You Hesitate, You Die...

“You hesitate, you die…” as said by Dutchie, on Sea Patrol and never have truer words been spoken.  Or at least, not if you’ve ever driven in Sydney. 

I have driven on three continents now, and in major cities that usually invoke fear in even seasoned drivers:  New York City, Paris, Montreal, London, San Antonio (the loop at 1402 is terrifying!) and Toronto.  I never flinched with those drives, instead considering them an adventure. 

Driving in Sydney is hell.  There’s no other description. 

Aside from the typical problems (driving on the wrong side of the road, in a car that’s unfamiliar to me, and having the constant nattering of a four-year-old in the background…) there are a series of one-way streets, hyper-aggressive drivers, and distributor roads at every turn (for those of you who’ve never experienced them, imagine tunnels that are unidirectional and that have no exits, that are ‘cross-city’) Add to that hills of epic proportions, and lights that have very strange delays and you can only begin to imagine the nightmare that is driving in Sydney. 

It had been awful coming in on Sunday, as we realized that the streets changed names frequently, and that the hills were a problem for a novice manual-transmission driver…  Poor Jayne made the car make noises I have never heard before, and our poor little red focus was creating SMELLS I never knew possible. 

The hills were so steep (and the drivers so close to me) that I was terrified I’d hit someone trying to start the car…  I was frustrated and exhausted. 

Most of the week, we haven’t had to drive; both of our hotels have been in central locations so it’s been a cakewalk, but yesterday we had to drive to THIS hotel, and it was Jayne’s turn to drive.  On top of getting lost/getting detoured and just generally getting frustrated, Ben was on a ‘it’ll take ages’ kick, as he so enjoys, and I was getting snappy (neither of us had thought to write down the address of the hotel – and were paying for it dearly as we drove across the CBD!) 

Once we got here yesterday, Jayne decided the car was going back – she was NOT driving in this city again.  And after Sunday’s debacle getting into Sydney after our long journey, I was inclined to agree.

Since Jayne was still a little traumatized from yesterday, I chose to drive – and the first 15 seconds of our commute required us to cut across three lanes of traffic within about three feet, as to make the light and our turn or else face the eastern-distributor (again – he nearly killed us yesterday too!) 

Needless to say, that’s what inspired our blog title tonight.  Sydney is full of terrible drivers, and people who really make for some terrible pedestrians, so the combination of the two is sheer hell.  I highly recommend, if you ever visit Sydney, that you stay somewhere central and take the commuter rail – it’s economical and less stressful.  (Additionally, parking in this city is astronomical, almost as much so as Brisbane – if you enjoy extortionist rates of upwards of $30 a day, for no in/out privileges, by all means, drive, but… your unlimited rail pass for a WEEK would only be $41 – and gets you EVERYWHERE!  Family passes for 2 adults and one child are also available!) 

Now that the sticky, noisy Focus is back at Hertz, we can embrace our love of the city once more – we walked through Hyde Park, up to the Finger Wharves and saw Harry’s – a Sydney icon who sells pies topped with mushy peas and gravy.  The smell was quite tantalizing, but my level of bravery was significantly lower; I opted to wait for lunch even though I was ravenous. 

Next we trudged back up a million stairs, and into the Botanical Gardens to see Mrs. McQuarrie’s Chair – a lovely lookout onto the harbour and the best way to get pictures of the bridge and the opera house from dry land.  There were a million tourists – and it was hot, sticky, and maybe a little warmer than we would have enjoyed for our probably 10 km trek however after the downpour earlier this week, we opted not to complain. 

After the gardens, we wandered up to Circular Quay and caught the Manley Ferry.  This is a must-do for anybody visiting the area.  Manley is a gorgeous little beach, but more importantly, the ferry ride gives you incredible perspective. 

As you travel the harbour shores, you get to glimpse at the various suburbs of this enormous city.  From filthy rich to moderately so, and then on to probably middle-class, you can check out various homes near the water.  You can also get a view of the naval yards, the Gap, and of course our ever favourite bridge and Opera House. 

From the water, you don’t feel like a part of the city.  It’s more like this completely serene out of body experience where you watch it disappear, into a sea of puffy white clouds and blue sky, with incredible bursts of reality; cities blend into cliffs, and then beaches, and so on. 

Tomorrow’s my last day here, before I begin the journey back.  I would stay here in a heartbeat, and happily embrace the ‘no worries’ lifestyle that I’ve been able to sample the past few weeks. 

Looking back at my early pictures from Melbourne, it feels like a completely different time and place – at that time, everything felt so foreign, and now, after weeks immersed in the culture and amongst the people, I’m happy to say I feel much more comfortable with the marvels that are Australia. 

(As an aside, I land Saturday evening at 5:55 pm after traveling for just over 24 hours – once you include all the time at the airport and the 20 hours of flying…  I’m thinking I’ll be a zombie next week at work – hmmm… maybe I should go back to Melbourne?)