This was a day long in the making. On 4 August, Sebastian, Hermione, and we booked tickets to a screening of the 1985 classic Back to the Future featuring live music performed by Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House.
The performance started at 2 pm, but we had to fetch the tickets at least half an hour before then. So we went on the train to Sydney at about 9:15 am.
We arrived in Sydney at 12:40 and walked to the Opera House where we fetched our tickets. Outside the Opera House, people were preparing a small market, so we bought lunch there to eat while we waited for Sebastian and Hermione. Across the bay, an enormous cruise ship was anchored. Next to it, some of the big structures in the city didn’t seem so big anymore.
The cruise ship next to Sydney Harbour BridgeLinnea next to Sydney Harbour Bridge
We ate our lunch and after Linnea went to find a coffee. While she was away, Sebastian and Hermione arrived and the time until the performance was getting shorter. On her way back to the Opera House entrance with coffee in hand, Linnea was stopped by a guy probably in his thirties who was working as a fight scene coordinator for the television show Game of Thrones. The guy, or rather his friend, had apparently been ‘stunned’ when Linnea walked past them. So he felt like he had to talk to her. They wondered if she could meet up later for a coffee. Although it was a testament to how stunning Linnea is (Gustav writing here), it was not the right time to chat. She explained the situation and hurried back to the entrance.
A few minutes before the performance started, we hurried up the stairs to the Concert Hall to take our seats on row L. Because of the screen setup the stage had been extended to fit the whole orchestra. Since parts of the screen could have been obstructed by the orchestra from the point-of-view from row L, we got a good price when buying the tickets. Fortunately, we could all see the screen and some of the orchestra. Our seats were pretty much front and center.
The stage of the Concert HallThe Concert Hall
The conductor was a man, probably in his thirties, who was charming and jokingly talked to the audience to introduce the performance. The orchestra started playing the main theme of the movie before it started. It was interesting to look at the conductor especially when the movie started. On a small screen next to the score the conductor could see the movie with cues appearing or moving across the screen to indicate when he should cue the orchestra.
Intermission in the performance
In theater tradition, the performance had an intermission in the middle when we could go out and stretch our legs. We took the opportunity to go out and get a few photos of the four of us together. As we wanted to make this, our one, visit to Sydney Opera House special, we had dressed up for the occasion. A man aided us and took our pictures.
Gustav, Linnea, Hermione, and Sebastian on the terrace of Sydney Opera House
We went back in and took our seats when the signal started sounding. The second half was also very enjoyable. The four of us thought it was really nice to see the movie. Sebastian and the both of us had seen Back to the Future before while it was the first time for Hermione. But it was quite some time since the two of us had seen it, so it was nice to refresh our memories as well.
The two of us in Sydney Opera House
After the performance, we walked to an Italian restaurant called Fratelli Fresh where Hermione had made a reservation. We ordered pizzas and a pasta dish. The pizzas at the restaurant were a bit quirky, they had one with black truffles and an egg on it, which Linnea had to try. The food tasted really good and we had a lovely time talking to each other.
Our dinner at Fratelli Fresh
When we had finished dining, we couldn’t help but try out an ice cream place Hermione recommended for dessert. We bought some exotic flavours there as well, this time Gustav got popcorn ice cream with salted caramel flavour. Later we headed to the trains at Circular Quay, and the two of us started our journey back to Newcastle.
We started our Tuesday by skyping with Gustav’s parents, which was Monday evening for them in Sweden. After the Skype call, we went up to the dining room where Latimer served us breakfast.
We had two choices of getting croissants or toasts and flavoured yogurt or natural yogurt. We went with croissants and had an array of marmalades to choose from. At breakfast, we shared the table with one of the other house guests that were staying with Latimer. He was a German guy called Flo who was traveling around the world one country at a time. He had been on long stays in both India and Australia previously and was going to the U.S. after New Zealand. To finance his travels, he was doing freelance web development and programming.
Together, Flo, Latimer, and we discussed a bit of everything. Politics, cultures, and travels. It was very nice, and we had breakfast for probably more than an hour.
