Sydney Kings Cross

There are songs that brand entire experiences or entire periods of your life. For me, in Sydney, that song was ‘From St Kilda to Kings Cross’, by Australian songwriter Paul Kelly. One of those songs everyone seems to know in Australia. And the lyrics I can still recollect: ‘From St Kilda to Kings Cross is thirteen hours on a bus | I pressed my face against the glass And watched the white lines rushing past | And all around me felt like all inside me | And my body left me and my soul went running.’ This is the song I listened to the first time I went there. And at the moment when I realized that Sydney never quite conquered my heart.

Unlike Paul Kelly, the first time I went to Sydney, it was by train and not by bus, from Canberra. It was October 2015 and I had been in Canberra for a week or so. A ‘week or so’ in Canberra equals three months. I don’t get that city. Large avenues, few cars, many shopping malls, the smallest city centre ever, hidden in between malls, no one around, everyone inside massive buildings, shops, houses. Is this how Australia is run? For three days I couldn’t even find a proper restaurant because I was living in the southern part of the city, far away from what they call the Civic Centre. You cannot properly walk in Canberra; the roads are meant for cars. It is all large white buildings immersed in their own green lawns. Yes, Australia’s Capital Territory is white and green. Canberra was the first city in Australia I landed in, the first Australian city I ever visited. And I will never forget it, because it gave me the impression that will long live inside me: a first impression about Australia, as a white, green and large land, some sort of quiet place, but with a secret.

Little did I know then that they would make a TV series about the underworld of politics in Canberra precisely called the Secret City. Go figure.

How to get to Sydney from Canberra on a day trip? Easy, on a coach that takes you there in around four hours.