With the introduction of Impulse Airlines to Australian skies, the price of an airfare between Melbourne and Sydney plummeted to a mere $66 one-way compared to the usual $240 return, and so, it was decided another trip to Sydney was in order. Trav first heard about the deal on a Sunday, but on Monday morning, after checking that taking time off was okay with our respective schedules, the website showed the prices had increased to $80. Since the other airlines were matching the prices, and loyalty to the people pushing prices down can only extend so far, we rang Qantas and found they still had fares for $66, so we booked with them instead.

We did feel somewhat bad about taking the Qantas flight instead of Impulse, but we had worked our schedules out to get a break beginning Tuesday, and we were mainly going because of the cheaper rate. Why go to Sydney anyway? Well, here’s where it gets all kind of stupid-sounding, and makes us out to be quite bizarre…

Trav had built up a list of journal articles he needed but were not available at Melbourne University for one reason or another - either it was not held in any library on campus, or the journal series was held, but there was a missing volume containing a needed paper. With the fee for an inter-library loan being $6 per journal article, and a list of over 100 articles to get, the total cost of sending requests through the library system would be $600. However, to fly there and get the papers personally would cost $132, plus photocopying costs (which turned out to be exactly $51). Also, it allowed Trav to physically take journals off shelves, and read contents pages of journals published in the years before computer databases, finding obscure but relevant papers that existed but could not be found using an online literature search.

Ultimately, it turned out that since some references were not as interesting or relevant as their titles had suggested, or were not held at the University of Sydney either, so we ended up collecting 59 articles. Total cost of personally flying to Sydney and collecting articles = $182. Total cost if through inter-library loan system = $354. Much cheaper to go in person, plus there was a bonus day off in Sydney that we organised as well.

Getting back to the trip though, the main difference between Impulse Airlines and the established carriers of Qantas and Ansett is that Impulse do not have meals or in-flight entertainment. Given the flight between Melbourne and Sydney is only just over an hour, there really is no need for these things anyway. Qantas, however, even at the cheap rate was providing both. The breakfast we got served though would have been much better not being provided.

A disgusting combination of a small grey sausage lying in the messy goop of what appeared to be an omelete, but could have easily been some form of special effect from a sci-fi movie, and a chunk of tomato. Hardly an appealing meal, made even less so when it was discovered the omelette contained chunks of onion. Trav was curious as to exactly what it was called, so when one of the cabin crew passed, he asked. The crew member looked at it, wrinkled his nose and said he had no idea. He then asked another crew member standing nearby if she could recognise it, and she didn’t know either. The original crew member asked if it was nice, to which Trav laughed and responded it wasn’t, and after a couple of minutes, he reappeared with some bread rolls from the kitchen, as well as some jam. Sitting in the back row sometimes has it’s advantages, though being right next to the toilet is never that pleasant.

Our SPOTD was found at the airport, after we’d collected our bags and were trying to work out transportation to the city. We had the option of either going by bus or train, and were not sure which was the better option considering we wanted to use public transport later in the day to get to the University of Sydney. After all, even though the airport express bus was cheaper ($7 compared to $10 by train), if there was a daily ticket available at the train station, it would probably work out cheaper to take the latter option.

We were looking at the information boards when a “customer service assistant” (and I use the term loosely) from the rail authority came over to help us. We told him we wanted to go to the city, then on to Sydney University, and which would be cheaper - to buy a daily ticket each, or a single ticket to the city, then a return to the Uni or to take the airport express bus to the city, then train from there?

His response was mumbled and impossible to get a clear idea of what he was saying, but the phrase “get off between the city and Redfern” (the latter being a pretty rough suburb) came up a couple of times. Since there were a few stations between the two, and since we had no desire to be wandering the streets of Redfern in an obviously lost state, we ended up thanking him for his help (of which he was none), then walking over to the phone and calling the hotel where we were intending to stay for directions.

We actually got kind of lucky with the hotel. We had been reading a brochure about going to Sydney for winter (the city usually has an advertising campaign to lure all the tourists that just think “go to Queensland” in winter) and were expecting to pay $148 per night. When we rang, they told us the rate was actually only $138 instead, which was a saving of $20 for us. Hurrah. Considering Di wanted to break loose and spend the two nights in a swank hotel instead of a smaller one, to get it cheaper than we were expecting to pay was always going to be a good thing.