After breakfast, we headed out towards the city centre. We were walking and had dressed according to the weather forecast, which turned out to be completely wrong. Instead of cold weather, winds, and rain, we got a day filled with sunshine. It was nice but would have been more pleasant if we had dressed for it.
Linnea and Auckland War Memorial Museum from one sideAuckland War Memorial Museum from the other side
Our first stop was the Auckland Domain, which is a big park close to the centre. We got a picture with the Auckland War Memorial Museum but decided on not going in. Instead, we had some fika and went for a walk in the park along a path called “Lover’s Walk.”
Flowers in the Auckland DomainA family of Mallards in the Auckland DomainA brook in the Auckland Domain along the Lover’s Walk
We continued towards the city centre. On our way, we walked past another campus of the University of Auckland and at this campus a lot of people were dressed in colourful capes with suits or dresses under. As we got to a park on the other side of the campus, it was packed with more people dressed like this. So, it seemed like there had been a graduation ceremony earlier and these were the graduates and their friends and families. We still don’t know what the different colours of the capes represented.
From the park, we went to the wharf, where we found a collection of shops similar to the Re:start mall in Christchurch. Although similar, there were fewer in Auckland but an interesting concept to have shops in containers. Among the shops, we found a sushi place with good deals. Seated at a nearby table, we rested our legs and ate our late lunch.
Our sushi lunchView from the wharfsSeagulls on the wharfs
We walked along the wharf past the harbour and got to Silo Park, which seemed to be another area they were replanning. This area playgrounds and basketballs courts amidst the old industrial silos and warehouses.
Silo Park
Next to this area was Auckland Fish Market located, Linnea thought that it would be interesting to check it out. After stepping in, she walked the ten meters straight through because the smell was too much.
From there we headed to the nearest bus stop as it was starting to get late. At the bus stop, we concluded that they didn’t seem to have the signaling system as in NSW (where you need to signal or wave to the bus driver for them to stop). But lo and behold, when our bus came it just ran past us because just that bus route required you to signal the driver. In their defense, in the last second before the bus ran past us we could read “please signal driver” on the bus itself (which seems like a stupid place to put that text). We weren’t the only ones annoyed by the bus drivers inability to stop, which was evident by the swear words uttered by one of the other persons at the bus stop.
Twenty minutes later, the next bus arrived, and this time we waved and flared with our arms like our ride home depended on it. The bus stopped, we paid and got seated. The bus had a display that showed the upcoming stops, a map, the weather, the latest news, and a few ads – unlike the displays on the buses in NSW that only shows the video feed from the cameras onboard the bus, which is quite useless.
The bus tour went well, and we got off at the right stop with just a hundred meters to walk to our accommodation. For dinner, we fried the last of our camping sausages and ate them with bread. We spent the evening packing our bags, talking to Latimer and just relaxing.
Our last day in New Zealand started much like the first one with a tasty breakfast and nice company. As our flight was leaving at 5 pm, we had some time to spend before going to the airport. Latimer was so kind to let us leave our bags there until we had to go because otherwise, the check out time was at 11 am.
We went out towards a nearby park called Cornwall Park and One Tree Hill, which is a small mountain located in the park that’s quite famous because of it giving the name to the TV series. On our way to the park, it started raining. We had brought umbrellas, but our shoes were the real problem as they were starting to get wet all the way into our socks.
Cows in Cornwall Park
In the park, there were both sheep and cows. Linnea wanted to pet a lamb, but none of them seemed to be too trusting of humans and started to run away as soon as she got near.
For the most part, there was a path for pedestrians along the road in the park, but when we got to the main road leading up One Tree Hill, there was no path for pedestrians. After walking a bit up the hill on the road, we decided to turn back because of our wet shoes, the lack of a path, and the weather (which also meant that the view from the summit would probably be limited).
An obelisk on top of One Tree Hill
Our next stop was a Chinese restaurant called Golden Jade. We ordered noodle dishes with veggies and chicken for Linnea, and pork for Gustav. It was alright, but it was pretty much bathing in a soup of broth.
