Australian Vacation - Day 12
Airlie Beach - Sydney
Had to clean the apartment a bit before we left, and realized how little this part of Australia recycles. We basically couldn’t recycle anything unfortunately. At least they are big on water conservation, even though we were in one of the wettest parts of Australia, their rainfall is very seasonal. Dropped the rental car off and took a bus over to the ferry. Of course the day we leave Airlie Beach is the one day that’s sunny, but we did get to enjoy it for a while since we had to take a 45 min ferry ride over to Hamilton Island where the airport is located. 45 minutes was more than enough time in that hot Australian sun, even at 10am, it’s more powerful than anything we see in Canada. Max UV in this part of Australia hits 14 at midday, so Andrea got a nice burn in that time. I was ok though, just have a farmers tan now.
Got to our hotel in central Sydney just before 5:00. Thankfully the hotel was located right near Paddy’s markets, which Andrea had been to on her last visit and highly recommended. They closed at 5:00, but most stalls stayed open until about 5:30, so we were able to get some shopping in. Think of Paddy’s markets as Sydney’s Pacific mall, but replace electronics with touristy clothes and souvenirs. Paddy’s markets are ridiculously cheap by Australian standards, makes you realize how much you get ripped off in other places for all this cheap Chinese stuff.
Afterwards, I finally got to try the Aussie burger at Hungry Jacks. It was huge and tasty but honestly, I couldn’t even taste the individual ingredients because there were so many of them. It’s called Hungry Jacks because when Burger King wanted to expand in Australia in the early 70s, there was already a franchise called that there. Eventually that other franchise went away but the name has stuck around for various legal reasons.
Made the hike up to the Opera House to burn off some of those calories, and passed through Sydney’s historic district and various parks and gardens, all very nice. Got to the Opera House with about 15 minutes to spare before sundown. Just in time to catch that perfect sunset light for photography. It was insane how many photographers were there, I had to take a picture of them for irony’s sake. The whole Opera House/bay area of Sydney has become very pedestrian friendly in recent years and was filled with people. Had a chat with an Aussie retiree about to see a performance at the Opera House. She was lamenting how Sydney was still very much a boy’s club and needed to grow up. Also complained about how the gap between rich and poor was too wide and kept widening. Seems to be a worldwide problem, but from what I’ve seen, Australia is faring better than many countries.
Finished the night off with a stroll through the docks area and a pint at Sydney’s oldest pub (1822) before the long trek back to the hotel. Must have walked about 10km throughout the night, but was a perfect ending to our Australian escapade.
