(Day 11) The Olympic Park

Monday 12^th March

Day 11 (part 2/3)

After dropping off my suitcase I headed to the train station.  My friend who I met on the plane is actually a student here in Sydney and her university is in the Olympic park; an area built to host the 2000 Olympic games which if you can remember were held in Sydney.

Getting to the Olympic park by train wasn’t difficult; the trains here are pretty good.  Whilst getting onto one of the trains some crazy woman who was sat down started going ape shit over something and started shouting.  She then stormed off the train, I have no idea what was wrong with her but she might have been talking to the man sat behind her who maybe said something to offend her.  Maybe it was that journalism guy from Saturday night (day 9), he is enough to make anyone go insane.

I got to the Olympic park and met up with my friend, we had sushi from a little cafe off the main high street.  She then took me round for a quick tour of the Olympic Park.  The Olympic park felt a bit like a ghost town because around these huge streets there were no people.  The park just feels very underutilized, the Olympics have moved on a long time ago but the park still remains.  Walking around here made me feel like I was living in a post apocalyptic world.

Near one of the stadiums is a dome you can walk under, the inside of the roof of the dome is made up of TV screens showing footage about the Olympic park and about the 2000 Olympics.  I was wondering how long these TV screens have been showing the same footage over and over again to nobody.  I also got to see the 2000 Olympic torch which was hidden away in some little modest display.

Do you remember this?

One of the displays around the main stadium is a large group of little metal columns that have the names of everyone involved in the Olympics printed on them.  My friend said her dad or granddad* was the head of the Olympic team for the Maldives and we were looking for his name, which wasn’t there.  It is a shame we didn’t have a marker pen with us.

My guide.

* (sorry, if you are reading this Hasna I can’t remember if you said your dad or granddad)

After wondering around the vacant and slightly ghostly Olympic park we headed off to my friend’s university library.  My friend needed to take out a book for her studies.  It was interesting walking around the university library because I just graduated last year but walking around the library made me feel like a student again.  It took a while to find the book we wanted because my friend didn’t actually know the name of the book or the name of the author.  When it comes to trying to find a book these 2 pieces of information are generally quite important.

After wondering around past some other university buildings it was time for me to head back to the hostel to pick up my million tonne suitcase.  I had to be at the new place at 4pm.

Apparently there is a message here.

Yeah, we couldn't figure it out either.

Train station.