Linnea’s lunch at Golden Jade
When we had eaten, we headed back to the house to get our bags and ordered an Uber to the airport. We got a really nice driver that took us on a smooth ride there even though there was some chaos on the highway. We ate some fika (before going through the security check), and checked in with Virgin Australia that was flying us back to Sydney.
Once again we had to fill out a card with information about why we were leaving the country, which was very similar to the form we had to fill out when leaving Australia to New Zealand. When it was filled out, we went through the security control without any problems.
Linnea and the duty-free shops at Auckland Airport
In the duty-free shop, we looked for something to spend our last New Zealand dollars on. We settled on New Zealand’s favorite brand of chocolate and 2 litres of liqueur (Bailey’s Irish Cream and Swedish Absolut Vodka, of course). After shopping, we headed to our gate, which was packed with people. But thankfully, we found two available seats where we could relax before having our rows called for boarding.
Our aeroplane from Auckland
For the first time, we were not seated directly next to each other but had the aisle between us. Gustav sat in the middle of a family of New Zealanders. They were a bit noisy and had the weird attitude of feeding their youngest child only candy and soda, even though they had pre-ordered food for all of them. But at least they offered us the child’s ordered dessert when he didn’t want it because he had already eaten two chocolate bars.
The flight was otherwise quite uneventful. We listened to audiobooks or podcasts. Gustav solved a sudoku puzzle in the in-flight magazine. Towards the end of the flight, we had to fill out yet another form. This time it was the same form we filled out going into Australia, so it was easy to fill out.
We landed in Sydney at 5:45 pm, so even though we flew at 5 pm and had flown for almost four hours it was almost the same time as when we left. (Yes, we know how time zones work, it’s just fascinating.)
We got through immigrations and customs easily, but we had brought back a few things that we were required to declare. We had boots that we had worn while hiking, seashells from the beach, and the book with the wooden cover that Linnea had bought. Since we knew about the strict rules, we had washed off our boots and the seashells before leaving New Zealand. The customs officer was very kind, and after hearing that we had cleaned our boots, he only asked to examine the seashells. After his inspection, we were free to leave and bring everything.
We went to the train to Central. When arriving at Central, the next train to Newcastle was the first for the evening to be affected by track maintenance. So, it would only go to Wyong and from where we would have to take a replacement bus.
We were quite tired already since our brains thought it was 9-10 pm. To top things off, the train didn’t arrive at the platform on Central. So everybody was called to go to another platform and get on the train there instead. Everybody was rushing, and it was hard to get ahead with our two big bags. But we managed to get on the train and get seats to sit. After a 15-minute wait, the announcer once again called out. This time he was announcing that the other train had arrived and that everybody should go to it instead.
At this point, we started to get quite annoyed with the circus which is public transport in NSW. Since everybody on the train only cared for their own skin, we were left last because of our bags. When we got to the other train it was completely packed, which wasn’t shocking since it was almost half as long as the other train and at this point, it had been collecting passengers for much longer than it usually does.
So because of this, we were only left with the space in the vestibule of one carriage. To top things off, in the cramped space, we were probably seven people, one of which probably was suffering from substance abuse since he was antagonizing all the other passengers. After a few stations, we hurried to the next vestibule in order to escape his antics.
From there on, it was calm and on the bus from Wyong, Gustav was nodding in and out of sleep. When we got to Hamilton, the last train to Waratah had already gone. Fortunately, the last bus towards Mayfield was just a few minutes away, so we hurried to the bus stop and managed to catch the bus.
We got home at 11 pm and were very tired since it was 2 am in our heads, so it was an easy thing to go to sleep.
Linnea and I had been thinking about it for a long time and today was the day, we were going to Ikea!
We started off by taking the train to Sydney, which in itself took some time (about 2h 30min). We passed the time by listening to podcasts or music, or by sleeping. Side note: on the trains, there are some really cool seats. You can move the back of the seat to either end of the seat (I will show a photo/video of this next time).
