Exploring the Western Suburbs

We spent the first two days here acquiring cell phones and bank cards, with a little bit of apartment searching Saturday.  Our first trips using public transport went smoothly, but we spent $10 per ticket for both of us to ride into the CBD. We discovered the benefits of the Opal Card before we left our apartment Saturday morning, but we still racked up a hefty bill with the buses and trains we took around the city and some of the suburbs. After spending $20 on public transportation on Saturday, I wanted to take advantage of the $2.50 maximum charge on Sundays and do a lot of exploring.

Since we need to decide which suburb is the right fit for us, we headed out to the Western Suburbs to see if the increased space per dollar would be worth a longer commute. I have been itching to spend some time near the water, and we haven’t made it to the beach yet so we took the ferry from Circular Quay with hopes of scoping out Parramatta.

Circular Quay- You can see the Harbor Bridge on the left and the Opera House on the upper right

The ferry ride turned out to be a bust: the rainy weather kept us from standing outside, our seats were next to an open door that sprayed us with rain, and the suburban population (sooo many children) were very rowdy and also upset about the cramped quarters of the cabin. The stormy weather also threw a wrench in our plan to ride to Parramatta. Three stops from Parramatta, which is the end of the line, the arrivals board updated to display:

Olympic Park 3 minutes

Rydesdale 10 minutes

Parramatta

I scrambled to look at our return transportation options at the remaining stops with my new favorite app, TripGo (recommended to us by three drunk girls seated close to us on a previous train ride). I decided that Olympic Park offered more in terms of attractions and train options back to the city so we disembarked. Cecilia was in need of a diaper change, but the bathroom at the ferry stop looked like it was more likely to make us all dirty than let us clean her up.

Hoping for a better option, we grabbed a bus from the ferry stop, and the driver informed us that the V8 racing event had closed down several streets and disrupted the normal routes to the train station. He told us that we would need to walk a bit through the rain to get to the station from the aquatic center. Fortunately the rain subsided by the time we arrived at the aquatic center, and entered in search of a parents bathroom with a changing table. The lady at the ticket office was very understanding and let us slip in and change Cecilia without paying the normal admission.

As we left the aquatic center, we heard the roaring of the V8 Supercars, and headed towards the noise. We walked until we found a good vantage point, and watched the cars make a few passes through the turns we could see. I don’t know that I would have enjoyed much more than the 15 minutes that we spent watching the cars, but I was impressed by noise that the engines produced. John did some research and found that it has to do with the shorter exhaust systems, and can be accompanied by flames shooting out the sides of the cars.

We made our way around the barricades and detours to the train station, and started the journey back to our apartment. There an express line that runs directly out and back from the main rails to Olympic Park, and at the transfer point, a transportation official advised us to add the TripView app to our growing arsenal digital navigation tools. This app displays more detail about specific trains and platforms, and hopefully, it will stop us from scrambling to find the correct platform for transfers.

John and Cecilia on the train

The ride home allowed us to see parts of several suburbs in the Inner West. Overall the areas near the train seemed grimy and a bit run down, even the pockets of large Victorian homes. I don’t know if that is a factor of being near the train station or indicative of the entire area. Either way, the openness and large green spaces that I love about Sydney seemed to be lacking, and it looked more difficult to live car-free out in this area. I won’t rule out all of the Western Suburbs based on a train ride alone, but I am definitely less interested. Tomorrow we will be spending more time close to the city in Prymont.