Sydney Opera House
When I think of Sydney, this is the picture that pops into my head. THE most iconic opera house in the world.
The Sydney Opera House was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on October 20th, 1973. There are more than 1 million roof tiles (Made in Sweden) covering the structure. The original estimate to build the opera house was $7 million (Not sure if this is USD or AUD). The final cost was $102 million and it was largely paid for by the State Lottery. Construction was expected to take four years. It took 14 years. Sydney Opera House is cooled using seawater taken directly from the harbor. The system circulates cold water through 35 km of pipes to power both the heating and air conditioning in the building. This place is wild.
It’s Valentine’s Day when we arrive in Sydney. This means we treat ourselves. We purchase two tickets to the opera for about $50 a pop (69 AUD). We enjoy some classic opera songs that I recognize, but would never be able to give you the names off the top of my head.
This is approximately the 30th country we have stepped foot in since we started this adventure. We don’t count a few countries where we have a layover or a quick lunch on a 16-hour bus ride. Now, in Australia, sitting outside of the Sydney Opera House on a beautiful clear day, I am in awe. Eight months in and we are still on this crazy adventure, and loving it.
Coogee to Bondi
If you are in Sydney and the weather is nice, which seems like majority of the time, then you must do this walk/hike. It is 5-6 km with a gorgeous beach on each end, and one smack dab in the middle.
We start at Coogee Beach with a backpack filled with water, snacks, beach towels, and sunscreen. Walking along the trail and cliffs, the water is a beautiful blue and giant waves are crashing against the rocks. We stop in the middle of the walk at Maroubra beach to watch some surfers. These aren’t your grandpa’s amateur long-board type. We’re talking about experienced short board surfers.
Once we get to Bondi we find a little spot to eat called Macelleria. After a beer and some fabulous meat, we walk the block or so back to the beach and proceed to get pummeled by the waves.
It’s close to sundown so we make our way to the bus stop and realize the line is about 60 people deep. The line moves relatively fast with buses coming about every 15 minutes. It’s not long before we cram into the accordion bus and are on our way back towards our hostel.
Hostel Life
Accommodation prices have gone up since our days in SE Asia. The good news is that we are back in a country where there are amazing AirBnbs available, but most are out of our price range. We decide stay at the Sydney Central YHA. Our room is relatively simple. There are 2 bunk beds against a wall on the right, and a single bed on the left. Each bed has a locker next to it for bags and personal belongings. Other than a small side table and chair, that is everything in the room.
The benefit to staying at the YHA is that we can save some money by cooking our own meals. They have 10-15 kitchen stations and multiple fridges to store your food. The downside is that there are a bunch of people who are not great at cleaning up after themselves. Also, I swear somebody snagged my yogurt, but when there are about 12 fridges it is easy to forget which one you put it in.
For those who haven’t experienced a hostel before, it feels like you are staying at a hotel, but there are other people in the room. I understand some people like their personal space and sleeping with some strangers in the same room can be uncomfortable, but I encourage you all to stay in some sort of a hostel. First off, you save yourself a little money. Second, you meet some of the most interesting people. These people are most likely there to do the same things as you, so they can give you good advice, or you may even have some friends to explore the city with. Finally, Kristin and I have been around each other for 261 straight days, so it’s nice to have a conversation with other humans.
Throw in a rooftop balcony, pool, restaurant, movie room, planned activities, and the YHA treats us well.
The Rocks
Bare with me on this summary you are about to experience. So, the Rocks is a strip of land (rocky land) that was settled in 1788. The gist I get from our walking tour is that the British had a lot of convicts, skilled convicts. Those Brits were also big fans of colonization, so why not colonize Australia and use convicts to help set everything up? The convicts get a lighter sentence and the British get a new colony.
The Rocks has grown from the rowdy settlement of convicts and is now a modern part of Sydney. There are still old rows of housing whose residents have lineage to some of the first dock workers that arrived in the 18th century. Some of this housing is considered public/regulated, but the government says they are unable to maintain these houses because of the cost. The government also claims that by selling the profitable inner-city developments to private investors, this will allow them to use that money to create more public housing elsewhere, alleviating the 60,000 person wait list for this type of housing.
If you talk to the residents of this housing, they call it government-driven gentrification.
Rocks Walking Tour
Our Rocks walking tour takes us by a few interesting bars. The first is the Hero of Waterloo.
Imagine this; it’s been a long week and you decide to blow off some steam at the local tavern. You proceed to have way too many beers. You are white girl wasted. Suddenly the floor drops out underneath you. You hit the ground and everything is black. Not a great situation, but luckily the alcohol takes over and you fall asleep (see: pass out). You wake up and realize you are on a boat that is headed to China! Guess what you are now under contract for seven years being an indentured servant. Congratulations! You’ve just been Shanghai’d.
I am not sure if the same shenanigans happened at the Lord Nelson Hotel, but I do know that they have decent award-winning brews. They also claim to be the oldest pub brewery in Australia.
