Wednesday, February 8, 2012

New Years EVE 2011-2012!

            I get off the plane in Sydney it is December 31st, 2011 at 8am. I had horrible sleep on the plane the guy next to me refused to give me an inch of room even though the seat next to him was completely empty so I had lots of Ache's and pains from sleeping in odd positions on the 14hr flight from LA where I had a 7 Hour layover from my 5 hr flight from Washington DC to put it bluntly I traveled for 26 hours but here I was right on time. My mother whom was meeting me, she had arrived a day before me since she was coming from Beijing. After getting through customs she wasn't there...as I had no phone I wasn't quite sure where she was so after attempting to get wifi on my phone from 45mins I was finally able to call her via Skype application on my cell and she said that she thought I was just coming straight to the hotel. So after what seemed like the most endless trip I was finally at the hotel. 


            It is important to note it is extremely expensive to stay in Sydney especially on new years it can run you $400-$600+ per night and there are really only two ways around paying that much, the first is planning ahead ideally a year because there are some really good deals for booking so far in advance. However we only decided to spend New Years in Sydney 3 Months beforehand. At that time hotels were just OUTRAGEOUS. However I booked a hotel that was moderately priced but it was outside of the city by 5 metro stops. I chose a hotel that just used a Credit Card Guarantee as opposed to paying in full. Even though we had a hotel I was always on the lookout for a hotel closer to the city and about one or two weeks before New Years I started seeing daily great deals on rooms, I'm sure if I was willing to wait a couple days before I would have gotten a better deal but I didn't want to know since I paid in full to our hotel and we stayed at the Sydney Marriott Darlinghurst which is in the city and walkable to our New Years Eve event in the Harbour. The room's were a little dated but it's not uncomfortable, they were offering free WIFI for members of the Marriott Rewards Club which was free to join online so I recommend you do that if you book there. They also as amenities go had a rooftop pool with the most amazing views and it was open 24/7 but the water was cold and the jacuzzi was luke warm and this is the middle of summer for them. 

           If you have ever been to or seen on television what New York's Times Square looks like on New Years EVE that's how it is in Sydney except that its blistering hot and there are hundreds more lookout spots to see the fireworks from. As I was arriving the day of New Years we weren't really in a position to sit out all day and stake out a spot. I had been looking into affordable but nice events that we would enjoy going to. I decided to go to the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens, they had 4 events to choose from for NYE. They had a public event where you brought your own food and chairs, they supplied port-o-potties They had enough Public Space for 26,000 people I am not sure how many people went to that but they had a nice view if you got there early enough. They had a Member's only event (Friends of the Botanic Gardens) which was the cheapest besides the free event, it was a smaller amount of people it cost about $60 if you were already a member but becoming a member was around a hundred and you could do it online. The next level up was the Lawn with a View event which was the closest to the fireworks and I believe it was about $200 per person and they gave a boxed Lunch for your to picnic with. However we went the nicest event they had partly because Lawn was Sold Out, we went to the event called Midnight at the Oasis it was probably the best decision I made on this trip, the picture they show doesn't do justice to just how good of a view you have. The view includes the Sydney skyline, the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Two sets of fireworks on each side of you. I kid you not at the midnight fireworks show we had 180 degree's of fireworks, I was in awe. The even it's self was nice you are right on the waterfront they had a dance floor for people who wanted to dance and a bar, that was probably the biggest problem because the line was long like 80% of the night  and it cut right in the middle of the tables so the people in the back couldn't really see very much  so I would say book early and in front of the line.  The restrooms were amazing the event had about 300ish people they bathroom trailers so approximately 15 toilets and sinks for the ladies and 5 or so for the men, but I never met with any type of line and the tickets were $325 a piece so most everyone was a nice tourist adult, I met a professor from my university at the event, it truly is a small world. The food which probably the least important was really good and I am a picky eater so that's saying A LOT they gave us a little box of food upon arrival it had a roll, salmon salad, hummisplainish but very moist, I think it came with mash potato's I can't recall, they had two deserts both were a little weird but still not bad. Then later in the night after midnight they had meat pies. They kept the event open after 1am but I was so tired since I hadn't slept since arriving in Sydney I was ready to go home. It was nice to be able to walk because there was so many blockades you defiantly couldn't drive and you would have to wait forever and cram onto a metro otherwise, the hotels did have security though ours wanted our name and room number before they even let us in the front door. 
View from Midnight at Oasis

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