Riding the Rail
I stayed in to work this morning and had lunch of some leftover mash and stew before catching the train to Macdonaldtown via Redfern. While waiting at Arncliffe I saw something that I had seen before which is a bit of an odd site (something I haven't seen outside of Australia). The rails on which CityRail trains (the electric transport lines of the city and state) also carry freight traffic into the city. A site I have seen here before, but I think you wouldn't be allowed to do in the US because of safety standards. As I stood waiting on my train on platform 3, a coal train rumbled through the station past platform 2.
While I made the transfer at Redfern, I got a chance to take a lot of great pictures of my site from the end of the platforms while I waited for my train to Macdonaldtown.
Once at Macdonaldtown, I made the fifteen minute walk from the station across King Street to my arvo meeting with one of the architects of the Pemulwuy Project (Aboriginal community centre and housing project located across the street from my thesis site). It was a great meeting and I got a lot of (positive) feedback on the project.
After my meeting I headed through Newtown toward Paddy's Market, stopping at Camperdown Memorial Rest Park (a nice park and beautiful old cemetery near the firm I was visiting), before heading down King to City and then to Broadway, before cutting toward Darling Harbour and by the site of the new Frank Gehry building going up for UTS.
With two hours to kill before meeting up for dinner (which I had planned for) I headed to the Paddy's Market monorail stop at the southern side of Darling Harbour. The Sydney monorail, conceived in the late 70s and completed in 1986 (behind schedule, over budget, etc.), was a folly to say the least. Now dilapidated, plagued with monetary and condition issues, is slated for closure and demolition at week's end. While pretty useless for transport, I figured I should try it out before it is gone forever.
I ended up taking four and a half trips around the circuit track (about 90 minutes), meeting a nice couple from Victoria visiting Sydney for the first time and had a bit of a chat.
Finally, I got off at Galeries Victoria and wandered through the QVB (stopping to do a bit of window shopping and to have a quick run around Victoria's basement - think Crate & Barrel x10 and at clearance prices). At 6:00, I met my friend Max at the steps of Town Hall and we headed to Liverpool Street for Japanese. Following dinner we went for cocktails and to continue catching up at Grandma's (my favourite little hole-in-the-wall bar by Town Hall that Cindy introduced me to last year and that the girls took me to my last night in Sydney).
Finally, I came back home and got in around 9:00 and caught up with the girls who both seemed to have long days (the end of financial year is 30 June, so things seem to be hectic).
Tomorrow I plan to finish up my presentation, do some washing, and have a meeting with my professor from last year at the Uni, followed by a quite night at home watching the second game of the State of Origin (footy [rugby league] match between New South Wales and Queensland - GO BLUES!) and getting to bed early before my flight to Brizzy in the morning.
While I made the transfer at Redfern, I got a chance to take a lot of great pictures of my site from the end of the platforms while I waited for my train to Macdonaldtown.
Once at Macdonaldtown, I made the fifteen minute walk from the station across King Street to my arvo meeting with one of the architects of the Pemulwuy Project (Aboriginal community centre and housing project located across the street from my thesis site). It was a great meeting and I got a lot of (positive) feedback on the project.
After my meeting I headed through Newtown toward Paddy's Market, stopping at Camperdown Memorial Rest Park (a nice park and beautiful old cemetery near the firm I was visiting), before heading down King to City and then to Broadway, before cutting toward Darling Harbour and by the site of the new Frank Gehry building going up for UTS.
With two hours to kill before meeting up for dinner (which I had planned for) I headed to the Paddy's Market monorail stop at the southern side of Darling Harbour. The Sydney monorail, conceived in the late 70s and completed in 1986 (behind schedule, over budget, etc.), was a folly to say the least. Now dilapidated, plagued with monetary and condition issues, is slated for closure and demolition at week's end. While pretty useless for transport, I figured I should try it out before it is gone forever.
I ended up taking four and a half trips around the circuit track (about 90 minutes), meeting a nice couple from Victoria visiting Sydney for the first time and had a bit of a chat.
Finally, I got off at Galeries Victoria and wandered through the QVB (stopping to do a bit of window shopping and to have a quick run around Victoria's basement - think Crate & Barrel x10 and at clearance prices). At 6:00, I met my friend Max at the steps of Town Hall and we headed to Liverpool Street for Japanese. Following dinner we went for cocktails and to continue catching up at Grandma's (my favourite little hole-in-the-wall bar by Town Hall that Cindy introduced me to last year and that the girls took me to my last night in Sydney).
Finally, I came back home and got in around 9:00 and caught up with the girls who both seemed to have long days (the end of financial year is 30 June, so things seem to be hectic).
Tomorrow I plan to finish up my presentation, do some washing, and have a meeting with my professor from last year at the Uni, followed by a quite night at home watching the second game of the State of Origin (footy [rugby league] match between New South Wales and Queensland - GO BLUES!) and getting to bed early before my flight to Brizzy in the morning.
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