Day 2: Sydney

I awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning, my migraine gone. After bidding my gracious hostess farewell (she was off to church and my host was still asleep), I hopped on the 461 to the city.

One of the best things about Sydney is how the locals are so blase about foreigners. Throughout my 8 months in Queensland, I've hardly ever had a sranger strike up random conversation with me. Which is highly unusual because I am seriously the sort of person whose forehead screams "Talk to Me!" in flashing neon lights. At the bus stop, I chatted with a beautiful northern Italian chef whom I mistook as Scandinavian at first.

Unnvervingly enough, Sydney buses have CCTVs on them. On a related note, Brisbane bus drivers are now equipped with DNA kits to weed out the spitters. Scary stuff.

I alighted at the ubiquitous Central stop and begun wandering about in search of my hotel. I stumbled upon Market City, where my uncle once operated his stall. Sadly, a phone call revealed that he had shifted business to some other suburb 1.5 hours away. It was nice to catch up with him though, even if only by phone.

Translates to "Four seas, one family", probably referring to how Chinese people are everywhere. Like EVERYWHERE. Sydney's Chinatown is sprawling and will probably colonise the whole of Sydney in another decade. Or less.

I bought a fantastic strand of cultured pearls from this charming Chinese lady and her Middle Eastern/ Eastern European husband. I'll probably do a post on that one separately to pass on her knowledge of How to Wear Your Pearls in a Gazillion Different Ways.

After dumping my duffle bag at Vibe Hotel, I began my rambling walk. A somewhat inadequate map in hand, I somehow made my way to Oxford St, determined to make it to the infamous Paddington markets, nevermind the grey skies. I love Oxford St. Back in spring 2007, jackaranda trees were aplenty. This time around, skeletal branches expressed winter (Gold Coast is green all year round).

Vibe Hotel is decent enough for AUD135 a night. The staff are mostly half baked though, save one nice lady. They messed up my check in details and misplaced my bag twice (within 2 days!).

I breezed in and out of shops. One of my personal must-do's was to get the Le Sac dress (AUD64/ USD38) from American Apparel. Fortunately enough, the only Australian outlet is located along Oxford St. However, the appropriately named garment overwhelmed my petite figure unflatteringly. It would be a great buy for people 5'3" and a size 8 and above though. Within 15 minutes, I'd already found about 5 ways to wear it.

My walk took me to the back streets of Paddington, where old townhouses with finely latticed balconies were interspersed with independent art galleries. It was amazing. I felt as if I'd been transported to Europe (nevermind I've never been there). I can't remember all the street names, but Glenwood and Glenview Rds come to mind. It was really lovely being away from the madding crowds.









I spent an hour or so ambling around, with no idea where I was. I was off the tourist track now. Finally, I got to a main road, where I met a lovely gentleman who showed me the way to Edgecliffe station ("Bondi is just one station after that"), in spite of being in danger of late for a meeting.

The last time we were in Bondi, X and I failed to make it to the beach thanks to an overcast sky. Sadly, it was deja vu as I ducked into the Bondi Junction mall to escape fat droplets of rain.

After an hour or so there, I returned to the city and trawled the streets a bit before returning to the hotel, takeaway from the nearby Thainatown at hand. As you can see, my room was extremely spacious.





My fried rice was pretty alright. I spent the next hour soaked in the hot bath (no bath bubbles provided so I used shampoo instead), with Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (the man seriously needs some lessons on paragraphing - took me a week to get through even half the book) and a Korean face mask from some random grocery shop plastered on my tired skin.

After jumping about on the bed (Mummy never let me as a kid - "You'll spoil the springs!") to Toploader's Dancing in the Moonlight, I settled in and fell fast asleep.