Monday 17th May 2004, Day 247/366 - Sydney, Australia.

Olympic Stadium

Well Aldershot failed in there bid to return to the football league. They lost 3-0 on penalties after drawing 1-1 AET. I feel miles away from it all.

I moped around so much yesterday that I couldn't sleep when I went to bed. Bloody typical. So I feel lousy today again.

Walked into town. The Queen Victoria Building (QVB) is worth a visit. It's a nice old shopping arcade.

I caught a train up to Olympic Park. $4.80. This is what I expect from an Olympic Park. At this site the track and field, swimming, hockey, tennis etc. were all played. All the stadia are still being used and the athletes village is now been sold off and a new suburb created. Interestingly the suburb, Newbridge, is power souly by solar power and watered by recycled water.

The Track and Field Stadium, Stadium Australia, was notably the site of Englands World Cup Egg Chasing Triumph however it is now known as Testra Stadium. More corporate sponsorship. At least it's not a baseball field now. You can do a tour of the stadium, but $26 was a bit steep even for my liking.

I chose to do the walking tour $11.25 where you get talked through all the details of the planning and space that was used to create the park. I can't imagine it being held in England. We just haven't got the space or the infrastructure to hold the modern Olympics.

In the afternoon I went to watch Van Helsing. Very pretty, but a pile of poo.