In typical fashion we'd booked a hostel right splat bang in the middle of Kings Cross, the red light district of the City. So our first glimpse of Sydney was it's seedy underbelly of alcoholics, strip joints and drug addicts which we had strangely missed the sight of in New Zealand. Our first night was spent wandering around Kings Cross and it's neighbouring areas trying to find our bearings and soak in a little bit of the city.
What we're quickly learning is that if you've seen one city, you've seen them all. Yeah one might be bigger, one might have a taller and more extravagant “sky tower” and one might have more money than the next, but really they're all the same format; rich shops in one area, arts quarter in another, harbour with fish market and a tourist viewing spot usually at a square or “plaza” of some sort. Throw in a couple of museums and subways (the takeaways) and there you have it, another city.
Sydney of course however has it's world famous and iconic bridge, so famous indeed that I never really knew it existed until I was standing looking at it. I know I'm such a philistine. No, bridges don't do it for me. They serve a purpose that I can appreciate but as far as demanding some sort of aesthetic praise they need to be a little more visually innovative than just your average bridge design. Sydney Opera House however is slightly more interesting. As you walk around it you can appreciate the time and effort that went in to creating this symbol of Sydney. I still don't think it would stand a chance in a fight with perhaps say Sagrada Familia but it's impressive to see none the less. We viewed it both during the day and night and would definitely recommend the night as a better time to soak it in all lit up with the dark oily water surrounding it. At night time you also have an amazing view of the city all lit up reflecting on the waves below, oh and of course the bridge has some lights on it too.
In an attempt to save money we decided to walk everywhere during our stay in Sydney. This is a great way to see the city but be prepared from some long stages between different locations. After our first day of walking back and forth we literally felt like our legs had bags of sands on the bottom and the final steps towards the hostel felt as if we were trying to reach Mount Everest base camp. It helped keep us semi fit though so we can't complain too much. For those who told us Sydney was expensive we would like to boast how we survived on a $20 daily budget between us. Now we're not saying this was pleasant but it's doable and wasn't too much of a struggle. We found a pretty cheap, nice supermarket that had fresh and reasonably priced food to cook with and if you fancy takeaway we found an awesome Mexican which did deals on tacos and burritos. There was also Pie Face where you could get a pie with mash and gravy for around $5! Yeah you kind of have to throw your healthy diet out the window to embrace the $20 a day budget but beggars can not be choosers.
One of the first things we noticed when we arrived in our hostel is how much heavier your average traveller is on this side of the world. Perhaps this is Sydney specific but we reckon it's a prime example of cheap eating and heavy drinking resulting in putting on those extra pounds (in some cases more severely than others). We witnessed a few people having piles of toast for breakfast, pasta for lunch AND dinner and we all know that's a disaster waiting to happen when you throw in a goon bag a night on top of that carby diet! We do our best to eat as healthy as possible but over here it is actually way more expensive to eat healthy, so if we look like that bird that turned in to a blueberry in Charlie and the chocolate factory by the end of Oz, don't be too surprised.
Ok to save me making this in to a large ranting blog that most of you have already stopped reading I am going to squish most information in to my favourite style of writing – A LIST! So below you will find what we found to be the best things to do and see in Sydney;
- Sydney Aquarium. Now we're not the biggest fans of animal captivity but they have a banging shark conservation area where you can see sharks moving in their eggs, baby sharks and also walk through a shark tunnel for a close encounter of experience. EPIC! Oh they have seahorses too.
- Sydney Maritime Museum. Yeah another shark exhibition but it was EPIC!
- White Rabbit Gallery. This is probably the best gallery I've ever been in. The staff are super friendly and the collection really interesting and more importantly fun. That word rarely gets used in relation to exhibitions or art for that matter.
- Sydney Fish Market. Fresh fish cooked for you on the spot and bring your own booze, do I really need to say any more?
- Sydney Opera House. Yeah you might as well ey?
- Giant Bats. Yes, giant bats. Walk through the city at dusk and you might be lucky enough to see the swarms of these beasts fly right above your head. Don't go in to the parks though, I'm sure we heard them kill and eat a baby.
- Chinatown. Just the same as all other Chinatown's really but you can score some cheapish food if your budgets higher than ours.
- Paddy's Market. The biggest collection of cheap shite you will ever see.
- Guzman y Gomez. The best cheap Mexican food you will eat in your life. And they speak to you in Spanish so you can feel like a total Tursista answering back in the ill learned Spanish you picked up in South America. Winner!
- Drink a Goon bag. Basically cheap nasty wine which apparently has no title (pinot etc.). It comes by the box, costs around ten bucks and is filtered through fish guts. A classic Aussie drink which tastes a bit like a glass of watery butter.
- Walk everywhere. It might seem a long way. It is. But it saves you a tonne and you see a lot more of the place.
- Stay in a hostel and feel thin even if you're not. Because nobody else is.
- Get a Greyhound bus pass. This doesn't strictly apply to just Sydney but it seems like the best way to travel around to us. You get bundle passes where you can travel up the entire east coast and hop and off as much as you want for 90 days, our pass cost $180. The buses are standard and the drivers have banter so it's a win, win situation really unless you're super unlucky or super picky.
So that's about it I think. Sydney in a nutshell. I'm sure there is much more things to see and do, Bondi for example. But we found 3 days enough for us to spend in a city and were pretty stoked to get on the over night bus and head up north to the coast away from all the hustle and bustle. Next on our list is Yamba, so mysterious it would seem that not even Sydney locals had heard of it. Don't they have maps in Sydney?
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