Sydney Driving – Round 1

Driving for the first time in any big city is a daunting task. Driving on the opposite side of the road for the first time in a city of 4.5 million people falls somewhere between absolutely terrifying and fears not to face, but it can’t be as bad as learning to drive a stick in downtown Frankfurt. Having learned my lesson about driving heavily populated metropolitan cities, EZ and I made plans to head back out to Sydney Olympic park to practice on their wider and less-populated roads. Interestingly enough, this was all in preparation for the arrival of our sea freight. We figured it would be a good idea to have access to a car share service for the arrival of our stuff because as true Americans we need to go out an buy more stuff. It may sound ridiculous, but the arrival of our sea freight meant we would discover exactly what we need to rush out to purchase. Turns out, that after almost 3 months with nothing, that list is pretty short, but that is not the topic at hand.

However, today’s topic is the reckless abandon of a prudent plan to practice driving in a safe space, and instead, we loaded up the family to for our first attempt at driving on the left side of the road in our new home during a rainy afternoon. The car outside our building was booked so  I walked two blocks over to fetch another car.  The car share appears rather handy, but that will probably merit a post of its own at some point.

Meet Angelica the Accent:

Angelica lives in a designated spot in a moderately sized lot on a confusing one way street that, fortunately, is not too narrow. While my mirror may have been knocked in by another car’s mirror something, there was no exchange of paint, dents, or other indication that it happened so I continued to our parking garage to pick up the girls. Our parking garage feels cramped when I walk through it, and driving through made me happy we don’t own a vehicle. Once we were loaded up, we made our way to Woolworths per Google’s suggested route.  Now, I scout these out before hand, double check for one way streets and such, but I think going forward I need to leverage street-view a little bit more.  The suggested route would be the fastest route, if the side streets weren’t so narrow that you feel compelled to drive slower than most people walk.

To top it off, we reached the end of the street to discover this sign.  I have never seen a street that was one-way in both directions.  They do in fact exist.

By this point, EZ is, shall we say, less than comfortable, but thankfully CZ  is chilling quietly in the back. These narrow streets are tricky enough by themselves, but sitting on the right side of the car distorts the perspective just enough to make it harrowing.

Thankfully, we made it safely to the grocery store, parked in the covered garage, and a 10-year old  boy chased us down to tell us we left on the headlights. We stocked up on heavy items (dish soap, laundry detergent, milk) since we had a car, and coming out with it all to a dead battery would have been less than ideal.

The ride home traversed much wider, but also much busier streets. I think EZ had hand cramps for a week from white-knuckling the dash. Supposedly, the highways and more rural areas are much better for driving, but we are in no rush to confirm.