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| View of the harbor bridge from Circular Quay |
March 22, 2013: A night out in Sydney
Friday after packing up we took
the train from Tamworth to Sydney. We would have an evenig and a day in Sydney before flying to Honolulu Saturday evening.
We
had originally planned to walk from the train station to the Great Southern
Hotel about a half kilometer from the train station. Before I got to the end of platform pulling
two roll on cases with two other pieces piled on I decided that a taxi was a
much better idea.
We checked in to the hotel and were
soon on a bus down to the Circular Quay to meet Miki for drinks. Miki spent a year with us when she was in
high school with Emily as a Japanese exchange student.
She is now 24 years old and in nursing school. We had a nice visit with her sitting in a bar
with a view of the harbor bridge. Miki had spent a few weeks refreshing her English in Sydney and was headed home on Saturday. We were glad to spend an hour with her before she was off for a final dinner with the host family she was staying with.
Now I start to compare Sydney to Manilla. About 4.6 million people live in Sydney. Only 2300 live in Manilla.
Two cocktails and a beer in
Sydney cost me $38 dollars. They really
don’t make many cocktails at the Royal pub in Manilla but the beer is
definitely cheaper. OK no great views of
Manilla sitting in the Royal pub but I’ll take the cheaper beer.
A comedy of errors followed when
we decided to have a “nice” dinner downtown.
Mary Beth picked a restaurant that showed up on Trip Advisor and we used
Google maps to locate it and we tracked our progress towards it on Mary Beth’s
tablet PC. I had called and got a table for a half hour
later looking at the walking time. The location was not near the harbor but we
trudged on to find it anyway. When we
got to the address there was nothing there but office buildings.
Many attempts to call the
restaurant followed and when we finally did get through the told us they really
did exist and were on the lower level at the Sydney opera house. We trudged back to the Circular Quay and then
the opera house. We finally found the restaurant.
It was a great place if you were under
thirty and liked loud music. Our
daughters would have loved it. But it
was just too loud for us.
We walked back along the quay
towards the train station. There are
lots of nice restaurants there where you can sit and watch the harbor traffic
and the view of the harbor bridge at night which is really stunning.
We were getting hungrier by the
minute and after just two menu inspections picked a restaurant. Now is the part where I tell you about the
most expensive fish and chips I have ever had in my life.
I love the beer battered
flathead and chips that the Royal pub serves in Manilla. We generally eat there once a week and I
almost always have the fish and chips washed down with a bottle of chardonnay. Mary Beth helps with the chardonnay but in
not quite as fond of the fish and chips as I am.
The restaurant in Sydney had a
special and when I asked them what the fish was and they told me beer battered
flathead. OK, I was hooked- pun
intended. We both had the pre-theatre
special which was a salad, and main course.
I ordered a bottle of Chardonnay and we finished the evening with
Afogato Frangelico. (a scoop of ice cream with a shot of espresso and Frangelico
poured over it) Total cost of that meal
for two was $150 AU. Link to pictures of the meal
At the Royal pub in Manilla the
dinner for two tastes better and cost just under $50 AU without the ice
cream. That view of the Sydney Harbor
bridge cost me about $100 AU.
Next year when we are back in
Manilla and eating at the Royal I’ll take along a picture of Sydney's Harbor Bridge
and feel like I just saved $100 AU.
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| Beer Battered Flathead at the Royal in Manilla |
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