Going Metro Friday 2/22/08

This going to be a high stress day. We are as prepared as we are going to get so we just have to bite the bullet and head out. We are driving (on the wrong side of the road) into a really big city in a foreign country; trying to find an apartment right in the middle of it; finding a place to unload where there is probably no parking; hoping there is a key in the mailbox left by a rental agent who has been incommunicative; moving into an apartment that may or may not be as represented by said agent; and finally returning a rental car downtown that may involve who knows what kind of gyrations. But more about that later.

We are finishing our fruit, cole slaw, pasta salad and breakfast bars this morning. As promised our chorus of birds started once again at exactly 5:55 but now we knew what to expect and rolled over for another nap. Strangely enough we have not seen our hosts during our two-night stay here. The keys were in the cottage when we arrived, there was no service during our stay and no sign of anyone this morning. We wonder if they knew we were here. We expect that our credit card will make contact even if we didn’t.

It is not a long drive today, no more than a hundred miles. After getting packed up and moved out we drove to Woolongong, a distant Sydney suburb, for lunch and a stroll around. It was Friday market day in town so we poked around among the vendors in a downtown pedestrian mall before grabbing a bite at a sidewalk café (John the chicken Parmagiana and Mary the tuna wrap). Mary also grabbed a couple spring rolls and dimsum for a snack later. We get a Sydney map at the info center to go with our Hertz maps so we can keep track of our progress.
It is 1:15 when we leave Woolongong and 50 miles to central Sydney so we are shooting optimistically for a 3:00 arrival at our apartment. Mary the navigator has prepped well and directs us through neighborhoods and parks, on and off of freeways without ever hitting a toll road, and finally into heart of the action. We make ZERO wrong turns all the way and pull up across the street from our apartment building, with a space available in a loading zone, at 3:03. Mary watches the car and smooth talks a "City Ranger" (parking cop) while John schleps a few loads across the street where our apartment key is waiting and all is well. It is a couple blocks down, a couple blocks over and a few back up with some legal and illegal turns when we pull onto the Hertz return lot about a mile from the apartment. No dings or bruises on the car. Whew!

We take a walk around this end of town before going back to the apartment, and explore Darling Harbor just a few blocks from our temporary home. It is all shops, bars, restaurants and big boats and the place is jumping late on a Friday afternoon. We have a beer and people watch while enjoying our new-found stress free life.

We have to confirm a lunch reservation for tomorrow and find that our apartment is telephone free. Just as we are whining our intercom pops on and our rental agent Michelle is at the door downstairs to tell us that the restaurant called and we need to confirm our reservation for tomorrow. We explain the dilemma and she volunteers to bring us a mobile tomorrow that we can use for the week. John found a pay phone a half block down the street and made peace with the restaurant. It is after 7:00 when we go out for dinner and walk down to "Circular Quay" where we get our first peek at the Harbor Bridge and Opera House. The sun is setting and glistening on the top of both while we ask each other "did you bring the camera?" No.

All the restaurants we come across are raucus with the Friday night revelers and we work our way back to Nicks, a place we saw this afternoon in Darling harbor. Nick's is a 350-seat seafood behemoth and local icon that is packed and also raucus, but we are wearing down so grab a table after a short wait. John has the surf and turf (kangaroo and prawns) with polenta and tomato chutney and Mary has a nice Tuna fillet with fries. The big city has been kind to us today and we will sleep well.

Today's local headline: Let's steal the cup Sun Herald (Prime Minister announces a plan to get the soccer world cup for 2018 away from favorite England)