When we arrived in Sydney, we took another train to Circular Quay and arrived with a view over the harbour, Sydney Harbour Bridge, and Sydney Opera House.
We walked along the water and walked into an exhibit on the wharf next to a museum. The exhibit showed what I would call the “deer-apocalypse” and wetlands, not far from how some parts of northern Sweden looks (although with fewer horns laying around).
We continued up to The Rocks, where a market was going on. A lot of preparation were also made, it seems, for the Aroma Festival happening on Sunday, which is the largest coffee festival of the southern hemisphere. As soon as we got to know about the Aroma Festival, we decided to go.
We walked up to The Australia Heritage Hotel where we had lunch. The food on the menu was a Coat of Arms pizza, which is a pizza with one half of emu meat and the other half kangaroo meat. The pizza was really good! Linnea liked the emu most, while I preferred the kangaroo. So now we can tick off eating the coat of arms pizza on our bucket list.
After lunch, we walked back down and walked along the water again. We arrived at the opera house and took our pictures. While stopping, we also put on some sunscreen as the weather was splendid and we could feel the power of the Australian sun.
From the opera house, we walked on into the Royal Botanical Garden. We saw some impressive trees growing there. The outlook over the water was spectacular with a good view of the opera house and the harbour bridge. Linnea relaxed a bit in Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, a carved rock seat, with this outlook.
We were meeting up with Sebastian later at the Art Gallery of NSW. On our way over, we saw a flock of wild cockatoos. Linnea got excited as she wanted one when she was younger. But we have now heard their screech, which I think is all you need to hear to reconsider.
When we arrived at the museum, we went in together with Sebastian and had a quick look at some of the paintings. Linnea took the opportunity and voted on a painting for the People’s Choice in the Archibald Prize. We looked at some aboriginal paintings. They were simple, yet complex and also peaceful.
After the museum, we had fika along with both Sebastian and Hermione. We discussed the possibility of going to an opera, concert, or show at the opera house.
By bus, we went to Ikea in Tempe. The Ikea warehouse was far bigger than the one in Linköping and the one in Örebro. It was huge!
We started our Ikea visit by having dinner. Meatballs with lingonberry jam! Linnea tried the chicken meatballs; they were good as well.
When we had eaten, we started our search for the products on our shopping list. We knew we only could buy as much as we could carry, so we had planned in advance only to buy the things we needed.
A the checkout register, Linnea could use her employee discount, which was nice. This is a bit impressive that they manage to keep all the warehouses connected even though they are so far apart.
We bought some food in the Swedish Food Market at Ikea. Herring, Kalles creamed smoked roe, cloudberry jam, lingonberry jam, elderflower juice, etc. So good!
We walked briskly to the Sydenham train station and got into Central a few minutes late, making our wait a bit short. So we ran through the central with all our Ikea stuff, making it to the train to Newcastle just in time before they were about to close the doors.
Home, at last, we assembled our clothes rack Rigga and started to sort and hang our clothes. A picture of our room after the Ikea transformation will come tomorrow.
As I have promised, here’s a summary of the trip to Australia and our first days here. This post covers the trip. The next post will cover the first days here.
Saturday, 9 July
As I have previously written, our first flight departed from Arlanda airport at 14:30 CEST. A semi-sick Gustav and a better off Linnea were seated in 37J and 37K on their way to Bangkok. The flight with Thai Airways departed on time and shortly after take-off the cabin crew started giving out snacks and drinks.
The snacks were some pretzels, and the drink of our choice was apple juice. Linnea’s first-hand choice was coffee, but apparently, Thai Airways only serve coffee with hot meals. I guess Thai Airways might not be familiar with Swedish coffee habits.
Linnea and I started watching a movie each in the in-flight entertainment system after we got the snacks. Linnea watched the new live action Djungle Book while I watch 10 Cloverfield Lane. I liked the movie. If you like mystery-thrillers watch it, but don’t look at trailers or reviews. It’s best watched without knowing too much about the story.
We got our hot meal during the movie. So after pausing the movie we ate the meal consisting of a Curry chicken with rice, salad, bread, camembert, saltines, a cheesecake for dessert, and last but not least coffee! Well, tea for me since I find it more soothing than coffee.
