Sydney Olympic Park and Costco

To make the most of our $60 weekly train pass we decided to head to the Sydney Olympic Park, site of the 2000 Olympic Games. The journey was straight forward, we caught a train from Burwood to Lidcombe (a few stops along the line from us) where we caught the express and direct train to Olympic Park. The area was quiet and filled with stadiums but it was nice and pleasant and included a refreshing water feature that we stood under when the heat became a little too much to bear. It is interesting to see what becomes of Olympic sites after the Games as it may prove an indication of what may happen in London’s Olympic Village. Most of the stadiums seemed to be in use and nothing seemed to be in disrepair – it just felt like a grand sports area with hi tech facilities rather than an old Olympic venue. The only real indication that an Olympic Games was held there was the name of the area and the interesting art installation near the ANZ Stadium outlining the names of those who competed (we found a “Joe Evans”, a “Gary Evans” and several “Scobies”) and also marking out the length of the gold medal winning triple jump (the UK’s Jonathon Edwards and a staggering 17.77metres) and height of the gold medal winning high jump and pole vault. It was a nice trip out of the house and it was nice to explore a bit more of Sydney.




 

When we returned to the house we were almost immediately asked if we wanted to head to Costco, an American wholesale warehouse which was actually located near the Olympic park. We decided to go as we had heard loads about it. Imagine Macro or Castell Howell in the UK and that’s Costco - bulk purchases. Nothing jumped out as being much of a bargain, contrary to what we heard, just whatever you bought came in massive volumes. For example, a 40litre bottle of vodka for $500. We did buy a few things, notably a big bag of honeycomb chocolate for $5. The trip was not exactly worth it, as Costco was really just a big shop aimed at businesses, but it got us out of the house and we left pleased with our purchase.