Sydney and the Excellent Weekend! (Pt 2)

Monday

Garry. Or possibly Muriel. (Photo from www.xray-mag.com)

Mondays are always so much better when you don't have to go to work. Our Monday in Sydney was sort of cloudy and grey, and when we went outside it was hella windy. We walked through the city down King Street, to Darling Harbour again  because our plan for the morning was to go to the Sydney Sealife Aquarium - another tradition for these trips. Last time we came down, we named the dugongs, and so this time we wanted to check in on Garry and Muriel.

Sentimental attachments to zoo animals aside, the aquarium is a super-interesting place to visit. (Avoid the weekend crowds if you can, though, seriously.) The displays seem well set up and pretty well cared for, and I'm a fan of those underwater walkways they do. It's always so cool when a huge sting ray swims right over your head, you know? And the fish themselves are kind of awesome; I always come out wanting to watch Finding Nemo, cause damn that movie is accurate.

We took another ride on the ferry afterwards, back around to Circular Quay. We were headed in the direction of Jamie's Italian, which is just off Martin Place and the Sydney installment of the Jamie Oliver cooking empire. They don't take reservations, so we fronted up for lunch at around 12.15 and waited in the bar for a table.

I'm not totally sure what I was expecting, but honestly, the overall experience was pretty top notch. It might be a chain restaurant, but it didn't really feel like one. The venue and decor were pretty nice, and seemed well-considered. The drinks were great; there were some lovely Italian wines on the menu. The food was delicious, too, and I know the fresh-twist-on-classic-dishes is a thing he does, but it works really well in this case. The service was really good, too. It seemed like they put a lot of effort in, but they pulled it off without seeming like they were trying too hard or taking themselves too seriously. Plus, reasonably priced. Two thumbs up from me!

Following lunch, we rode our post-food mellow back into the city and wandered around for some more shopping. Sadly, we visited Kinokuniya again, and I may have bought one more thing... (Considering I bought about twelve items on one previous visit, three total still seems tame.) We did a bit of Christmas shopping, and a bit of looking at beautiful things we could never afford to buy. (Jo Malone cologne is delicious, and anyone who wants to buy me something expensive should come talk.)

Over this trip, we'd been for a couple of walks in Hyde Park, and it's honestly one of my favourite things to do in Sydney. You can go and sit on the grass, or get a bench in the avenue under the fig trees. It's a great place to sit and have a chat, or listen to the buskers. We happened to sit near a couple of young guys playing Christmas Carols on a pair of what looked like tiny tubas. (Possibly euphoniums? Or alto horns?*)

For dinner, we met up with a buddy of ours, and went to the Nippon Club, which was amazing! It's very unassuming-looking - the decor's not unlike an RSL - but it's got Japanese beer on tap, lots of kinds of sake, and delicious Japanese food including an in-house sushi chef, who makes THE BEST fresh sushi. Delicious!

Tuesday

Our friend from dinner Monday night (and Saturday's basement bar crawl, incidentally) offered to get us in to the Francis Bacon exhibit at the Gallery of NSW for free, which we were naturally pretty excited about, so on Tuesday morning we walked into the Domain to take in some art.

The exhibit was excellent. It was a retrospective of his work, containing pieces arranged according to decade - the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s, as well as source material from his workshop and a documentary about the exhibit. What I liked about the arrangement was that it let you see how Bacon had developed as an artist, and how the themes and imagery he used evolved over time. In the descriptions and blurbs, there were also tantalising tidbits about his life, and the art scene in London in the 1950s and 60s. All of it was very interesting; I'm thinking about tracking down some kind of super-gossipy autobiography or something.

(Image from tripadvisor.com)

Once we'd enjoyed the show, we headed back into the CBD for lunch. Notice how I didn't mention breakfast? We didn't have any; the plan was to go to another of our favourite Sydney spots. Diethnes is a very old-school Greek restaurant on Pitt Street, away from the mall, down past Bathurst Street. It's an older restaurant, established over 50 years ago, and the food is awesome (and incredibly filling, hence the no-breakfast thing). Last time we were here, we ate Diethnes and Ichi Ban Boshi on the same day - mistaaaaake.

After a delicious lunch, we wrapped up our trip with some more shopping and last-minute Christmas-gift-hunting. We went for another walk in Hyde Park, then headed back to the hotel to pack before the gig we were going to**.

Thus tragically ended our Sydney holiday! We took the train to the airport at ass o'clock the next morning, and were back in Brisvegas by around 10.30am. (I went straight to work, it was awful.) Overall verdict was that it was totally worth it, though. An early-December mini-break is a great way to relax in advance of the Christmas season, especially if you can go somewhere low-key, and enjoy yourself with lots of good food and good shopping.*** Merry Christmas, folks!


*I tried to work out what these instruments were, but I'm really not sure. Meanwhile, how hilarious are sousaphones?

**Alexisonfire, on their Farewell Tour, at the Hordern Pavillion. Too excellent to write about.

***I guess other people like to exercise or do things on their holidays or something? I don't know. For me, walking places and drinking beer and eating things equals good times, what can I say?

Sydney and the Excellent Weekend! (Pt 1)

So, I have this buddy, and we go to lots of live music gigs together. Every other year, we try to find a gig in Sydney, to give us an excuse to go down for a relaxing weekend of food, beer and shopping. Oh, and whatever the gig is. We stay in the CBD, and this time we had a super-fun four days at the beginning of December, to give us strength to face the holiday season.