Kansas City Connections
In our eternal google search for great restaurants, we stumble across one called the Kansas City Shuffle. You may think the owner is from KC or has a soft spot for the Royals, but he is really paying homage to one of his favorite movies; “Lucky Number Slevin”. I’ll save you the Bruce Willis clip and link to a Wikipedia article about the Kansas City Shuffle.
We do make a real Kansas City connection in Sydney. Enter Katie Morris. Katie is a friend of a friend that we meet up with for lunch at Spice Alley. Spice Alley is perfect for some Asian street food and you can also bring your own six-pack. Anyways, back to Katie. I immediately want to be her friend because she is a huge fan of the Royals and the Chiefs. She gives us the down low on Sydney and entertains our questions about Aussie slang. I will also admit that I am now addicted to her Instagram story @katiemo_.
A few of my favorite slang terms are below:
- Brekky – Breakfast
- Brolly – Umbrella
- Sparky – Electrician
- Lappy – laptop
- Lollipop Girl – Construction worker (normally women) holding a slow/stop sign
- Chippy – Carpenter
- Tinny – can of beer
- Mackies – MacDonalds
I encourage you to use all of these this weekend.
Vegemite
Some of you may be asking, “What is Vegemite? What does it taste like?” Well, sit back and prepare to never want to try it… Opening the package you discover a thick dark-brown paste. I have heard some people describe it as Australian peanut butter. IT IS NOTHING LIKE PEANUT BUTTER. Take a sniff and your nostrils catch hints of meat, chicken broth, and yeast. I bet you’re drooling already.
Now the taste. Salty, very very salty. Be careful not to put too much on your bread (or rice cake). Also, do not just dive in and think you can put a whole spoon full in your mouth. That is a mistake. My recommendation would be to lightly (very lightly) spread some on buttered toast. A little Vegemite goes a long way. That leads me to my final word of advice; Buy a small sample size before investing in a large jar of this salty brown paste.
Stumbling Upon a Nude Beach
Another amazing and picturesque walk around Sydney is the South Head Heritage Trail on Watsons Bay. It’s a Sunday and we hop on a bus to meet up with another friend of a friend who is now our friend, Georgina. It’s interesting to point out that on Sunday’s public transit in the city doesn’t cost more than $2.80. That means after one bus ride, our public transportation is basically free the rest of the day.
Walking along the trail, Georgina talks about how she is relatively new to Sydney, coming from Brisbane. Before we know it, we look over and realize we are right next to a cute little beach. Looking a little closer, this a cute little nude beach. We decide to continue on our walk and do not partake in naked sand castle building.
We end the trail back at Watsons Bay Beach Club and have a couple drinks before parting ways with Georgina. A ferry takes us back to Sydney Harbor and gives us a new view of the city from the water.
Public Transit
Maybe it’s because we are finally in a country where everyone speaks English, or maybe it’s because the public transit system is well designed. Either way, Sydney and Melbourne are very easy to navigate. We buy an Opal Card at a local convenience store in Sydney and each put some money on it. There is no charge for an Opal card, however the minimum value is $10 for an Adult Opal card and $5 for a Child/Youth Opal card. You can use the minimum value to pay your fare for travel on public transport within the Opal network. We mainly use our card on the buses, light rail, and ferries around Sydney. Melbourne has a similar card; Myki.
Melbourne
I mentioned lodging is a little expensive down under, so we decide to get a shared space/room with Airbnb. Enter Craig and Graeme. Within the first 5 minutes of arriving at their gorgeous residence, I have a beer in my hand and Kristin has a glass of champagne. We talk for an hour about their life, hobbies, and Melbourne. Graham is opening up an antique shop soon so that keeps them busy. We tell a few stories from our travels and part ways for the night. Unfortunately we pack every day with activities so we do not have much more interaction with our gracious hosts.
On our walking tour of Melbourne, I see the city has a completely different vibe than Sydney. Granted we are only here for a few days, but Melbourne is a bit more hipster and cool than Sydney. Kristin and I are split on our city preference. I take Sydney and she prefers Melbourne.
Kangaroos and Koalas
We are winding down our time in Australia and realize that we have not seen a single kangaroo or koala. To correct this we decide to visit Healesville Sanctuary. Getting there from Melbourne is a public transit pain in the ass, but we make it. We encounter wallabies and kangaroos hopping around and get up close and personal with some koalas. The bird show is the real highlight of the sanctuary.
Honestly it was a fun experience, but maybe not worth taking public transit all the way because it took us the whole day to get there and back.
Dingos
Healesville also gives me my first glimpse of a dingo and introduces me to the Dingo Fence. The Dingo Fence is a 5600 km long pest-exclusion fence that was built in the 1880s. The goal was to keep dingoes out and protect the sheep on the south side of the fence. It did it’s job, but this fence had additional and unexpected ecological results.
Planes, am I right?
It’s that time again. Another country means another flight. The mood on planes is strange. What is it that makes people get a little too comfortable? How has it become a thing to treat a plane like your couch at home? Is it a mentality that you are around a bunch of strangers that you will probably never see again, so who cares? Or do we regress back to our childhood where we tried to get super comfy in the back seat of a Chevy Blazer or with the seat laid down on a Ford conversion van? I guess what I really want to say is; Please don’t be this person.
