The check-in baggage line was longer than I had imagined, but seemed to move reasonably quickly. Bye bye bag - meet you again (in a filthy condition) on the other side.
I was full of nerves and had second, third and fourth thoughts of cancelling the trip. The fact I would lose a lot of money, had no ride home and bro was with me were the only things that made me get on that plane! It was an extremely hard trip for me as I felt myself getting further and further away from my little ones.
The plane lands and everything is going well until we hit Sydney domestic airport train station. Straight up: Sydney train stations are NOT tourist friendly! How is a tourist suppose to know what area is on what train line - honestly?
I also soon discover they aren't the friendliest of people down there. Mind you, living in a small country town you know and expect everyone to be friendly and help out when they see you're lost. I'm almost positive that Brisbane share the same unfriendly people.
We finally find the line we're supposed to be on when I come across these strange ticket gadgets all train and main ferry wharves have when entering and leaving. At least the station officer there could see I had no idea what to do and came to the rescue.
Far out, trains down there are absolute luxury. No wonder most don't bother to drive and take the easier way to avoid traffic! They have clean velour seats that look inviting and the doors open automatically. Then you have both up and downstairs levels. Unfortunately for us with luggage, it would have been a nightmare to lug it either way for a seat. Besides that, the train was already packed even at 1pm.
Lidcombe station was as far as we could go without changing trains - this is where we had a short walk to a station that would take us to Olympic Park. The signs on how to actually get there from Lidcombe were rather confusing and caused a loss of time. Eventually we found someone who was able to guide us in the right direction.
Seriously, this station needs a warning sign - ENTER TRAIN AT OWN RISK!!!
How disgusting. I have never experienced public transport like this before. I refused to sit or touch ANYTHING. It was the train to hell after the luxury of the Western line.
Needless to say, I refused to ever set foot on that thing again.
I truly regret not getting photos of both trains of proof of the best and worst of Sydney's train system...lol.
We got to the apartment late, where someone from the company was waiting to greet us. Ohhhh fun, we're on the 3rd floor and there's no lift in our building. Thanks a lot. My shoulders were killing me from carrying my handbag, laptop bag and my 20kg suitcase - where I wasn't able to wheel it. The apartment wasn't all that stunning (not really sure what I was expecting for that price in Sydney), but it was somewhere to shower and rest briefly before catching the bus to the closest supermarket.
Unfortunately, we ended up buying way more food than we actually needed. Next time I know to tone it down...lol.
I had hoped to be able to give some of the excess food away to friends, but it ended up having to be thrown out. Feels like such a waste, but we stuffed in what we could of the travelable products.
The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent unpacking, relaxing and admiring the big city lights.
We made the mistake of ordering pizza for dinner - they had a special deal of 3 Mia pizzas for $21. I think they were out hunting the meat for them....hehehe. They arrived over an hour later and almost stoney cold. I have to admit, I was running on adrenaline so wasn't that hungry. Two slices of thin pizza was all I had to eat for the entire day. Holidaying is so good for my figure....lol.
Goodnight Sydney!
After such a long day, I ended up sleeping like a log - even though I didn't have my boomerang or body pillow to snugle up to.
Private thoughts: I don't think too highly of the 'professional' cleaning job you pay $160 for in a two room apartment. They provide two towels per double room which worked out well having both to myself. I used my spare to cover the tacky looking sofa!
But there's only one tea towel which I thought was crazy. Yes, there's a washer and dryer in the apartment, but it still means you're without one for a couple of hours while both machines do their thing. No instructions on how to work the dryer too, for those of us who have never owned one in our lives.
There's also only one (what I call light-ish) quilt blanket on each bed and no others to be found anywhere in the apartment. I'm not use to crisp sheets at home - I'm a high threadcount sheet snob .... the type that aren't chilled to the touch when you crawl into bed, even in winter. My thyroid also plays with my body temperature a lot. So for a blanket that may be perfectly fine for most, I can be freezing. That's exactly what happened here and that's before the nasty ice snap hit.
Fortunately I had taken a velvet throw blanket with me, but even with that it wasn't warm enough for me. I think it's insane not to have another couple of blankets on offer in the apartment for those who feel the cold or the weather turns unusually cold like while we were there. Very disappointing.
I imagined they would have some kind of products in a pantry like salt, pepper, maybe vegemite, glad wrap, tinfoil.... etc. But nope. Not a single thing apart from a sponge scourer, chux cloths, rubbish bags and shitty packets of dish washer and hand washing detergent. But like I said, it was cheap shitty one off packets.
Ohhh, they did leave a few one offs of sugar, tea bags and the most ghastly red wine I have ever tried...lol.
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