On Track(s) to Sydney!

Alarms woke us all up and we had breakfast and packed up our bags, checked out and took the short walk back to Southern Cross Station, swimming against the tide of commuters who had just emerged from their train and were off to their air conditioned offices… it felt good to be going the other way!

We were soon on the right platform for our NSW Trainlink XPT service to Central Station, Sydney.  We chose the train because it added to the adventure of it all, plus it only cost $1 per child each way. So that was a grand $6 return for all three of them! 

Because of this bargain, I upgraded us to the first class carriage, although as it turned out the difference was negligible as we wandered into the 2^nd class carriage during our journey.

Found our seats and settled in for the long journey to Sydney. We were all together, but there was a vacant seat next to me which was soon filled by a gentlemen who struck up a conversation and, well just kept conversing for what seemed like the whole journey. Even when I stuck on headphones, he kept on going. He was a wealth of knowledge and knew the age of every bridge we crossed, history of every town we went through. When he tired of telling me everything he knew he found some other hapless passengers to start on.  In these instances he began with the same ‘hook’…. ‘long day this, travelling all the way from Melbourne. I’ve been there a week visiting a friend and I’m on my way home, the gentlemen next to me is doing the opposite, he’s going to Sydney for a week….’ Like I needed the whole carriage to know what I was up to!

At Albury a lady sat in the seat in front of us and my chatty friend got going again… ‘long day this, travelling all the way from Melbourne. I’ve been there a week visiting  a friend and I’m on my way home, the gentlemen next to me….’

The journey was around 11 hours. Unlike European trains, it was a bumpy, jerky ride and walking the corridors or visiting the buffet car was quite the challenge to keep a balance and avoid landing in someone’s lap or elbowing someone in the back of the head… as for visiting the toilet… well that was a feat of gymnastic proportion as we rocked and rolled our way north!

Having said that, I didn’t find the journey to be too hard to endure. More relaxing than driving. We bought hot lunches from the buffet for lunch – much like airline food, but quite nice. The kids travelled very well, watching movies on iPads, playing DS games…

As we pulled into Central Station and everyone collected their belongings and stood in the aisle waiting to get off, my next door neighbour friend saw and pounced on another passenger he’d missed talking to earlier in the trip. ‘long day this, travelling all the way from Melbourne. I’ve been….’ Well you get the idea.

As we walked along the platform, still rocking and swaying we heard in the distance …’and the gentlemen next to me…’ Free of my new best friend we found our way out of the station and on the 12 minute walk to our apartment in the Oaks Apartment building overlooking Hyde Park. Up on the seventh floor we were amazed by our view of the evening light, with city lights coming on. It was an impressive view to enjoy for the next week. Either the apartment was swaying, or our bodies thought we were still on the train though...