How exciting is this!? The eagerly awaited opening of the Chatswood to Sydenham portion of the Sydney Metro has finally arrived! I can remember like it was only yesterday, when we walked to our favourite Spanish beget shop on Bathurst Street, to find that they had shut-down, with a hand written notice in the window informing their customers that the building they occupied had been re-possessed by the government for the construction of the Sydney Metro. And then over the next decade the spot on Bathurst Street between Pitt Street and Castlereagh Street was a constant hive of construction, until weeks ago! Where we started our journey today, at Gadigal Metro station.
For me, I was super curious to check this stop out, as in weeks I’ll be using this as my starting point to get to our Macquarie Park office, and the great thing is that it seems to be blind friendly enough! A tactile directional marker on the ground led us from the footpath to the accessible gates, and then to the lifts (although we elected for the escalators). And then the corridor (20M underground) led directly to the platforms, after taking a 90 degree turn, and there was a well placed tactile directional marker where it pointed us directly to one set of automatic train doors (my largest problem at Chatswood is finding where the doors are located). And before we could even take in our surroundings, the Metro train pulled in and then we were off!
Today we wanted to check-out Barangaroo, as my wife’s boss has a second shop at Barangaroo, and she wanted to be able to direct her customers there when they asked for directions. But oh boy! The Barangaroo Metro station is located in a weird spot!?
Yes, it’s real nice that it emerges from underground and the first thing you see is the vast expanse of ocean right before you! But after you gain your Barings, you soon realise that you’re no where near the main part of Barangaroo where all the shops and restaurants are. Sure, the Metro spat us out right near the Crown casino (you know who was lobbying the government of the day there), but until it’s fully operational, that doesn’t really help anyone.
So, we trudge off in the direction of the restaurants (it was past lunch time, and I was getting hungry) and at least 10 minutes later we arrived at the familiar part of Barangaroo. Where we had lunch!
Months ago, we had boycotted Bells Hot Chicken, after we saw the prices on their menu. But I wanted to give them another go (craving spicy fried chicken and chips), and after I managed to convince my wife to take the bullet for the team this time and get the ‘Cheapest thing on the menu’, which freed me up to order whatever I wanted! We were devastated to see (I should say, I was devastated to see) that they had discontinued the drumstick option (the choices used to be- 4 Wings, 4 Tenders, or 3 Drumsticks). So, I had to resort to the Tenders and fries ($24). My wife ordered the Chicken honey sandwich (around $17 if I remember correctly). And an Arnold Palmer to share (half lemonade half iced tea).
And the food was only so, so. *Rocks hand side to side*. I didn’t elect Hot but went with the one option down (Traveller) and it wasn’t hot enough, just tasted salty. While my wife’s sandwich was so unremarkable, that the next day when we happened to have MacDonalds, her verdict was that her Angus Beef burger was way better than what she had eaten at Bells. Ouch!
And afterwards, we walked home, the faster way to get out of Barangaroo was via the Wynyard tunnel (not Metro), where we emerged back onto George Street and all the different options to get home. Our first exploration via the Metro was a bit of a fail, but we hope our next adventure will shape-out to be better! Here’s hoping!
Four Senses: Touch Smell Taste Sound
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