Upon reaching the city (we took the airport express bus), we checked into the Mercure hotel, then boarded a bus for the University of Sydney. After a little wandering around on campus (don’t ask an Arts student for directions to an Ag library), we collected journals and books, then began photocopying. Di was the lucky one to irradiate her brain all day, and Trav kept going out to retrieve more books and journal articles, bringing them back to the photocopy room for her to duplicate. (NB: It was indeed a very efficient system, and it should be noted that Di is a wonder-girl for helping out all day on a day off from her work. Grovel. Grovel. Grovel.)

After photocopying in two libraries from 11:30am - 6:00pm, we walked back to the hotel since it was not that far, and we thought it might be nicer to see the city at walking pace rather than zooming along. After a pleasant walk back, we dumped our stuff, and went off in search of the Wooloomooloo Waters hotel.

A friend Trav had made through internet and email over the past few years had just been in Sydney, all the way from Idaho. Unfortunately, due to the timing of our flights, as Bonita was flying out of Sydney at 9:35am and we were arriving at 9:50am, so we never got the chance to cross paths and meet in person. Oh well, we shall have to meet next year when we tour the USA. Anyway, whilst in Sydney, she had purchased a Sydney Pass, which allows unlimited travel on buses, trains and ferries through the city, as well as on a few other services, such as a return trip to the airport, etc.

Since it was a five day pass, and there was a day left on it, Bonita offered it to us, since we would be able to make use of it whilst we were there. We’d organised for her to leave it at the reception of the hotel where she’d been staying, and we’d pick it up from there. Looking at the map, we took a bus to Kings Cross, then walked down the street away from there to locate Dowling Street. In a little bout of confusion, we’d neglected to bring a map, but we knew where it was roughly located, and so headed that way. We quickly located it, and began to walk down it, only to find it was cut off after about 100m by another road that intersected with it and completely blocked it. We looked at the pitch-black park beside the end of the street that would presumably get us around the obstacle, and decided instead to walk back up the street and find a more lit route. We were, after all, not far from Kings Cross, and it’s not the best place to be stumbling about, lost in the dark.

We found a better lit street, and walked along it, then turned right, in order to intersect with the other side of Dowling Street we’d been unable to get to. The street was reasonably well-lit, but walking past groups of homeless men sleeping in the streets, the occasional syringe in the gutter and finding out at the other end that it too, was a dead-end street was not that much fun. Di was beginning to get rather frantic by this time, fearing that at any time we would be attacked and robbed at syringe-point, but to be honest, all of the homeless people looked like they were too busy sleeping and trying to keep warm huddled under moth-eaten blankets to bother with us.

We finally made our way out of the maze of streets and reached the correct end of Dowling St, and instantly spied the hotel. To our dismay, we found that the bus we’d been on had a stop right at the end of the street we’d wanted, at the end we’d wanted, but since that was not marked on the map (we checked when we got back), we never would have known anyway. For the record, it turns out that Dowling St is actually cut into three separate parts, although it looked like a person on foot would have no problems getting between one part and the other. On the map, it appears that a small section of grass lies between each part, and while cars could not drive the complete length of the road, a pedestrian would have no problems. That is a wrong assumption. Especially at night.

With our Sydney Pass now obtained, we boarded a bus and headed down to the Opera House and Circular Quay to have a look around at night, since we were so close. There was a small group practicing some sort of Aboriginal storyline street theatre in front of the steps of the Opera House, but like all street theatre and interpretive dance, it turned out to be extremely dull very quickly, so we moved on. Also in preparation for next month’s Olympic visitors, there was a trial run happening where projections of the Olympic flame, as well as other hues of green and mauve were being cast upon the exterior of the Opera House. It did all look very impressive, and should make the tourists take a photo or two.

At that point, it began to rain, so we grabbed some Burger King (it’s not called “Hungry Jacks” in Sydney), went to the hotel and fell asleep, both worn out from a full day of being on our feet, either walking, photocopying, or stumbling about in the dark back-streets of dodgy suburbs.

Categories: Travel, Sydney 2000