Saturday

Charlie and Co. Roadside
Chicken and Bacon Burger

We arrived in the CBD around midday, and checked in to the hotel, etc. Then, the first place we went after that was the new Westfield. Sydney CBD gets hella busy in the weeks before Christmas, and this new shopping centre was no exception. Great burgers in the food court, though.

Itty Bitty Basement Bar Crawl
Saturday evening, around 5pm, we took ourselves out. I had been researching places to drink, and found a bunch within a ten block radius that, coincidentally, were mostly basement bars. Sydney might be having some kind of trend or something, I don't know. Anyway, I don't know if what we did could strictly be called a bar crawl, exactly, but we went to four bars in one evening, and they were all downstairs or in basements, so...

• The Assembly: Come in off Kent Street, or go downstairs in 501 George Street. Assembly is a great bar, hidden away, with dark timber interior and some nice beers on offer. There's an "outdoor" beer garden in the foyer outside, with astroturf and a tiny picket fence. 
• Mojo Record Bar is in the basement at 73 York Street; go downstairs, past the record store, and through the door to the underground bar. As a huge music fan, this was possibly the best bar I've ever been to in my entire life. The walls are covered in band and gig posters, and framed cover art from classic LPs. The music they play is awesome; we heard Talking Heads, Nirvana, James Brown, Stone Roses...
• Stitch Bar is also on downstairs on York Street; keep an eye out for the sewing machines in the tiny front entry way. Once you're through the tiny doors, they've got a surprisingly amount of space, with a great old-time-speakeasy aesthetic and a big old bar as soon as you walk in. The bar serves some amazing drinks, from cocktails to high class whiskey, and while we didn't try the food, the stuff other people had looked (and smelled) really awesome. 
• Grandma's Bar: Is tiny. And furnished like it's half Tiki bar, half your nana's house. Hence the name, probably. The bar itself is cramped and a little hot, but the cocktails and jaffles (jaffles!*) they serve make it worth it.  

So, we had a fairly glorious start to the weekend, and even though it made it a touch harder to get up on Sunday morning, an itty bitty basement bar crawl is totally worth doing!

Sunday 

The following morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed at a relatively reasonable hour and walked down to Circular Quay to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art. Sadly, most of the levels were closed, as they were hanging new exhibits that were about to open (which we would miss out on, bad timing). 

(Photo from lightswimming.com (There's some excellent
photos of the exhibit on that blog.))

But what was available was very good. They were showing Volume One: MCA Collection, which is a selection of the gallery's permanent collection, specifically pieces by Australian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. There were drawings by Vernon Ah Kee, video art and paintings by Richard Bell, sculptural pieces by Ross Manning and Nicholas Folland, photography by Rosemary Laing and Tracey Moffat... I found it a strong and unique collection.

After the gallery visit, we walked around to Opera Kitchen for lunch by the water, and then took a ferry ride around to Darling Harbour, via the Luna Park stop. (Is it just me, or is the fact that the Luna Park clown face thing has eyelashes really creepy?)

We walked around the harbour for a while, then headed up into the CBD again for some shopping. I have a huge weakness for Kinokuniya, the massive bookstore in the Galleries Victoria. I love it, I could stay there for hours. This time, I escaped with only two purchases - very restrained!

We decided to head to a bar for a drink - it was only 3pm in Brisbane, but that meant 4pm Sydney time, so it was a totally appropriate hour for a beer - and we found an old-man bar** on Park Street that was miraculously offering jugs of James Squire for $7.50. So we had a few of those, and sat around listening to Cold Chisel and Crowded House (and oddly Jurassic 5 and a Tribe Called Quest).  

Then: RAMEN. We went to Ichi Ban Boshi for dinner. This place is a favourite, and has been since our very first trip to Sydney. It's almost a tradition to go and eat our weight in delicious fresh ramen noodles; some trips we go more than once, and the extended belly you get from noodles and soup and beer is like a badge of honour. (Unfortunately, the restaurant is next to Kinokuniya. Fortunately, the bookstore was closed by the time we got back there.)

After delicious ramen, we rolled ourselves back home to our hotel room, and collapsed in front of the TV. We wanted to be in good form for the next day - you've got to pace yourself - so we took it easy.

Tune in for Part 2!

*I understand we have some international readers. For those of you who don't know, a jaffle is a grilled sandwich, but more awesome because it's made in a jaffle maker (which is almost like a waffle iron but for sandwiches). They usually contain cheese or some combination of ham, cheese and tomato, but you can also use anything from chicken to tinned spaghetti to bolognese sauce to apple and cinnamon sugar. These sandwiches (and experimenting with fillings for them) are a valuable childhood relic, and exactly the sort of thing your nana made for you because eating would shut you up for five minutes.

**Someone asked me what constitutes an old-man bar. An old man bar is the kind of bar where you get a wave of stale beer smell from the carpet as soon as you walk in. The kind where there's a drunk in the corner discussing things loudly with the bartender, regardless of whether said bartender is listening. The kind where there are TVs showing only sports, and they've always got specials on XXXX or Vic Bitter. The kind where half the exterior walls - and interior walls -  are covered in glazed tiles, the kind where the bathrooms are dodgy. Old-man bars. Good times.