Wasted

30 – 31 January 2016

My Saturday started off in style as I went to have lunch at Jamie’s Italian, a restaurant by Jamie Oliver. I ordered a bruschetta with prosciutto, peach, basil and cream. An interesting combination but a delicious one, as it turns out. After this culinary start of the day I visited the Queen Victoria Building, or just QVB as the locals like to call it. It is a gorgeous shopping mall located in a late 18th century Romanesque Revival building. The stained glass windows and grand, ornate stairwells somewhat resemble a palace or a cathedral. The most luxurious shops are set up in the actual building itself, but the place continues to unfold further underground with even more shops and fastfood places. It’s usually crawling with people since the underground area connects with Town Hall train station, which is the busiest station in Sydney after Central.

In the afternoon I met up with Toby again. I needed to get myself an Australian SIM card and he offered to help me out. So we drove to Newtown; a bustling suburb next to Stanmore, mostly know for its many restaurants, cafés and nightlife. After I got the card, we sat down somewhere for a drink. This was my first official introduction to ginger beer. Up until this day it is still one of my favourite drinks. After the drink we went to Sydney Park. The park has a hill from which you have an amazing view over the skyscrapers downtown. Besides the amazing skyline we also saw a very dark sky approaching. We were still on the way back to the car when the rain started pouring down, so we made a run for it. We spend some time catching our breath in the car and listening to some music. It turns out that Toby is also into cinematic music, just like me. The dramatic music matched the current weather quite well.

The next day it was Sunday, and I decided that I would take the church warden up on his offer. So after breakfast I headed to the St. Laurence downtown. I was a little early so I got to speak with some people. I also met a woman who’s from the Netherlands (like me) but now lives here in Sydney. The service itself was very different from what I was used to, but the choir was magnificent. It felt like I was attending a free concert. Their choir is supposedly amongst the best in Sydney.

After the service I had a conversation with the woman who was sitting behind me and before I knew it she was introducing me to a lot of people. Everyone was very open and friendly. I soon found out that a group of people were going to the nearby Great Southern Hotel for lunch. Apparently they had something to celebrate. They immediately invited me to join them and not much later we were all headed for the Great Southern. This is where the day would take an unexpected turn.

Once we got to the restaurant of the hotel a lot of tables where already prepared for the large group. We all sat down and ice buckets with bottles of Prosecco were distributed over the tables. As the newcomer I quickly became the center of attention. Whenever I would have a chat with someone and look away from my glass, someone would refill it to make sure that I wouldn’t run out (how considerate). This is when things start to get blurry. Imagine it’s hot and humid. You start sweating. Then you start getting thirsty. So you drink. Now imagine this to be a seemingly endless cycle while the miracle of the never ending wine is being performed right behind your back. I ended up hugging the toilet for what seems like an eternity. Eventually someone checked up on me to make sure that I was doing okay. He then escorted me to the bus station where I then sat down on the pavement and waited for the bus back to Stanmore. Once I made it back home I took a shower and went straight to bed even though it was only 4 pm. . .