when he asks if he too can fit down there. Sorry B, maybe next time.

Hello happy hour! We must take advantage of the happy hour deals so we decide to double fist.

doub·le fist·ing
Vulgar slang (verb)

1. The art of having a drink occupying each hand simultaneously.
…Let’s go double fisting at the bar tonight.

Our stop at Mezz Bar was short and sweet. Off we went to make our 6pm booking at Churrasco on Williams St.

Churrasco is a Brazilian style BBQ restaurant and at $35 a head, you get an unlimited supply of eye fillet, sirloin, lamb, chicken heart, pork, chicken, scotch fillet, sausage and chorizo as well as boccaccini, grilled pineapple and super scrumptious cheese balls (cheese bread). The waiters come around to your table and slice an array of meats right onto your plate. The best part about this though, is after one round, they just keep coming back with more! It’s like an unlimited supply of meat – all the meat you can eat!

The herb and mustard chicken was to die for and some of the cuts of steak were just sensational – I’ve eaten meat in almost all of the 22 countries I’ve travelled to, and I have to say, this was amongst some of the best I’ve ever tried. The pork belly was scrumptious on the taste buds and the  barbecued pineapple was a great addition. They also do a mean Sangria which went down a treat. I think we harassed out waiter one too many times for his cheesy balls, but we could not help ourselves, they were delish! I think they were actually surprised with how much we could eat because they kept coming back empty handed to see how we were going, and we kept requesting more and more and they didn’t let us down! This restaurant alone is almost enough of a reason to make me want to return to Sydney!

Despite it still being light outside, Nadia was already drunk. I too was feeling it. We wondered around the streets of Sydney aimlessly for a while. Of course, this lead to an epic photo shoot on a set of stairs and in a fountain until we found our way to the Shelbourne.

We planned on having a big night, but we started drinking way too early on in the day and crashed and burned by 10pm – pathetic, I know. Despite this, we did manage to fit another two rounds in – double fisting, of course. Nadia asked Brendon if if he could take a photo of her and I double fisting. His response: “Sure, and then I’ll take a photo of the two of you holding your drinks.” Cheeky little bugger!

We walked our sorry nana asses out of the bar and ended up at Martin Place to admire the gigantic Christmas tree there.

We took a quick detour passed Circular Quay to check out the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House by night and then jumped into a cab straight back to our hotel to get us some sleep in preparation for a big Saturday night (much bigger, I promise).

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To be continued…
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