Sydney, Australia

What more can be said about Sydney? It's a city that's a destination unto itself, boasting more annual international visitors than any other locale in Australia.  It lures in tourists with its laid back lifestyle, sunny weather, great beaches, its stunning natural beauty on the harbor and of course, its iconic bridge and opera house.  Apparently many of those tourists choose never to leave since it is also one of the most ethnically diverse cities on the planet.  It's a city that is full of glitz and glamour and wealth that borders on the obscene; the city is host to some of the largest malls I have ever seen in my life. Many of them tower 6 stories and take some 3 city blocks with have three or four food courts and over 500 stores!  

It may come as a surprise to you then, that I was and remain quite underwhelmed with Sydney.  There is just nothing about the city that is uniquely Australian.  In fact once I pulled myself away from the hypnotic draw of the harbor I found myself thinking I could be in any city.  There is a distinct lack of character and originality that leaves the city feeling sterile and bland.  Perhaps it's the overly commercialized nature of the place, what with propagation of the aforementioned malls and the modern steel & concrete luxury apartment complexes making up the majority of the buildings in the inner city.  Perhaps it just isn't what I expected Australia to be like.  Admittedly I do think more of the outback as being quintessentially Australian, maybe due to watching too many nature documentaries as a child.  Whatever the reason, I'm having a really difficult time finding anything endearing enough to hold onto.  I just can't catch vibe of the city.  This is disappointing, as I was really hoping my first impression would prove incorrect as we spent more time exploring the city.  Looks like once again I'm the odd man out that doesn't see the appeal in something that everyone else seems to love.  That isn't to say that our time spent here hasn't been enjoyable, so I'll tell you now about some of the cities highlights.

There is no denying the beauty of the Sydney Harbour.  The first glimpse that I caught of it was staring down George Street through the dense concrete jungle.  I could see the arch of the harbor bridge and I was captivated.  So together Kayleigh and I made our way up the length of George and before long we'd cleared the high rises and were staring in awe at the dramatic scene before us.  It was a surreal moment.  The bridge seemed so much bigger than I'd imagined, and the Opera House so much more impressive.  So many times have we seen images of it, and here we were seeing it with our own eyes.  If we'd wanted, we could have walked right up and touched it (we did at a later time).  There was a cruise ship the size of a high-rise apartment block docked in the harbor, an engineering marvel all its own somehow maintaining buoyancy on the water.    

A floating city! 

Our first glimpse of the bridge!

The most beautiful building on earth

The Sydney skyline along the Sydney Harbor

The dynamic duo at dusk

Another of Sydney's gems are the beaches.  Bondi Beach is undeniably the best city beach I've ever seen.  The sand is nearly white and due to its silica composition it squeaks underfoot like a basketball court when you walk over it.  The ocean is invitingly warm and its sky blue color is accentuated by the white froth churned up from the surf.  It has an interesting mix of free-spirited surfer culture mixed with the indulgence and wealth of the city, perhaps not unlike Orange County.  As long as you're willing to put up with the relative crowds (not crowded at all compared to Cali on a good day) and the conspicuous "see and be seen" mentality you'll have a great time.  If you'd like to escape to a more laid back beach, the beautiful Coastal Walkway stretches down the entire length of the eastern beaches along the sandstone escarpment bordering the Tasman Sea.  The views are incredible, as are the beaches.  One of the coolest aspects of this stretch of coast is the many rock pools carved out of the escarpment creating sometimes-natural sometimes-manmade but always beautiful pools right on the ocean but without the surf.  

Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach 

The Coastal Walkway 

Looking down onto Tamarama beach

Bronte Beach rock pool

Waverly cemetary

The other of Sydney's legendary beaches worthy of note is Manly.  Lying on the tiny isthmus of the northern head of Port Jackson (the name for the entirety of the harbor), getting there is half of what makes the place special.  We took a 30 minute ferry from Circular Quay (Sydney harbor) to this idyllic beach suburb, getting great views of the Opera House and the eastern half of the harbor all the way to its mouth.  As we neared the Manly wharf the swells coming in off the ocean really rocked the ferry before bashing up against the cliffs to the west.  The town itself is the perfect answer to Bondi's flashy shores.  Where Bondi is glam, Manly is casual and laid back.  The town motto "Manly, 7 miles from Sydney, 1000 miles from care" rings true to the core as the town feels more like a beach getaway than a suburb of a major city.

The Opera House from the Manly ferry

Manly town

Manly beach

The city skyline at sunset from the Manly ferry

More than anything, we spent our time just wandering the streets and exploring the different suburbs of Sydney looking for that sense of place.  A few of the older suburbs, mainly those in the inner west, have some well preserved quaint houses and lots of peaceful leafy streets and alleyways.  Newtown, the suburb where our hostel was located, was a great place to get started due to the countless cafes and ethnic restaurants that line King Street.  It was great to finally have some cheap eats again!  It is a university town reminiscent of Berekely and it is the hub for bohemian and alternative culture in Sydney.

Quaint little houses

Luna Park is a Coney Island styled amusement park just across the harbor bridge from downtown Sydney.  Early on it proved a welcome change of pace from the nature based amusements of NZ.  We hadn't been on any rides in over a year!  Getting there gave us an excuse to walk across the harbor bridge, providing great views of the city, opera house and eastern harbor.

Luna Park

The Darling Harbor which lies just west of the Sydney harbor is the focal point for tourism in the city.  Replete with hotels, shopping, harbor side restaurants, bars and clubs, it is one of the most glammy places in the whole city.  We had a fun walkabout around the shores, but steered well clear of the overpriced food and entertainment.  At least the fireworks shows every Friday night are free for all!

The city skyline from Darling Harbor

The iconic Australian wildlife is conspicuously absent from the Sydney area as one might expect.  The only animals we were able to spy outside of our trip to the Taronga Zoo were a few unnervingly large spiders, some birdlife and the nightly bats that fly over the city at dusk to feed (don't worry though, they're just harmless oversized fruit bats).  The bats, known as "flying-foxes" are some of the largest bats on earth with a wingspan of about 3 feet and a body the size of a squirrel.  They aren't blind like most smaller bats, and they see about as well as humans.  The bats used to have a camp in the Royal Botanic Gardens just east of the Opera House, but they were moved off a few years ago due to the damage they were causing to the plants in the garden.  This was a major disappointment to me, as I had really wanted to see the nightly fly-out of thousands of bats up close and personal.  I've read a little about other places near the city that have large camps, so perhaps you'll hear more about it in the future.

Some funky Aussie bird that roams the streets

A massive spider (palm sized) with an even more massive web