We let the Walkers Edition guide us through Sydney - finding rooftop lounges & underground whisky bars
We’d been setting up for a trade show for Getting Lost at Sydney Olympic Park in 30 degree plus temperatures and humidity that felt like you were in a steaming bathroom. After we'd set up we decided to escape the humid showgrounds and go to the blissful air-conditioning of Sydney’s train. With no real plan of where we were going we jumped off the train at Circular Quay in central Sydney (which can I just give a shout out to NSW public transport was only $1 for our one hour ride!).
From Circular Quay we were presented with an amazing vista of possibility. There is basically no bad decision you an make from this starting point. We had the Sydney Opera House to one side, the Rocks to the other. The only down side was that there was and a heaving mass of people everywhere we looked. The trip guides and searches told us to follow the crowds to the Opera House but instead I pulled out my Getting Lost Walkers Edition.
We headed in the direction of some birds and of a patch of blue sky, counted some flowers and headed in the direction of the minute hand on our watch. And then suddenly, magically we found ourselves alone and the real fun of exploring began.
We stumbled across The Doss House - an underground whisky bar that was built in the 1840s and was at one point in it’s history home to an opium dealer. Inside it was so dark we couldn’t see those around us - even though it was still daylight outside. Our cocktail lists were lit by candlelight and even though there were others in the bar they were just shadows in the distance. A playlist from the 80’s and 90’s felt out of place and yet strangely the perfect accompaniment .
We spotted was the epic rooftop garden (Tayim), perched above the cobble stone lane of Nurses Walk. In the evening diners are serenaded by musicians.
The restaurant itself drew us in on smell alone. It smelt devine and we decided to come back later in our trip. Having found it by chance playing the Walkers Edition (and not writing down any details) I tried to search for it later. I tried all the search terms I could think of and still couldn't find it. In the end I had to find it on a map - which again is another reason to trust just exploring and not always trusting that the best things will be found by looking online. We did find it again (and the taste lived up to our expectations). Surrounded by centuries old bricks, we drank and ate for hours.
Walking in Sydney CBD is the best way to explore and we used our Walkers Edition cards other nights too. We found and underground bar - found only by the red neon Psychic sign, bird cages hanging over roads and so many other things. And no, we never did make it to the Opera House but there's always next time Sydney I have trust that the cards will lead me there at exactly the right time...