After the meal, we finished watching our movies after which we fell asleep – I wish! We laid under our blankets, with our neck pillows around our necks and with sleeping masks over our eyes – still, sleep was scarce. I managed to get a few hours in total, but it was hard as the three loudmouthed, whisky-chugging, Swedish men on the row in front of us stayed awake for quite some time. And at each bump and kick from the passenger in the seat beside me my focus on falling asleep was lost again for the moment. But I was lucky. Linnea gave up her attempt to fall asleep after a while and watched movies instead.
At one point during the “night”, Linnea woke me up, point out the small aeroplane window. We were somewhere close to India, and at the horizon, in a dark and ominous cloud, a thunderstorm. Linnea and I managed to catch a glimpse of the whole cloud lighting up as thunder rolled.
Sunday, 10 July
When “morning” came, i.e. when the cabin crew slowly turned the cabin light back up, breakfast was served. The Swedish breakfast brands greeted us as we were served orange juice, yoghurt, fruit salad, marmalade, croissant, scrambled eggs and sausage, and coffee or tea.
Shortly after we had finished our breakfast, we began our decent. Bangkok greeted us under a cover of smog, fog, or both.
We landed at about 6 am local time (ICT). Stepping out of the plane, meeting signs with strange writings and stepping onto the walkways. After finding a sign with departures and finding the gate of our second flight, we found the escalator for that section of the airport. But in front of the escalator, blocking the way an airport employee stood checking each and everyone’s boarding card and said whether or not they were supposed to go up the escalator. As you might imagine the line for the escalator was very long, and at the end when I showed my boarding I simply got the response: “Sydney, yes” and a pointing gesture up the escalator.
When we got up the escalator, we found ourselves in the line of a security control and panically drank up the water in our water bottle, which we had just refilled on the plane. After the security control, we strolled through the duty-free shops and went to our gate.
When we finally were allowed to enter the boarding area of the gate, the area was filled fast. This was due to the fact that boarding didn’t start until 20 minutes after the scheduled time of take-off.
On the flight, we were served breakfast again, pretty much the same things as last flight only in a more Thai way. After breakfast, they turned down the lights again and “night” began. This annoyed me a bit as my intention was to stay awake during this flight in order to better adjust to the Australian time. My attempt to stay awake failed. While listening to podcasts and news, I soon dozed off and so did Linnea as well.
We slept for most of the second flight and woke up just before the hot meal was going to be served. The second flight they server – surprise – Curry chicken(!), only this time in a more Thai way. What Thai way means when it comes to Curry chicken is more spices. I toke one bite, and that was enough for me. I ate the salad and bread instead.
The arrival to Sydney was only a couple of minutes behind schedule. When we walked off the plane, we arrived at immigrations and customs. Everything there was quite easy. Scan your passport, get a ticket, go to line, put ticket into a machine, look into the camera, walk through, fetch bag, go to customs, hand over paper slip, “weapons or medicines?”, “medicins”, “did you bring any food from the plane?”, “no”, “can I check your backpack?”, “sure”, “you can go”, “thanks”, and that was pretty much it. We had to wait a short while for our luggage, but not very long.
When we came out to the arrival area, we were greeted by my friend and former colleague Sebastian and his girlfriend Hermione. They drove us to their (and their roomate’s) appartment where we slept horizontally for the first time in a long, long time, or that’s how it felt. Before we went to bed we tried four kinds of Tim Tams, which is an Australian biscuit that Sebastian had bought for us. But in the end it felt really nice to sleep!
Monday, 11 July
Linnea and I woke up and took a well-needed shower. Getting out of the shower, the not-so-warm air of New South Wales hit me, but it’ll get warmer soon (hopefully). When we were dried up, Sebastian had prepared breakfast for us. He had also been out and got us Opal cards to use when travelling in NSW. Thanks, Sebastian and Hermione for meeting, driving, having and helping us! Also thanks to Matt and Angelica for letting us sleep in your living room!
