Manchester to Sydney
Manchester to Sydney In Pictures
Australian Imigration Stamp
Well having been here a few days I have decided to have a quick update on here with my spin on things. V has already put up a blog yesterday just to say that we got here on – but I thought I would put up a bit more from me, and some of the pictures that we took on the way from leaving home through the journey and arrival here in Sydney.
The week before our departure from the UK turned into a manic rush about trying to get all things tied up with the businesses, finishing up contracts with work, packing, seeing friends and family, then little bits like contracts on the house, tenants and making sure that we got everything done before we left. Fact of the matter is – that we got most things done… we didn’t get everything done, and I accepted that we wouldn’t get everything done before we left. I guess that the most important things got done, and the little bits that remain can be done from here if necessary.
We were scheduled to depart at 8.20pm on Sunday, so we moved out of the room that we were renting the day before. After taking everything over to my parents, and then spending an inordinate amount of time trying to get 100 Gigs of MP3’s onto a 70 Gig laptop drive partition – thankfully I succeded in the end, just before Baron and L had invited us down to Eccleshall for coffee before we left. They gave us two lovely experiences and a fabulous book on Sydney before we left as going away/christmas present. The two experiences that they got us were: The Sydney Tower – the big radio tower in Sydney, and OzTrek – an interactive virtual reality trip which they think may give us some clearer ideas about where to go in Australia once we leave Sydney. The book that they gave us is brilliant – Time Out Sydney Guide “Essential for any traveller visiting Sydney”. To be honest, I have been met with a number of quite bemused looks when I have explained to people that I have literally just turned up in Sydney. I haven’t read ANYTHING about Australia, about Sydney, or read about anything that goes on over here – simply because I have been that busy for the last 9 months that I haven’t had time to sleep – let alone think about what we are planning on doing when we arrive – getting here has been the goal, and that has almost been my sole focus. So the book was a welcome opportunity to have a look at what we can get up to here!
We took with us a few books, and have found a load of travel books in the studio/apartment which we plan to read some of over the coming weeks. I guess that if you are looking for a comprehensive list of books and guides for Sydney and Austalia you will almost have it in these books below. I like the Lonely Planet Guides, but it is a personal preference. I would suggest amazon for most of them, as they will go out of date reasonably quickly. I have written a quick post about them here: Australia and Sydney Guides and Travel Books.
The journey itself was epic in many respects, great in some ways horrific in others – We managed to get an slight upgrade from the nice Emirates lady at the check-in desk at Manchester between Manchester and Dubai we had extra leg room – however, she couldn’t get it for us between Dubai and Sydney and it was hell. I felt ill for a good 3 or 4 hours – I think from exhaustion, and maybe too much food. I was so thankful that I hadn’t had any alcohol, as I am sure that I would have been sick as a dog. The flying between day and night and day was bizarre as was the interrupted sleep patterns where you woke up and looked at the screen to see where you were relative to Australia, only to find you had seemingly been stationary at 36,000 ft. What to take with you: Water – and lots of it, a decent eye mask to block out the light so that you can try to rest as the ones in the Emirates travel pack were ok – but not really good enough for me – I’m a light sleeper sometimes. Even if you can’t sleep, earplugs are a god send from the baby screams and general hub-ub of pissed idiots (yes we had one: a complete tool) – we got some really good silicon gel earplugs , rather than the traditional foam ones.
To honest, Dubai was pretty awful – no seating at the gates, no real food outlets apart from McCrap and JunkerKing – just cool architecture and diamond shops… I won’t be planning on going via there again in a hurry – but saying that – I don’t plan to be near an Aeroplane any time soon! lol
When we got to the coast of Australia all that hell that had preceded almost disappeared to then be replaced with excitement. And from there it was just a blur of watching the land roll beneith us, trying to see out the window past the massive wings on the A380-800 – which was while I think about it – very impressive and very comfortable. Emirates were supposedly one of the best airlines to fly with – we found the food to be good, the entertainment excellent, it was very modern and comfortable and the staff were absolutely brilliant – they were friendly and very attentive – you can’t ask for more than that. In regards to splitting the journey? I don’t know – I don’t think we could have afforded to stop in Dubai, and I didn’t really want to stop elsewhere – I just wanted to get here, so that I could relax… I would certainly suggest that if you aren’t in a rush – STOP SOMEWHERE!
We were expecting a nightmare at customs at Sydney airport, but it was pretty straight forward to be honest – we ticked the right boxes and answered all the questions that they asked. I took some parts over for a customer, and took the invoices with me to make sure that it wasn’t a problem – we just walked straight through – it was easy.
Straight out of the airport, into a taxi and we were in the Darlinghurst apartment within about 30 minutes. It is absolutely fan-f-tastic. Small enough to be comfortable and it has everything that we will need for this stint in Sydney. We have a lot more “stuff” than most backpackers but we are living here for a bit, so I guess we will be sending a load of stuff back before we actually head of wandering.
We headed out into Kings Cross (our nearest town centre/Red Light District) and had a bit of laugh about the fact that it is a bit colourful. We got ourselves set up with a Bank account at Commonwealth Bank – the lady who we dealt with was absolutely fantastic, so after all the blurb we heard about banking in Austalia being a pain in the ass, thus far has not manifested itself – I am however under no illusions that it will show its ugly head at some point. A friend of ours said to avoid HSBC like the plague over here, and suggested Commonwealth as being the one that he found best overall. The trip to town and a $10 steak on the way home finished us off, and we ended up sleeping for the best part of 8 hours – then grabbing some sandwiches, followed by another good stint in bed.
