OK, so I have been back from SYD two weeks now and my body clock has finally readjusted so I ready to give my musings on Sydney. I should mention that I used 150K miles to fly Full FC all the way, the routing...well that was something else. The lesson I learned was that when using miles it is not at your convenience, it is at their convenience. So here goes.

I departed DCA on Wednesday morning, flew to PIT and changed planes to go to LAX (all on US). I landed in LAX to trannfer to Asiana. I went to the lounge as I had about two hours to kill and was show to a room about the size of a large/executive office. A wall divided BC and FC passengers. It was very very bad. I then boarded my flight to INC (yes Seoul, to go to SYD, nuts) and had a very long flight and a good (not great) FC experience. What they detail on their website and what they actually do are two different things at Asiana. Although when I deplaned in INC they gave all the FC passengers a small Verace caraffe, not sure why. The biggest problem was the language barrier. The lounge in Seoul was very nice with several computers to check email on etc, two hours there was long enough for me. Boarded the flight to Sydney, a mostly uneventful flight. When I landed (little tip coming up), I went through the "something to declare" line which was two people as compared to the "nothing to declare" line which was about 200 people (or so it seemed on 4 hours of sleep). I had my allergy meds with me and that us what I declared. I was off the plane at 7am and in the Hotel at 8am.

I stayed in the lovely Medusa hotel. A small boutique hotel that reminded me a little of the Paramount in NYC (with bigger rooms). I figured since I did not pay for the ticket I could splurge on the room and got an extended stay rate of 285AU for the top level room. It was excellent, they staff was great and the location could not be beat. I would highly recommend it. I found out later that the hotel caters two a bit of a celebrity clientele. A famous American director had the room below mine and an Aussie actress (who I did not know) was next to me, her cutie pie brother was in the hotel too although I don't know where. I can't say enough good things about the Medusa.

Food, well lets see. I had a lot of take away and grab it and go so I will just mentioned a few places I like. The burgers at the Deck Bar were excellent with a very friendly clientele. My fine dining was limited to .est which was very very good and as I understand it one of the top restaurants in Sydney. There was also a place on Liverpool street off of Darlinghurst Road called Bone a Parts which served excellent free range organic chicken, full meals as well as wraps. I went there a couple of time. Another real winner was Bills, the ricotta stuffed griddle cakes were excellent and the community table made for a very fun start to the day.

I had a spa day at ZEN Day Spa on Darlinghurst road and had a 1 hour massage, 1 hour facial and 1 hour mani & pedi for about 200US (I think) and would recommend them as well. The young lady who did my everything but the massage was a delight.

I did all the standard tours and trips so I am not going to bother with all of that.

The bars were great and most people friends. I went to Columbian most evenings for happy hour, the Stonewall was a lot of fun and ARQ (once I had a few drinks in me) was a ton of fun. The Shift (upstairs) was great too. I went to Ken's but was not impressed (compared to the Thermos in AMS), I left after about an hour.

So that is the short story. I would be happy to provide anyone who wants to know any specifics (that I can think of). All in all 12 days was well spent. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would definitely go back.

Alomst forgot, home on Singapore First Class was amazing, not short of amazing. I will probably right a separate post on it just because it was so good.