Helen & John arrived in Sydney on the Monday (2nd January) paying Sydney a short visit. They just came from Melbourne, and we offered to pick them up from the airport. It was about 8am, and Marissa was suppose to go to work. But after yesterday at the beach, she decided to take a day off (with a little bit of hassle.. )
Anyway.. their initial arrival was greeted with John missing his precious bag full of surf gear. The usual cheery John was definitely not having a good start to his first trip to Sydney. We drove them home, settled down in our apartment, and had a bit of rest. The rest of the day was spent at Sydney aquarium (only nearby). Me & Marissa decided to pay the Maritime museum a visit as they had the “Vikings” exhibition on tour. Before you know it, someone from the airport rang John up to tell him his bag was found. What a lucky boy!
Later on that evening, we took them to Watson Bay for a quick site visit. John isn’t a walker, so he didn’t quite want to do long walks. Anyway, dinner was at this Japanese place in Capital Square in China Town, which was both expensive and forgettable. The other Japanese place that I wanted to take them to was closed due to public holidays.
On the 2nd day, they joined this tour thing to go and see Blue Mountains. They reckon they really enjoyed it, and had a good tour guide. In the evening, it was clear that Helen & John does not want to stay at the apartment. Kian’s friend (from Perth) arrived, and was expecting another one the following day. It was soon apparent that they won’t be able to fit in that apartment. I guess it’s my fault for not getting the communication right with Kian in the first place. We didn’t have a clue they were coming so soon. So Helen booked an apartment at Coogee instead for $185/night. John wanted to check out the beach anyway. The postive side to the night was dinner at Norton Street in Leichardt. John enjoyed his pasta.
We didn’t get to see them on the 3rd day & the 4th day, since they went around themselves and were escorted around by John’s friend. On the 5th day, they were back in our apartment for the last night. Once again, we went out for dinner and chose the Thai place in Newtown. John is a hard boy to satisfy, as he seems to be quite picky with his food. Pasta seems to be his thing, so we should have just taken him to another Italian place. But it was on us, so he should be happy 😉
All in all, their feedback were that Sydney is a BIG place. I believe John will definitely be back in Winter for snowboarding. Helen feels Sydney is really really big. Hmm.. let’s see if they’ll be back.
