Sydney!

[ilbonito]

I just got back from a quick Easter trip up to Sydney, and thought I'd post some pics. Its such a hedonistic city - although people from Melbourne (such as myself) are traditionally supposed to disdain it for being flashy and vulgar, its pretty hard not to be impressed by the sparkling harbour and the beaches and its vigour and action.

[ilbonito]

Sydney is a little bit warmer than Melbourne, and in the summer it has a slightly subtropical, muggy vibe. It was still beach weather in April (the Australian Autumn). And all over the city there are these huge, gnarly old Moreton bay fig trees.

[ilbonito]

The city is, unsurprisingly, obsessed with swimming and home to several of the world's most spectactular swimming pools, including the ocean pools located on little cliffs by the sea, replenished by ocean waves.

[ilbonito]

The city centre is congested with concrete canyons and pushy crowds;at its best it can feel really humming and vibrant and its worst, the skyscrapers block out the sun streaming over the rest of the city and turn the streets into shadowy windtunnels.

About half the city centre is now a kind of extended Chinatown; there is a Korean district, a Thai row and every kind of Asian food imaginable like this place serving the cuisine of the Uighur people (a Turkic, Muslim minority from China's West).






Then just outside the centre the inner suburbs have streets full of colourful, quaint victorian terracehouses, with flowers blooming and palm trees and parrots chirping in the trees.

[ilbonito]

[ilbonito]

The other thing which I noticed in Sydney - which I often notice when i just get back from overseas - is the people's sense of humour. Australians have a bone-dry, irreverent humour that is on show everywhere. It doesn't always translate, particularly to Americans, but I love it:

[ilbonito]

And of course, there is the opera house. Every time I go I promise I won't take any more pictures of it - I must have hundreds - but it is pretty much impossible to hold back:

[Deleted]

Yeah, that damned thing always gets in the way of my camera, too.

(Great pictures!)

[Deleted]

They are, thanks for sharing those ilbonito. So interesting to see your take on this. Each picture tell a different story.

[ilbonito]

The pictures are pretty cliched in a lot of ways - opera house and beaches and harbour - but although Sydney has it quirkier side, I think its a city to really revel in the cliches. You have to see the Opera House and the harbour Bridge, and take a ferry, and walk in the botanical gardens because those things are just so beautiful. The Australian playwright David Williamson wrote a satirical play about the city called "Emerald City" and it is really a fitting title.



It is not just Sydney's beauty which is dazzling and jewel-like, it is its attitude. It is a city where everyone has wholeheartedly embraced the good life - all yachts and million dollar views and lazy days in the sun (in their aspirations if not always in reality). Sydney is flirty and vivacious, sometimes sleazy, sometimes gaudy. Everybody is on the make and it has an energy nowhere else on the continent can match.

But this time I found some surprises too. Like, the city is developing a Hispanic side which is quite unique in Australia; South American students come to study English in the sun and in the beachside neighborhood where I stayed (Manly) you now hear quite a lot of Portuguese. The gay clubs seemed to be bursting with Spanish studs. That was all a very new, and interesting occurrence.

[ilbonito]

[ilbonito]

I put up more from the Sydney trip on my blog ilbonito.wordpress.com

[Deleted]

The last time I was in Sydney was a certain month of June. It was 8° and everybody was freezing to death.

[ilbonito]

yeah - maybe this should go in the "misconceptions about Oz" thread. The vast majority of Australia is not actually in the tropics. It does have a Winter, people are often surprised to find. And as my Sydney friend said, its a particular problem there because the city is so outdoor and summer-focused, what do you do when its cold and rainy? The city is just not really designed for it.

I've had Canadians and Scandinavians say the coldest they have ever felt was in Melbourne (which is colder than Sydney), purely because most houses don't have effective insulation or doubleglazing, despite the Winters dipping to near zero at night.

[gertie]

Well, yuck to visiting there in winter, then. I've always wanted to visit Sydney, your photos kinda of explain exactly why. Lovely photos, btw, ilbonito

[ilbonito]

Sydney is really fun. Its popular among Australians to slag it off (ie, criticise it) but thats like people everywhere heaping distain on their country's largest city - I'm sure the French hate on Paris, and many Midwesterners on New york.
I have always really enjoyed it.

[hwinpp]

I really enjoyed it 10 days ago, but only for 3 days. Good food, good weather, good public transport (I took the monoroil you can see in one of Ilbonito's excellent pics) but hotels are too expensive.

[Deleted]

I used to stay up in sleazy King's Cross but even that was out of my price range last time -- I stayed in the suburbs.

[hwinpp]

I didn't make it to King's Cross unfortunately. Wouldn't have minded having a look around.

I stayed at the Aaron's Hotel in Haymarket, great location but 90USD for a tube of a room.

[ilbonito]

Australia in general is just so expensive these days! I was shocked in Europe to see how reasonable accomodation was in Paris, compared to home. And they are predicting the Aussie dollar will hit parity with the greenback by the end of the year, so its only going to get worse (for you guys, good for me).



hwinp - didn't you find that little monorail ridiculous? It doesn't GO anywhere, its like some kind of childrens toy built int he 80s when everyone thought monorails were futuristic, but without a real purpose.

There is a campaign to have it taken down.

[Deleted]

I took the monorail, too. (That sort of thing is obligatory for tourists!) It was indeed obvious that it went nowhere useful. Of course, being as small as it is, it is better off not being too crowded.

[ilbonito]

[ilbonito]

I was back up in Sydney to visit a friend this weekend so I thought I'dd add a few more pics that sum up "sydney" to me :

[ilbonito]

[ilbonito]

If there is one thing Sydney loves as much as sun-filled days at the beach and buff bodies, it is Thai restaurants. The city is drowning in them. I spent a fair chunk of my stay hovering around the city's burgeoning "Thainatown' (as I was delighted to find it is being called), on Campbell St in the city. I ate at two of the buzzy new Thai places - "House" (above) which is an "Isaan-style" outdoor beer garden (located, authentically, next to roaring traffic on a main street) and "Sukjai" (below) with its very Chatuchak-chic interior.

[ilbonito]

One of the city's most memorable events had just started (by coincidence), the annual "Sculpture By the Sea" exhibition where modern artists are invited to install temporary pieces on the stunning clifftop walk from Bondi to Bronte Beach.








There was nothing this year though to match my favourite work, from a previous visit, an oversized face and arm bobbing up and down in the waves, presumable anchored to the seafloor below, to give the impression of a swimming giant.

[ilbonito]

I also spent a fair part of the weekend simply enjoying the city's spectacular beaches. How many cities of four million people can boast a city like this at their heart?

[Deleted]

Ouch, the arrival of warm days in your part of the world makes me ache! It would take me less than 4 minutes to gobble that Thai dish.

[bixaorellana]

Hey, Ilbonito!

Sorry ~~ my life has been as drab & filled with obligation as yours has been happily Sydneyfied and filled with fun. Just now seeing these pictures, and what a pleasure they are!

You had wonderful weather for your weekend there -- is it generally that good?

I would die happy if I could have the big mirrored hen.

[jacobcart]

You had wonderful weather for your weekend there -- is it generally that good?
lol