Ever since I was a child I always knew about Sydney, either through family talking about it and seeing the Sydney Opera House on the news. I always knew I would visit at somepoint and I was not disappointed.

I travelled with my family members en masse in convoy from Melbourne to Sydney by car, we had a fun time being in a caravan as it were.

We drove to Goulburn which is located 425 miles or 684 km to get some accommodation for the night. It was a strange town, it was known for it’s train station and a hub for those travelling to Sydney.

We found accommodation in a strange station hotel hosted by a woman with joker red lipstick and a weird lobby with a 1980’s television which had no picture, just white noise. Next to it was a keyboard that played on it’s own which was eerie. We were in a party of 11 and enquired about rooms, the red lipsticked lady showed us around to 1960’s dated large rooms, bay windows, and with alpine scenes set on the wall and each room had seven beds or even eight beds. The colour scheme was peach, blue, pink and pastels galore.

We asked where we should eat and we were directed to a diner which was something out of Twin Peaks. We had an over excited waiter who my brother thought was on acid and had proudly told us he had studied Russian. As we were part of an international party from Ireland, England, USA and Australia, our international accents made him excited and my Dad who was Irish pretended he was Welsh so the waiter recited some famous works from the famous welsh poet Dylan Thomas and some excerpts from “Under Milk Wood”. You could not make it up!

Afterwards we went to a casino that had pokies – one armed bandit fruit machines and the people were very odd and stared!

Anyway, after this surreal ordeal we went back to our accommodation where the lobby had not lights on and the tv was still on with no picture and white noise. We were all tired from the travelling, some of us slept that night, the next morning we all laughed as to how mad this place was! We had some tea and then went on our way to Sydney. which was 194 km away. Leaving the weird town of Goulburn, we knew we would never forget this travelling experience.

We set on the road to Woolloomooloo! This is still one of my favourite sounding places. Also Wagga Wagga!

Woolloomoolo, a city which is just outside Sydney Central. We stopped for breakfast at this funky designed hotel which was such a contrast to the old, creaky accommodation from the night before.

The hotel was: Ovolo Woolloomooloo Boutique & Luxury Design Hotel in Sydney (ovolohotels.com), the design is outstanding and is located by the Wharf. The breakfast was amazing and we enjoyed the trendy design and space. This area of Woolloomooloo is ideal for exploring Sydney and has a hipster vibe to it. There are many places to eat long the quay too!!

The story continues in my next post..