Our First Full Day In Sydney
The lady who owns the apartment gave us a city map with some suggested walks to try and get the jet-lag out of our systems and we set off at about 11AM to head down to Mrs Macquaries Point to see the “iconic” view of Sydney – over Farm Cove to the Sydney Opera House, with the Bridge behind it. We strolled on around the cove, and had a nosey around the Opera House, taking a few Arty pictures to try and impress MND when he reads this 
and then on further towards the Harbour Bridge Via Sydney Cove, Cambells Cove and then under the Bridge towards the Wharf Theatre where we had a lovely Sandwich and a Salad overlooking the Welsh Bay. It was hotting up by this point and the suncream was doing the hard work.
We even found Sweep, Sooty and Soo:
We took a wander back through the oldest part of Syndey (Rock) and then straight through the CBD before heading back past Hyde Park and then back out to where we are living in Darlinghurst. The jet lag started to get at me again so I had a lie down for an hour or so whilst V went out to get us some more supplies.
We hooked up with some distant acquaintances of V’s in a Bar called Low 302 on Crown St which was a nice chilled out end to our first few days in Sydney with a very nice bottle of wine.
I have spoken with a couple of people who I have sold some stuff out to over the last few years, and we may be going to the V8 Supercars on Saturday with them (Thanks Baron – was a cracking call). It is the season finale in Sydney and there are “legendary Band – Cold Chisel” playing afterwards? Who?
If we bail on that idea – we are going to go and walk the Harbour Bridge, but its about $120 each – which is a lot of money when you are on the kind of budget that we are on.
Anyhow – hope that you like the pictures…
Himself.
Aeroplanes and arachnids
Our less-than-comfortable-but-nevertheless-successful journey thus far (Manchester – Sydney via Dubai with Emirates). We’re now sat in our new “Studio Apartment” in Darlinghurst, Sydney, can of bug spray in one hand and laptop in the other…
Before travelling, we naturally asked friends, family and colleagues for advice and tips on surviving the journey. Most people cheerfully said ‘Oh it’s fine! You’ll be so excited about getting there, you won’t even notice’.
Now ‘fine’ may be an appropriate adjective. But only if you have just been released having been incarcerated in an airless Thai jail for 5 years, or have been subject of some illegal week-long sleep deprivation experiment by a group of ruthless scientists.
In my world, ‘fine’ would be a picnic by a lake or a day spent walking in the country – not the borderline torture to which we have just subjected ourselves. ‘Fine’ would imply ‘painless’ or even ‘pleasant’ but quite honestly, the journey here would have to rate fairly low on my list of pleasurable life experiences – nestled somewhere between ’smear test’ and ‘wisdom tooth extraction’.
As you may have gathered, we didn’t enjoy the journey all that much. As anyone who has ever tried to eat on a plane whilst sandwiched between two big men will know, elbows hurt. Add that to the fact that my 6 ft 4 husband spent the first few hours of the second leg with his own knees up around his ears and the fact that our body clocks meant that we were heaving when offered lamb curry for breakfast, it might be said that we have had better days.
Dubai airport, about which we had heard great things, was just a little bit of a let down. I had a shower (just for something to do) and the Thai shower attendant treated me to an eclectic medley of songs – ranging from Abba to Elayne Page with a little bit of The King slipped in there for good measure. Having said that, each sounded like the last - a kin to somebody ice skating on glass.
On the way from Dubai to Sydney,I watched a stomach-turning movie about intensive chicken farming which seemed rather appropriate.
Having moaned about all this, it has to be said that the flight was as good as it was ever going to be. It is, by its very nature, just unpleasant.
Moving on….. we arrived at the flat about half 8 Sydney time and it’s perfect – even better than we thought it would be. We’re unpacked, been for a rekkie, opened bank accounts, got Aussie SIM cards and managed to buy a few groceries – we are proud.
We have seen (and destroyed) our first Aussie spider and it’s all a bit of a biology lesson. After referring to the Collins SAS Survival Guide and then double checking with this, we concluded that the little critter was harmless. Well it certainly is now…. and you can never be too careful. It’s us against them.
Every time I go to the loo successfully, (gingerly peering under the toilet seat before I plonk my arse) I sort of feel like I’ve cheated death. A mini triumph for humankind.
Thus far, however, it is ‘Mosquitos 1, Victoria 0′, or it was until I squashed the little bastard…..I have a wheal on my back the size of a small country but hey, anyone who knows me will know that I am very tasty….
Right, going back to bed. My zombie brain is kicking in again……
We Arrived In Sydney, AUS
Just to let you all know – We got here! 8am or thereabouts Sydney time.
Bit shattered, but will update later about the journey – it was EPIC.
We are going for coffee!
Himself & Herself. x
Recent Updates
- Friends and their loveliness
- A Day in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, NSW
- A Weekend in Leura in the Blue Mountains, NSW
- Australian spiders we have gazed at in abject horror
- Weekend in the Australian Blue Mountains
- Free Ben and Jerrys In Manly, Sydney – April 20th 2010
- Mitchell Library After Dark Tour
- MGMT at Virgin Mobile Metro Theatre Sydney
- Fings wot we have done for free in Sydney
- St Patrick’s Day in Sydney, Australia – Sun 21st March