Australia diary
9 - Back in Sydney
June 29, 1998
Wake up at 7:00, breakfast, find a nice driver to give me a lift downtown.
Alice Springs is a little place, I buy an airport shuttle ticket, and wander around in not that nice aboriginal art galleries.
I catch the bus and an aboriginal child’s smile, have a look at the Mac Donnel ranges. There’s a long bridge over a large expanse of pebbles, where a river maybe runs from time to time.
This time, I don’t get to fly first class… I’d even have to pay for alcohol :)
In Sydney, I get the airport shuttle back home, and go shopping in Oxford Street to get fabric for pillow cases and a few little other things.
My friend and I go to have a pie with mash potatoes and gravy at Harry’s Café de Wheels, in Woolloomooloo. It’s a van sitting next to the water, you eat the delicious meat pies topped with mashed potatoes or green peas and gravy while standing next to the van. I love it!
Then we go up to King’s Cross, and head for New Zealand Ice Cream… closed! So we have Danish Ice Cream instead… We meet friends, then go to a bar where one of the house mates joins us, and we have a few beers (Tooheys Old and Caffrey’s)
Another night with the comfort of a dog sleeping on the doona…
June 30, 1998
I start packing up, and then I walk to get a boomerang for my brother, check the flight back, and leave my panoramic photos to be processed… Fleeced!
Then I take a bus to Balmain, wander around, have a muffin with hot chocolate, and go back to Circular Quay on a ferry. More shopping, and I get back on Oxford street to pick up flowers.
At 7 pm, we head for my farewell diner. It’s set at Habibi’s, a turkish restaurant, we have a banquet with friends, and end the evening with a beer at the Courthouse Hotel.
July 1, 1998
This is the end… I finish packing in the morning then head downtown to post a pack of books and photos. I collect my panoramics. Mmmmm… they were taken with a disposable camera, not the real thing.
Then, another visit to The Australian Hotel, a kangaroo caesar salad and a Burragorang Bock… I meet three construction workers on strike. A few beers, an offer to stay two more days!
Ooops! I try to walk straight to the wharf, take the ferry to Manly, with an impressive roll when we get to the Gap’s waves, a quick visit to the beach. I say goodbye to the surfers and head back at dusk, with a strange blue and white sky above the city.
I catch a bus back home, it’s getting late… one of the house mates drives us to the airport. A hamburger and…
Goodbye… :(
The plane is late… Boarding is late… To Melbourne, more waiting…
I’m sitting next to two friendly 70 years old who go back to their native England for “the last time”… and for the first time in 40 years for him.
We fly over Uluru during the night, then head to Derby and Kuala Lumpur. We are late… Not gonna make it…
We don’t. The plane arrives 20 mn after the Paris plane departed. I’m switched to an Air France flight, and with the help of the layout of the airport, I skip check-in. This other plane is delayed…
I enjoy a Viennese hot chocolate, an fleeced while cashing USD20, phone home, arrange for housing in Paris, buy chocolate, and I jump in the plane, check-in at the last moment. Bad move!
When I arrive in Paris, no big bag… I put a claim for it and leave the airport to go to friend’s…
I’ll wait for it a week then consider it lost, just to receive a phone call saying it’s going to be delivered to my door. The Australian wine didn’t like the long summer stay in a warehouse in Vienna.