Skip to main content

Luna Park Sydney


There's something mysteriously magical and even a little creepy about a fairground at night. The bright moving lights of rides against the black of night, hiding any scenery outside. The screams of joy and fear from riders mixed in with the rattles of rollercoaster cars as the run around the track and the music of a carousel. The clown faces, mouths agape, at the sideshow, inviting you to try your luck.

I wanted to experience and try to capture that atmosphere in pictures at Sydney's Luna Park, which is open late on Friday and Saturday nights. Alex also wanted to visit, so we met B in the city for a night out.

The Chinese New Year festival had just opened at Belmore Park outside of Central Station, so we first stopped there for a dinner of snacks purchased from stalls. Juice Uyghur lamb kebabs, ayam percik and yellow rice, pork buns, eaten standing while light showers sprinkled down. Alex also had a preparatory fly on one of the fairground rides set up at the entrance to the park.


Then a train up to Milsons Point and a walk down to Luna Park on the foreshore. The Sydney Harbour Bridge looms so magnificently over the scene. As we trotted down the steps a businessman suggested we hurry to see a huge cruise liner depart from Circular Quay, then we entered through the huge mouth of Luna Park.



The passes are not cheap, so we limited ourselves to two rides each. B and Alex clattered around the Wild Mouse rollercoaster, or the closest thing the park has to a rollercoaster since the local residents complained.


I've always wanted to try dodgem cars and tonight I had the chance to do so. Quite fun bumping around the track. Alex has ridden carousels across the world and he still can't go past one. Is there a more perfect ride at night, the bright lights and mirrors, the horses slowly bobbing up and down?



Finally I took a sedate spin on the ferris wheel, which offered great views of Luna Park at nights and the beautiful colours of the CBD across the harbour.



We rode home in the dark on a trip too close to that of a normal work day, when we are all on holidays.

I don't think my photos captured the mystery of the night, but I certainly felt it.

Photos: Chinese New Year, Luna Park
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IKEA Museum

We have a packed itinerary today. Flat packed and assembled with an Allen key. There are patches of snow on the ground that weren't there the previous evening. We are a bit sad to leave the Duxiana after the comfy beds and the breakfast of cold cuts, fruits and hot waffles. I tried the Swedish caviar on my boiled egg. It was... Interesting. I was very disappointed to realise that, after talking it up for months, I had forgotten the Disgusting Foods Museum in Malmö yesterday. Too late now. We catch another Oresundstag train, for a bit over an hour. Past yesterday's Lund, past increasingly white fields and towns to Älmhult, home of IKEA. The conductor warns us that the train will split in two so we have to move carriages forward. Unfortunately, there we no spare sets of chairs for all of us. The IKEA Museum showcases the history of the furniture company, along with temporary exhibitions. One of these was "Hacking IKEA," about using IKEA ob...
Post a Comment
Read more

Asagaya and heading home

How can I be happy? I am about to return to a country where the toilets have at most two buttons and no seat warmers. But the tickets are booked and there are no cyclones, typhoons or other disasters standing in our way. It's almost time to go back to my first home. First B wants to do some "local shopping". So we catch the Chuo Line up a few stations to Asagaya, a residential area with a number of Shotengai, covered and uncovered arcades leading away from the station and narrow alleys lined with bars. It is an interesting area for a wander around. We are mainly looking, do some shopping for toothbrushes and sweets from Seiyu, a Wal-Mart owned supermarket/minor department store. We skipped breakfast and lunch is ramen and gyoza at a small restaurant near the entrance to the Pearl Centre shotengai. With the help of a staff member, I manage to purchase tickets at a branch of Lawson to the Ghibli Museum for a friend travelling to Japan in May. There are some...
Post a Comment
Read more

One night in Canberra

It's the April school holidays and we are too busy to have a break but need one because of that. And because it's the Easter weekend the options are limited, so we just drive down to Canberra for the night. No, this isn't our first trip for 2023. I wrote about Japan on another site .  I refuse to wake up early so we depart after 8.30 AM. There is not much to say about the drive except that the clouds seem so low and Lake George is very full. We stop at a rest area and at the lookout up the hill to take it all in. Everyone is hungry so we first stop in Dickson and then can't think of anything to eat, so I drive us to Civic, where we can't decide and end up eating at the Singaporean Killiney Kopitiam branch.  The Canberra Centre has nice shops. I dream of getting an iPad from the Apple Store, we buy a blanket and toothbrushes from Muji and wish that Lego wasn't so expensive. Nothing we can't get in Sydney, but then we rarely go out shopping in the city. It...
Post a Comment
Read more