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| Sunday, January 13, 2008 |
Originally, I was going to be in Sydney for New Years but my plans fell through and I ended up in the rainy weather of Surfer's Paradise again, where because of a cyclone there were no fireworks. Though I did party hard, it wasn't the best New Year's I've ever had. But I digress, for I am finally in Sydney. And I love it.
It's an amazing city. I can't quite put my finger on it but there's something about Sydney. It has charm, class, it's beautiful, and exciting. In short, amazing. Besides Perth, it is my favorite city in Australia. If I was moving back to Australia, I'd live in one of these two. I came to city and meet up with some people I've been traveling with on and off throughout Australia. In OZ, everyone goes the same way making meet ups real easy. It was with those friends that I first gazed on the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge. Standing in front of them for the first time was breathtaking. Though they are man made, they are stunning and beautiful to look at. I stared out at them for awhile, taking them in- the icons of the city. Seeing them was a highlight of Australia, in some ways just as great as Uluru.
Most of the time I was in Sydney it was cloudy but the weather did clear up to have a few good days. I spent those days wandering the city, which surprisingly is really walkable (everything is within 20 minutes of something!). I explored King's Cross, which is an interesting mix of backpackers, clubs, crack heads, and prostitutes. The main strip of the area, Darlinghurst Rd, is filled with bars, backpackers, and bums. Here they all mix in together to form a cheap and seedy area that at night gets pretty wild. Yet once off that street the whole area changes and becomes quite the posh living area. Old 18th century homes, some of them looking like English cottages, dot the streets next to recent condominiums and high rises. The streets are clean, the people friendly, and the area filled with little green spaces. All of which is within easy walking distance to the park that over looks the harbor. I was pretty impressed with the area despite its seedy reputation.
I was most impressed with the gardens and opera house area. The Sydney Domain/Royal Gardens are massive and quite lovely to wander around in. It's easy to spend hours in the area. I walked around for about an hour and saw maybe less than half of the trails and I'm not a slow walker! It's definably a good respite from the craziness of the city. Sydneyers would agree as there were heaps of them sunning and hanging out in the park the day I was there.
It's from this place where you get the iconic photo of the Harbor bridge and Opera House. I took loads. In fact, I took loads of pictures of the opera house and bridge every time I went near them. I didn't do the bridge walk thought because at 300 dollars, it was out of my price range….well, that and my intense fear of heights kept me away. And of course, I meet a fellow MySpacer while I was there. She showed me Darling Harbor which seemed a great place to take your family, girlfriend, or just go out to eat- nice trendy restaurants there. We didn't go to them but we did go to the Chinese Garden. Great place! Highly recommend it! Thanks Lou Lou for the good time!
Sydney is everything it is hyped up to be.
THIS IS OLD SITE!!! CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY NEW ONE!!!!
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posted by Nomadic Matt @ 7:52 AM  |
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