So we hopped (sloped?) onto our first, and longest to date, greyhound bus at 10pm 2 days before New Years Eve, ready to make the 12 hour journey up to Sydney. Luckily, I managed to swap seats as me and David hadn’t been seated together, which for 12 hours would have been annoying! Equally as luckily, the journey seemed to fly as much as a journey like that can, with both of us getting sleep in each of the sections of travel, getting off a few times at the rest stops to stretch our legs.
We arrived in Sydney the next day (30th), exhausted after a night of bus sleeping and ready to check in. After the squishy 8 bed room in Melbourne, we had fairly low expectations of the room in Sydney Central (we booked this hostel so far in advance it was ridiculous, due to lots of the hostels filling up over New Year’s. I think we literally booked it in August and there were only a few beds left then!) We were filled with relief and happiness, however, to finally check in a few hours later to find a massive 4 bed room with a balcony! And the roommates did not appear for the first night (they were staying out with a friend for 1 night), so we caught up on all the rest we had missed the previous night. I forced David to first day to walk down to the harbour to see the iconic harbour and the Opera House, as it didn’t feel right to be in Sydney without having seen the world famous view! It was a long walk from our hotel (about half an hour, as our hostel was in the CBD and the harbour is weirdly separate) but definitely worth it, even in our tired state.
The next day we woke up ready and raring to go for the reason everyone had come, New Year’s Eve! Our roommates left at 11am to try and get to the best viewpoint at Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, which we would visit a few days later, in the botanic gardens. We, however, first met up with our old roommate Aaron (from the epic Albany Backpackers room 5!), who was in town with his family. After a few hours of coffee and chatting, we decided that we, too, should leave early to get to a good spot for the fireworks, as the online app (pretty cool) showed that different vantage points in Sydney were already closed because they were full with eager beavers! At 5 ish, we arrived at Circular Quay, which was already bustling with people, and chose our spot for the next 7 hours on the grass. Thankfully, it was still pretty warm all through the evening, as it would have been extremely unpleasant to sit outside if it was any less than that! Of course, it was all worth it when we finally got to see the fireworks at midnight, which lit up the harbour and the Opera House with so many different shades of light at once.
Over the next few days, we relaxed into the more chilled lifestyle of Sydney (compared to Melbourne, which is more on the go all the time!), which included our 2nd DIY walking tour, provided by our Lonely Planet Australia guide. This took us around the harbour, ‘The Rocks’, an affluent and shiny part of Sydney, with craft markets and hidden lanes, round to the ‘Suez Canal’, a tiny lane where Sydney gangsters used to meet back in the day, which got it’s name because it sounded like sewers, and they were rats! The tour also took us to a recently unearthed house of the plague victim, and to the ‘oldest pub in Sydney’ (a few contend for this title, with different criteria!) We completed our sightseeing tour of Sydney by seeing Darling Harbour a few days later, which, like The Rocks, was shiny, with an abundance of small shops and places to sit and eat outside. Unlike Melbourne, Sydney seems to strive towards newness, as well as modernity and cleanliness in it’s buildings as well as it’s streets.
It’s also a place to see spectacular views, as we discovered on my birthday with our trip to Watson’s Bay. Taking a ferry across the harbour, we got a close up view of the Opera House and of the whole harbour from the water, all for the price of $7 (much, much cheaper than a boat tour of the harbour). The Bay was busy, as that weekend had incredible weather, actually climbing up to 41c the following day, but we felt relaxed as we walked along the small beach and hiked up the hill to the ‘Gap’, a cliff top view of the ocean. This was a bittersweet spot as, despite the amazing views and moment of serenity, this was actually a fairly well known place for people to come to commit suicide, and the scenery was also dotted with memories of those who had unfortunately died, such as teddy bears and flowers, as well as messages of hope and a phone placed there by the local authorities. Surely a reminder that, even though these people live in a beautiful part of the world, and have a life that I would love to lead, they are not immune to life’s problems and of course the disease that is depression.
On a lighter note, we moved the next day to Sydney Harbour YHA hostel, which had an amazing rooftop terrace right across from the Opera house, and even our own en suite in our 4 bed room! We booked this with something called an ‘e-pack’, which is like buying your hostel beds in bulk, so we technically cheated and didn’t pay full price for this amazing hostel over the next 3 days. The day we moved was the day of 41c weather, so we only ventured outside briefly to visit The Rocks markets, following by a night viewing of the harbour, when the weather had cooled a bit. The next day the heat had died down enough for us to venture on a 6km walk, from Bondi Beach along to Coogee beach. Bondi, as to be expected, was pretty busy with tourists, but the other, smaller beaches we passed were like a small part of paradise, with crystal clear blue waters and only a handful of people (local) who had ventured around past Bondi. By the time we reached Coogee beach, it had begun to rain, which is apparently the norm over East when there’s been a few hot days.
he next day was an early start to the Blue Mountains, but that didn’t stop us going out for a few drinks with Anna, then Nicky and Alex!