7th May - Flight to Sydney! Day 1 in Sydney!

We awoke early in the morning to confirm all our packing was done, and A&A took some photos of the house just before they left so they'd always remember how the house looked. Then they loaded the luggage onto the car, and they took off.

Aunt Ruth drove for 2 hours, stopping along the way at Uncle Keith's office to get the GPS, and eventually we reached Avalon Airport an hour before the flight. A&A were very thankful but had to keep their goodbyes short because there was a parking time limit of a minute in the drop off area. Plus, Aunt Ruth wanted to go shopping before picking up the kids :-)


Avalon is Melbourne's domestic airport, and is substantially further than Tullamarine Airport. The ride from Tullamarine took only 45 minutes, but the ride to Avalon 2 hours! If you live in the city area and need to transfer to Avalon, our advice is to go early.

When we reached Sydney, we went out and immediately noticed the temperature was warmer here (though still relatively cool at around 15 - 18 degrees - but with the sun it seems warmer than that). We took a cab into the city area, where our hotel, Travelodge Wynyard, was situated, and thankfully, it cost only $30. We've heard of horror stories where a trip from Tullamarine Airport to Melbourne CBD cost up to A$100!! And judging by how fast the meter jumped, we were really glad Sydney is a lot smaller.

The meter jumped about A$0.20 every 5 seconds, based on Adal's calculations. Imagine a one hour trip - that's $144!!

Our hotel room. The website showed a modern, new looking hotel, and A&A were quite appalled to find that it was actually quite run down - the lights were dim, carpet stained (though not smelly, thank goodness), and the doors were only locked with a key lock (which could easily be forced in with a screwdriver or just a man ramming on the door.

On the other hand, it was cheap(ish) at $192 per night, and was right in the centre of the city. Adal had done his FYP on hotels, and felt that this was actually not sufficient. He was quite sure they would not go back again, even given the price and location. A hotel NEEDED to deliver its promise - a website that showed a glitzy hotel that was actually run-down would destroy consumer trust.


Adal wisely decided to put the heavy luggage (about 27kgs) right at the door when they slept. As a result, of course, Adal didn't really sleep very well either. Men always sleep badly when they think their wives and lives (sometimes the same) are at risk.


Quite rarely did A&A feel so keenly that they wanted to get out of the room as fast as possible, and this they did - travelling to the nearby Queen Victoria's Building.

The Grace Hotel - such a majestic looking building!

QVB Exterior

QVB Interior

This sweet shop was crowded! But A&A didn't really feel like queuing, and were of course not very inclined to eat something sweet, so they walked on.

This was very pretty, and hey! It looks just like the Monarch Cake Shop display!

Winding Stairs to Nowhere

Psychadaelic stained glass dome ceiling

This was a fantastically detailed train station - it was quite big and very fascinating to lose yourself in.

Even the lamps were fascinating!

The Stained glass mural on the entrance.

And as A&A exited the building, they saw the imposing statue of Queen Victoria outside.

She actually looked quite fierce. Perhaps a marketing ploy?

"Get back inside and shop you filthy maggots!"

Such language is not becoming of a Queen.

Sydney, quite unlike Melbourne, hasn't got many sprawling plains (if any). It does have many Victorian-styled buildings, and is a bustling and relatively safer city if you don't cross into the Red-Light districts in Woolloomooloo and King's Cross at night. Within the City Area, you can feel safe walking at night because many businesses are still open at night, and the streets are well-lit.

And our last pic before we went into the ubiquitous Myers and David Jones!

For Dinner, we had Italian at a really nice restaurant called La Bora Pizzeria. The reviews of this place range quite widely, but we found the chilli prawns, seafood marinara and La Bora Pizza to be very good. And at less than $70 for 2 persons, it's really affordable! And if you're Singaporean, we can assure you - you would have seen much worse service in Singapore!