Sydney. The city that will probably be the first to pop up in your head when someone mentions Australia. Just recall how many times you’ve seen on TV or postcards the two most famous symbols of not only Sydney, but the whole Australia, The Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The city that doesn’t only use buses, trains, bikes but also ferries for transportation. And you get to ride from one part of Sydney to another by ferry. How cool is that?
The city where you get lost and find yourself at this street party. People sitting in the middle of the road, eating and drinking while listening to music. Something you don’t get to see every day. You can see more about the festival here – Williams Street Festival.
After 16 rainy days on the farm, I’ve decided it was time for a bit of sun, so I sat on a train towards Sydney. My trip looked something like this – 9 hours of binging with sweets so time would fly by faster. Two beautiful people I met when I was living in Dublin, offered me to stay with them, so I accepted their invitation.
Here it is, after a sleepless night, I got to wake up in Sydney for the first time. Priorities are priorities so I’m heading out to see the two biggest icons of Sydney. I walked through the city and through botanical gardens to get to my destination. And after about 40 min walking, suddenly I saw the sea in the distance. I knew Opera House was somewhere there. I felt the excitement and started walking faster. And when I finally saw it, I couldn’t believe I was here. My very own sunny postcard. It was absolutely amazing, although it looked different then in postcards. It’s always different than in your imagination.
Sydney Opera House, the most famous icon of Sydney was finished in 1973, and it took 14 years and 10 000 workers and it cost 102 million dollars, which was 14 times more than the estimated price.
Opera’s sister monument, Harbour Bridge was finished 1932 and it took 272 000 lit of pain just for the first coat.
You can climb the top of the bridge as a part of tourist attraction, but it will cost you around 250-350 AUD depending on the time of day you want to climb it. But if you don’t have the spare money, you can walk it like I did. Still a great experience and some great views.
Maybe the best view of Sydney is from the top of the Sydney Tower Eye or Westfield which is 250 m high and has a 360 degrees view. At the top of that tower there is a restaurant and while you eat, it slowly moves around. The view at the city, the harbour and Blue Mountains in the distance is something amazing. You could see the day slowly turning into evening and night.
If you’re in Sydney, another must see location is th Bondi beach. This is how it happened. I was supposed to meet up with some couchsurfers at the beach. I remember getting out of the bus and seeing this. I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.
And again, everything looks and feels different than on the photos. What a view. And here’s that famouse Bondi Icebergs pool next to the beach.
As I came earlier, I went on the right towards the pool to take the walk from Bondi to Coogee beach. It’s a trail connecting these two beaches and it’s around 6 km long and along the way you can see some works of art, sculptures, something like a little art gallery by the sea. And at the top, there’s a beautiful view towards Bondi. I felt like I was in a dream.
I didn’t get the change to walk these 6 km because I had to meet my new friends at the beach and take a really cold swim in a spring Sydney sea. That was it. We stretched along the beach like walruses and made plans to go out. I felt like I was in another world.
One more thing you cannot miss is the fireworks. Sydney is famous for the New Years celebrations and the craziest fireworks, but if you’re not there then, you’ll be pleased with the one in Darling Harbour which takes place every Saturday night during the season.
And there are many many more things and places to see in Sydney. This is just the beginning.
More photos of Sydney in Australia Gallery.
