I Heart Sydney!

Before visiting Sydney I imagined it to be a city with the likes of Chicago. Relative to Brisbane, the laid-back, sun-soaking, relaxed-paced Australian capital city, I thought Sydney would be really rushed and have a colder feel to it.

Visiting Sydney allowed me to have more than an imagination of the city: an opinion of the city. To me Sydney is not like Chicago. Sydney is certainly not like Brisbane either. I found Sydney to be a really great balance of class, fun, freedom and cool. I fell in love with Sydney: the Opera House, the Harbor Bridge, Oxford Street, Chinatown, downtown, Hyde Park, the Royal Botanical Gardens, Darling Harbor, the Blue Mountains - Sydney has so much to offer!

By miracle the weather during my visit in Sydney was perfect: sunny and warm. We couldn't believe it (we = myself, Peter, Sarah, Maija and Alice). Here are the highlights of the trip:

Thursday night, after checking into our hostel, we decided to wander around the city. On the way to the harbor we stopped at a few little shops where I purchased a herring bone beret, a pair of fresh water pearl earrings (one of which I lost in the Whitsunday Islands - sadness), and a pocket watch necklace.

We saw the Sydney Opera House at night - the sails were lit up and the Australian icon looked quite magnificent against the backdrop of the night sky (too bad none of the photos turned out really well).

Our hostel gave us 15 coupons for free beer or wine to promote local bars and night clubs. We took full advantage. After seeing the Opera House we hit two bars and I had some of the best wine I've ever had. At The Orient Hotel in The Rocks district I had a glass of Tyrrell's Winery Classic Dry White (from Hunter Valley in Victoria, I believe). It was really great (despite it being a dry wine - normally I don't like them). At the second bar (Jake's?) I had another glass of Tyrrell's Winery: Moore's Creek South East Australia Chardonnay 2007. I didn't care for that wine very much.

Friday we were up bright and early, ready to see more of Sydney. After breakfast Sarah and I enjoyed the Art Gallery of New South Wales. I bought a really cool miniature painting there. After getting lost from the rest of the group and seeing bats and beautiful flora in the Royal Botanical Gardens Sarah and I finally met up with the gang at the Opera House. We took gobs of photos and then trekked over to the Harbor Bridge. I went up in the tower and got some great photos of the city. The walk across the bridge was quite lengthy. We took a break for a snack and were on our way to Luna Park just for kicks (the place is pretty run down these days). We took some fun pictures in the goofy mirrors and strolled around. Next we played Twister, teeter-tottered and climbed a tree at a little park. We opted to take the double-decker bus back in to the city - that was my first time on a double-decker train and I was quite excited about the ride.

The gang wound down from the day while I went on a run to the Opera House. It was really fun to run around Sydney, plus I saw the city at night - so glittery! We showered up and went to a sushi diner in Chinatown called Mandono (progressive Japanese cuisine). The bar that night was The Sidebar. The free house wine was the same as the glass from Jake's, so I wasn't too thrilled. But the live music made up for it. A duet of two French, young, bald guys made up Melville. They did some really great acoustic covers: the Eurythmics, Creep, Karma Police, Skin & Bones, Sublime's What I Got, and others.

Saturday morning there was some tension between everyone, so I put on my iPod on the train ride to the Blue Mountains. They were absolutely beautiful, and I enjoyed the trail/hiking to the Three Sisters. They were breath-taking. Unfortunately I lost my photos from most of this day, and while I was very upset about the loss, I am over it and cherish the memories.

When we got back to the city we had dinner. It was during this meal that I had my first Maccers (Aussie slang for McDonald's) meal in Australia. Whoopee. I had a McChicken burger (I prefer the term sandwich, but they call everything burgers here).

Later that night Maija was kind enough to do my hair up in French plaits. It looked really pretty (lost those photos, too). Tonight we were hitting Oxford Street: the gay district. The main strip had all sorts of stores with plays on words. One Thai diner was called "Thai Me Up;" Peter and I got a kick out of that one. There was also the "Lick Her Store." It was an interesting area of town.

We went to several bars that night. My favorite time of the entire trip was at O'Malley's. There was a guy doing live music (he had a guitar and used the pedal recorder thing) - and he was great (except for the fact that he didn't know any Tom Petty - Petty isn't known at all in Australia from what I can tell). Peter and I had a ball watching the drunk fellow who was nearby, and the entire stay was a ton of fun - we danced, we sang, we had a grand time.

Sunday morning we went to the Paddington Markets to browse, grabbed lunch at Nando's (a mediocre Portuguese restaurant), and split to see what parts of the city we wanted to see but hadn't quite agreed on. I chose to seek out the giant chess board in Hyde Park, the Victoria Building, the Sydney Center Point Tower, and I found the statues of Mr. Flinders and his cat, Trim (hidden gem that Inga told me about). After a couple hours of doing our own thing we met up and saw Deep Sea 3D at the Darling Harbor IMAX theatre. It was an awesome show, narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet.

After the show we got drinks at a posh restaurant on the 40th floor of a city-center building - the whole restaurant rotated. We got some really great photos, and the drinks were great.

I started Monday off with a second run around Sydney (this time running around Hyde Park). After showering up we checked out and I met up with my friend Maya (she's from Sydney but studied at Purdue last year). It was so great to meet up with her and chat about what it's like being abroad, the US, Australia and all sorts of things. Then it was off to the airport and back to Brisbane.

Bottom line: I heart Sydney.

-Amanda

PS: Unfortunately I did not see any street signs labeled Wallaby Way (re: P. Sherman / 42 Wallaby Way / Sydney, Australia). = P