Chicago to Sydney

Jan 24-26
Chicago to Sydney

I’m thinking I never actually completed my last cruise blog, so I’ll do so now…

I was on the Nav, I got on a plane, I flew home. Can’t wait for my next ship.

So here I am, writing to you from Sydney Australia sitting in my cabin preparing for my next 3 months at sea. I flew out on Saturday (24th) to begin my two part trip. The first leg was on United to San Francisco, and was nothing special. The second leg was also United and took me from California to Sydney in around 14 hours. For whatever reason, I was unable to pick my own seat for the flight, and after my Chicago flight got in a little late, I was stuck with whatever seat they gave me for the 14 hour flight, not exactly a preferable situation. The plane ended up being packed and I got put in row A, a window seat. It wouldn’t be my first choice for a seat simply because I like to move once in a while every 14 hours, but the novelty of having a window almost makes it worth it. Somehow, I managed the entire flight without getting out of my seat (aside from using the bathroom 30 minutes before landing), a feat that for whatever reason I’m proud enough of to share with the online community. But we landed in Sydney at 8 am on the morning of the 26th and I began my journey.
After customs, I went in search of a ride to my hotel. The Royal Caribbean rep didn’t have any information for me and suggested I take a cab, which is not the greeting I was hoping for after 20 hours traveling time. I took her advice, exchanged some money, and got a cab to take me the couple miles necessary to my hotel. The hotel was average, I got my room and jumped in the shower to clean off the feeling 20 hours of inactivity leaves you with. During the shower I heard someone come into my room, catching me a little off guard. I was expecting to be put with a roommate, but hoped for at least a couple hours rest before I had to deal with it. Anyway, the guy was a chef from Jamaica and soon left the room to hang out with his friends.
After a short break, I decided to call up my own friend who lives in Sydney and is a friend from my first contract, Belinda. After four 30-second phone calls (apparently all you get for 50 cents), we figured out I was to meet her down town at the Queen Victoria Building (I figured that’d be easy enough seeing as I was just on the Queen Victoria Cruise Ship). I figured out the train was the best option into the city, hopped on, and made the 15 minute trip. Belinda and I found each other soon after I arrived and we started our tour.
Turns out, this Monday that I happen to come into the city is “Australia Day,” meaning Sydney gets packed with people, outdoor food stands, the pubs fill up, and people run around with Australian flags draped around their bodies, with or without clothing. I told Belinda to take me through the city showing me things about Australian Culture that I should know about. This meant eating a really nice meat pie, vegemite toast, calling ketchup “sauce”, and trying a couple different beers – VB and pure blonde. That aside, we simply walked through the city fighting the crowds, trying to get an idea of what Sydney is all about. One of my highlights for the day was that right at the Queen Victoria Building, someone had put a piano. This was entitled the “green piano,” had been painted green, and was there for anyone to play. It was actually interesting to see how many people would actually go up and play something (which for people that seemed to have studied piano, always ended up being ragtime, who knows why). Obviously, me being the ham that I am and the fact that I had a female tour guide, I sat down and played a few things. The piano sounded like garbage, many of the keys were sticking at this point, and the fact that it had started to rain at this point made the whole experience that much more ridiculous. Yeah, the piano is sitting outside of the building with nothing to keep it dry. Actually, someone had put a potted plant on top of it, maybe for no other fact than it could watered by any precipitation having a piano in the open encourages. A bunch of crazy Australians came over and talked with me or clapped when I finished, so I guess I got what I was after.
Speaking of Australians talking, I think it’s absolutely hilarious hearing all these people speaking with an Australian accent. More so than the English, Irish, or any other country with a strong accent, hearing people talk down under just makes me laugh. That and I swear I saw the Thornberries in the airport (Cartoon show).
But back to my day, following the green piano incident, Belinda helped me get the right train ticket back to my hotel and we left figuring we’d hit the beaches next time I’m in port.
I went back to the hotel and slept for the later half of the day till I woke up with my alarm around 9:30 PM for dinner. I took my $25 allowance from the ship and spent it at the bar on a really nice burger (a wagyu burger…I think). While I was talking to the bar tender about working on ships, a couple behind me heard me say I was a musician and called me over. The husband ended up being a country music singer in town for some festival, where as his wife used to be married to the guy wrote “Tainted Love”, if I remember correctly. They were waiting for a cab to pick them up, so I sat with them for the next 20 minutes talking about ships and places where the husband plays country music. They now live in Wyoming, and his accent certainly supported it, but he’d been playing a lot of music in Key West, which gave us something to talk about.
The cab eventually came, they left, and I went up to my room to collapse and hopefully get a good night of sleep to reset my internal clock. Tomorrow I’ll get picked up in the morning to head out to the ship, but so far we’re off to an interesting start of another Mike Potts cruise ship adventure!