Sydney: Holla' for a Dolla'

Ok Sydney, I get it. You're crazy expensive. But even crazy has limits.

Take tonight for example: I've been meaning to get back into the pool for some good cross training (good for the joints, not as boring as a spin class or as awkward as a Zumba class etc etc) and this weekend I finally bit the bullet and bought a new Speedo. No, I won't show you a picture of me in a Speedo because I'm afraid Sports Illustrated would steal it for their swimsuit issue. Gotta protect the goods.

There are three pools within walking distance of my house so I decided to start with the one closet (duh, path of least resistance).

I browsed on the website ahead of time: $6.60 to swim. Ok, that seems like a lot but I get it-- it's a fancy aquatic center with multiple pools. I'm not sure why they don't round down to $6.50 or $7 but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, I get there after work to find out it's an additional $2 for a locker. Ok. Now we're up to nearly $9 to swim. There were plenty of people who put their stuff on the side of the pool, but I wasn't quite willing to take that risk.

And then the real shocker hit--they had no towels. NO FREAKING TOWELS at an aquatic center. I can almost understand why my normal gym doesn't have towels- maybe not everyone is going to take a shower- but at an aquatic center? Where everyone is guaranteed to be wet?

The kicker is even better-- you can buy a towel for $30 or you can just do without.

As I sat there furiously drying myself off with paper towels after my swim (and smelling like chlorine because there was no soap in the showers) I texted a few Sydney friends to relay my horror.



Excuse me, am I the crazy one here?

At $9 a swim minus a towel, soap and hairdryer I'm not really sure what I paid for tonight. I'm surprised Sydney isn't trying to capitalize on other stupid swimmers like me-- I would have gladly rented a towel for another $3 like my normal gym and even put in some coinage for some shampoo (note: walking through the grocery store dripping water and smelling like a pool is really really fun and doesn't illicit stares at all).

North Sydney sounds like it's doing it right- no towels and extra for hot water? They must be printing money.

The worst part? I'll probably shell out again. Damn you Sydney, damn you.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad