This railway station brings back an awful lot of memories from my younger, and more adventurous,…read moredays. Actually, I still live a rather adventurous lifestyle, so I can't really make that statement. Anyway, this station can be a little deceiving as it appears simply to be a row of shops, that is until you are right on top of it. The bridge is one of those pretty cool bridges, and the station is pretty awesome as well. Okay, it's a railway station, but still a pretty cool one.

I guess having Croydons in at least three of the states I sometimes get a little confiused with…read morewhich one I'm talking about, but this is clearly the New South Wales one, which means that it is reasonably inner city. The station itself is quite large, and quite accessible as well, and the trains come through here, and stop, fairly regularly as well. Oh, and like a lot of Sydney stations, it is reasonably close to fancilities too. Yeah, this station isn't bad.

The inner suburb of Croydon is located 10 km west of the Sydney central business district. The…read moresuburb is nestled between the commercial centres of Burwood and Ashfield, which basically overshadow Croydon. Before being settled by the English, this area was home to the Wangal clan of the Dharug Aboriginal people. One of their leaders, Bennelong, was a friend to the first governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, and went with him to England. Sydney Opera House was built on Bennelong Point, named after Bennelong. I was told in grade school that Bennelong used to hang out down there. Maybe he enjoyed the classical music concerts of the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra. When Croydon Station was first opened in 1875, it was called Five Dock Station, but the name was changed to Croydon 1876 (after the cicada ate Five Dock - LOL.). The main suburban railway line through Croydon was quadruplicated in 1892, and sextuplicated in 1927 in when the line was electrified. To most people, Croydon is known as a station where trains pass through without stopping. My sister and I used to walk from Burwood to the Croydon Swimming Pool past Croydon station without giving it a passing thought. In 2012, electronic destination boards were installed, and Croydon finally entered the 20th century. If you are ever stuck in Croydon, you need to seriously question where your life is heading.

This is another one of those stations where very little has changed in the years since I last came…read moredown this way. In a way that is a good thing, namely because it is a rather nice station, with the old building still being there and all that, but it is also quite accessible as well. Still, the station probably does need a bit of a clean. Mind you, there isn't anything all that much around here though, so it is probably only for the locals.

For a hotel that's a bit out of the way the food is worth the visit, we got a bus out here for a…read morefriends birthday. The chef (MasterChef the Professionals Chef Sarah Knights) and her partner are in the kitchens cooking up delishous delights that aren't expensive and are very titilating on your taste buds! Everything on the food menu was under $15. Even the steaks. The popcorn chicken came out in a popcorn container, it was all very quirky! There were onion rings that were delivered on a spike with 3 dips. The cajun chicken schniddy was crunchy on the outside and not quite as hot as I was expecting. However they have actual darn tooting American smokey BBQ sauce that reminded me of Texas. Friends got mac & cheese and it was.. we couldn't stop eating it. Such a great great mac & cheese!! Oh and it's all handmade icecream for deserts. I had the rocky road - the chefs creation. Full of surprises!! Friends had the secret family recipe sticky date pudding. Apparently that was to die for as well. So basically, everything you eat here is going to make your palate sing happily. Well worth the trip out of town for it. ****Edited to add that my friend went there the other night for the amazeballs Mac & Cheese only to find that this is no longer the food fare there. Sorry guys, blink and you miss it. Apparently it's back to usual poor pub fare!

This station was a little more accessible than some of the others that I have visited, but then…read moreagain it does happen to be Sydney and one of the things about stations in Sydney is that they do happen to be quite accessible. However, I won't necessarily consider it to be one of the best that I have visited. Yeah, it generally has a lot to do with facilities, and the ones here are somewhat lacking.