After almost a month of travelling alone, about 10.000km that I covered during this time and constantly changing the place, I am now happy to spend two weeks in Sydney and to meet my friends again. Sydney is therefore also a special stop because I spend the change of the year there and half of my gap year is already over, at the same time also half of my road trip through Australia.
On the 25th of December I left Canberra and made my way to the biggest and most famous city of Australia. At the train station I waited for my friend Tina. Together we walked to our hostel Lord Wolseley, which had a nice central location. There our other two friends Finnja and Anna were already waiting for us. Now "The Glennie Girls" were reunited.
Here you find an overview what we did the days until New Year's Eve:
Botanical garden:
In the middle of the city on the way to the Opera House there is a big park where you can relax from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Harbour Bridge:
From the harbour bridge, you will have an impressive view to the opera house and the skyline of the city.
Luna Park:
This is an leisure park that you can enter for free, but you have to pay for the rides. But it is worth the effort just to walk through it.
Opera House:
A must see in Sydney and the number one tourist spot, but the architecture is really amazing and in reality the building looks much more imposing.
Paddy's Market / Chinatown:
Those who want to buy cheap souvenirs, Australia shirts and sweaters, jewellery, fruits and vegetables at low prices will be right in the Paddy's market. The Asian market is always well attended and there are estimated more than 50 stands that offer all kinds of things: backpacks, handbags, technical accessories, clothes, decoration and so on.
Darling Harbour:
At Darling Harbour you can find all the ferries with which you can reach e.g. Manly, the zoo or other points on the other side of the city.
Shopping:
Sydney is a place where you can spend a lot of money. There are a lot of nice shops and shopping centres as for example the Westfield or the Queen Victoria Building. We went shopping on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, when everything is reduced. It was absolutely crazy how many people had the same idea as we had on that day. You had to queue up in front of the shops to even get in. So I spent a total of 2 hours at Zara.
Bondi:
It takes about an hour by train and bus from the city centre. The Bondi Beach is mostly very crowded, however, there are many other more beautiful bays which one reaches if one walks along the coast. Those who want can also bath in the Iceberg Pools. But also the city district itself is very cozy and relaxed.
The Rocks market:
Most of the times, on Saturdays, there is a market in the city district The Rocks where one can buy street food and products of artists.
Bare Naked Bowls:
It's a restaurant offering organic and vegan food. I highly recommend it: we went there and ate a large bowl with fresh vegetables (avocado, carrots, edamame, brown rice, beetroot, zucchini and tahini) for 16$.
Partying:
The Sidebar is mostly free of charge until 9 am and The Watershed is also very recommendable, as you have a perfect view over the harbour and the skyline. Home the Venue is a club with several floors, also located at the harbour.
On the next day, the time had finally come: the new year is about to start. Of course we planned long in advance at which place we wanted to watch the fireworks and decided to go to Cremorne Point, opposite the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. As all public parks and view points are very soon overcrowded during New Year's Eve, we already started at 9 in the morning in order to be in the park at approximately 10.30 a.m. We took enough food and blankets with us so that we stayed at this point for approximately 14h. More and more of our friends joined us, so that in the end there were more than 20 people waiting for the fireworks together. At 9pm the family fireworks already started, which was impressive. After a while it became a bit windy and fresh. But the fireworks at 12 o'clock topped everything and rewarded the long time of waiting. A 20-minute fireworks show of superlatives: fireworks were lit on the Harbour Bridge, at the Opera House, on boats and on the banks and we could see all sides.I could not have imagined a more beautiful turn of the year. Afterwards we all walked together to the bus station, which of course was completely full and it took us almost 2h to get back to the city. A friend told me that one bus driver was already so desperate that he got off the bus and left the bus alone. Arrived in the city we met some more people from our volunteer organisation. However, we decided against partying and headed towards the hotel, where we finally arrived at about 4 am.
On New Year's Day we slept in and later went to Newtown, a hip artistic district with a lot of street art, many vegan/vegetarian restaurants, second hand stores etc. We met there with friends and went to a burger restaurant for dinner.
On January 2nd I decided to go to the Taronga Zoo with a friend Yannick, it is the most popular and well known zoo in Sydney. To get there we took a 10min bus, 1h train and 30min ferry. The zoo tickets cost 49$, but in my opinion it was worth it: first we took the skyrail from the ferry stop over the whole zoo to the main entrance. The complex is very nicely arranged and one should definitely plan a whole day to see everything. My highlights were the seal show, the kangaroos and emus, to which you can go into the enclosure, the tigers, which are in a separate small Indian park, and the small sea turtles. However, we could not stay too long at the snakes, because my friend almost died of fear.
The next day Tina, Yannick and I went to Manly, a district north of Sydney. There is a big, wide beach, a shopping street and many street musicians. When we arrived we were rewarded directly with a free Pepsi because there was an advertising event. We relaxed on the beach and enjoyed the sunny weather.
The last two days we spent in the city centre: we visited e.g. the Art museum, sat down in the park and met more friends before Tina, Yannick and I left Sydney and headed to the next location.
Hopefully you didn't have any dangerous animals on the road, because there was no co-pilot of the bus driver to scare the cows, kangaroos or horses off 🐼🐯
For everyone who is wondering, I am the funny friend with the lost bus driver 🤟🏼 and yes of course... I drove the bus home 🚎 #becomingarealbusdriver
#copilotofabusdriver
Yes Anna, they do have sound balls there, but unfortunately it was not possible for me to buy them for specific reasons (maybe they were stolen right out of my hand by someone)
Paddy’s Market sounds like a lot of fun! Do you know if they have „ sound bullets“?