We enjoyed experiencing the local transportation. Although…read moretheir system was NOT as user friendly as NY, London, or Italy, it was easy enough. Quality/Quantity - New and old trains, see pictures. Liked that they had double decker trains, cool. Accurate and easy to read signs. Atmosphere - Safe. I believe you can use your credit card to scan in and out, but we were given an Opal card by our friends. Good signage to find our way around and to get on the correct trains. Mostly clean, well the newer trains were much cleaner than the older trains. Service - Mostly self service. They did have an employee or two at each station. Price - No idea, as our friends gave us funded Opal cards and it never ran out of $$. I am told that seniors (not me) are only charged $2.50 a day, what a great deal! We paid per trip. The Opal card was also good for buses, ferries, metro, light rails, etc. Owner Comment - Thank you for a good system.

This is one of those semi-major interchange stations, where you can change between stopping all…read morestations and express trains, and also trains that go to different parts of the city. As a station, it actually isn't that bad, though of course not all of the trains stop here. However, as is generally expected with most stations in Sydney, it is fairly accessible.

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.