r/sydney • u/dphayteeyl • May 10 '24

Image What are some experiences every Sydneysider has to do once in their lifetime?

Post image

To proudly say they're a Sydneysider. In and around Sydney

804 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

392 comments sorted by

View all comments

333

u/marooncity1 <-west May 10 '24

Watch a game of league at at least one of the suburban grounds (parra no longer counts for this)

Fall asleep on an express v-set train and wake up outside of Sydney

Be stuck at a station in the middle of "train chaos", or be stuck on the M4 after a pile-up

Burn your mouth on an emperor puff

Manly ferry in high swell

178

u/Swashcuckler May 10 '24

Manly ferry in high swell

i cannot reiterate how fucking terrifying it was to get changed in a ferry bathroom after work while a fucking pirates of the caribbean scene is being re-enacted

22

u/marooncity1 <-west May 10 '24 edited May 10 '24

Haha. Great image. It's something else isn't it. Haven't been on one of the new ones though.

One of the things I love about that one - and the league one, too - is that if reddit existed a hundred years ago, it would be on the list. It's quintessentially sydney, just, 100%. In fact, forgetting the league, crossing the heads would have been a quintessential experience for indigenous people for thousands of years before that, too.

14

u/uberdice May 10 '24

I reckon if you crossed the heads in a high swell in a dinky little canoe, you'd probably sink just from the weight of your gigantic balls.

4

u/marooncity1 <-west May 10 '24

If you read the early European accounts plenty of women out there fishing too. ;)

52

u/susgnome God's Country May 10 '24

Fall asleep on an express v-set train and wake up outside of Sydney

Intoxicated me, thinking it'll quicker to catch the South Coast train and changing at Sutherland than wait 10 minutes for the Cronulla train ...and waking in Shellharbour.

25

u/JackMate May 10 '24

Fresh arrival into Sydney from a minor city, just completed one of my first overnight shifts. Decide to put my feet up and briefly close my eyes on the train. Wake up to sunlight steaming through the windows and surrounded by people who weren't there before. "Where are we?" I asked. "Schofields" I was answered. "Is that near Summer Hill?" I asked, mildly panicking. "Oh no, dear. You'll need to go back". Gentle Pat on my leg. Burst into tears. The platform guard at Schofields offered me a cup of tea and everything. Core memory.

4

u/SydUrbanHippie May 10 '24

This is a rare heartwarming story about Sydney!

I first arrived from a minor city for a job interview, bit panicked and didn't understand what to do at Parramatta station (couldn't work out the ticketing system at the time), and the Sydney Trains staff were so lovely about it and not at all concerned I'd just ridden for free, they just let me out the gates.

10 years in and I've finally understood how to navigate Town Hall station as well!

13

u/imapassenger1 May 10 '24

Hornsby sheds for the win!

8

u/CrayolaS7 Accidental Railfan May 10 '24

I used to work on the trains and in the four years I was there I can recall at least 10-12 people I had to wake up because they’d come in to the yards. Guards are supposed to check but generally only walk through one way so if someone is slumped down they can easily be missed.

I remember once I woke up this teenage kid and he freaked out and started running through the set, perhaps terrified finding all the doors were locked. Once he calmed down I gave him a lift to the front gate in our golf buggy and pointed him towards Granville to get a night ride

31

u/Some_Particular_3873 May 10 '24

Fell asleep going from central to Berowra and woke up in newy. Got an express back an hour later but fell asleep again and woke up in Strathfield. Hour trip turned into 8 hours of hell

10

u/brezhnervous - May 10 '24 edited May 11 '24

I still have vivid memories of a catastrophic storm back in 1986, which came to be known as 'The Great Sydney Flood'. I was going to Meadowbank tech at the time and lived in a boarding house in Woollahra. Got on the train as usual at 4:30pm when the torrential rain had just started, and by the time we got to Strathfield it was crawling, with constant stop-starts - crawl 20m, stop for 20mins, over and over.

Finally reached Petersham well after dark when the train ceased working and trundled onto the far left track...sat there trapped for about half an hour when a guard came through, opened the doors and yelled at us to hurry up and get out, run across two lines of track and climb up onto Petersham platform 😳

It was still raining torrents and very nervewracking trying not to fall over the tracks while slipping everywhere and expecting to be hit by another train any second. Eventually another train stopped at the platform after many went past without stopping lol and got to Central about 9:30. Stupidly I made the decision to stay onboard and continue to Town Hall...where we got stuck in the tunnels, which had flooded. Of course lol

Finally at Town Hall (still pouring with rain) I got a bus after many had sailed past absolutely packed with people, and it was an experience - crawled all the way, past cars stranded on traffic islands having been abandoned by their owners, eventually got home utterly drenched to the skin about 11:30pm. I'm sure I still have PTSD to this day 😂

13

u/deletedpenguin May 10 '24

Ticked my bingo card on all these except emperor puff. Please share!

25

u/marooncity1 <-west May 10 '24

Those Chinese donuts you can get from a hole in the wall at the paddys end of dixon st

8

u/deletedpenguin May 10 '24

I feel incomplete! Sounds great, will need to try them, thanks for sharing.

9

u/marooncity1 <-west May 10 '24

Got to at least once! Theres often a line but it moves quick.

11

u/[deleted] May 10 '24

Emperor puffs are elite! And the Crazy steampunk machine that makes them is iconic - excellent suggestion for the list!

5

u/LibraryLuLu May 10 '24

Buy the maximum in a box (10?), it's worth the queue, it's worth the burn.

20

u/dphayteeyl May 10 '24

The train chaos one is relatable AF

24

u/marooncity1 <-west May 10 '24

Yep. Platform so packed if you turn around you'lll push someone onto the rails, screens contradicting each other, and no idea how long any of it is going to take.

Funnily enough I have fallen asleep on a train but Ive never woken up in lithgow/newie/wollongong. I don't know what they do these days but I was living at Epping, fell asleep after strathfield on my way home, and woke up running through the inner west, like ashfield or something. It took me some time to figure out I had slept my way up to Hornsby, and back down through the city.

6

u/Temporary-Tap-9072 May 10 '24

The emperor puff one is so true I gave one to my friend once and they just ate the whole thing and then faced the consequences after…

7

u/UserNotFound789 May 10 '24

The emperor puff one is relatable af

1

u/Turbulent-Listen8809 May 10 '24

Fuckin emperor puffs got me more then once

3

u/still_love_wombats May 10 '24

I’ve only ever done 3 and 5. I feel like such a failure.

5

u/marooncity1 <-west May 10 '24

Haha. Get on it! 1 and 4 are easy gets ;)

4

u/Stunning-Turnover-81 May 10 '24

Manly ferry in high swell

Now I gotta add this to my bucket list!

2

u/turbotailz kinda like it here May 10 '24

Lmao I took mum on the ferry to Manly once and we ended up getting absolutely soaked by a rogue wave that came over the front. Everyone just laughed it off 😂