Happy New Year! - Sydney / 31.12.2018

Today we got up at around 5:20 to catch the bus to the Royal Botanic Garden - Mrs. Macquarie's Chair, across from the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, shortly after 6. We had heard from everyone who had celebrated New Year's Eve in Sydney before and wanted to watch the fireworks, that people would camp out nights before in the queue in front of the nearest parks with free admission - but we weren't that crazy. So we just hoped that getting up early would be worth it.
We brought pre-cooked noodles with tomato sauce in plastic containers, cookies, chips, apples, and a few bananas that we had grabbed at Paddy's Market yesterday. We also brought all of our blankets, Daniel carried a 10-liter water canister - you never know - tons of sunscreen, and of course fully charged power banks, because today would be a very long day.
We finally arrived at the park around 7:30, due to some difficulties finding our way - but once we were there, it was hard to miss: there was a line of tents, with people brushing their teeth in front of it, slowly turning into normal people, and we quickly lined up. We had to wait here until 10 o'clock, when the park opened.

We made ourselves comfortable on the still quite damp grass and also met Anna, who completed our New Year's Eve crew. After about half an hour of waiting, suddenly everyone around us jumped up (and there were really a lot of people) and ran up the hill. But it took us a few seconds to realize what was happening around us, and we only understood later than others that the line had apparently moved. When we realized that, we started running and actually managed to get somewhat forward, but the whole situation was pretty unfair, because suddenly people who had arrived here at 5 o'clock were further back than people who had just arrived. And if you wanted to cut in line, you were booed by the whole crowd, because everyone here made sure to defend their spot. So we settled down again, chatted with our neighbors in front and behind us, and were happy to have found a spot in the shade, because the sunshine was getting pretty hot. The large number of people waiting here became more and more ridiculous and unbelievable - rows upon rows formed behind us until 10 o'clock - 15000 people could fit in the park, but whether they all had a good view was another question.

Shortly before 10 o'clock, everything finally started moving slowly, apparently the park had opened. But it took some time until we were actually at the entrance, and Linni and Anna unloaded their stuff on us, grabbed all the towels, and thus got through the bag check faster than everyone else to secure the best spots possible. Daniel and I, on the other hand, were slower than everyone else, because we were just the pack mules and needed a carrying break after the first few steps. But we could take our time, because the people looking for spots would do their thing.
After a small search in Linni's direction, we arrived at a hillside that was at least 45° steep, but offered a pretty good view of the bridge and the Opera House, albeit between some palm trees.
Here we finally squeezed together like sardines, sat down, and spread out as far as possible.

Fortunately, we were still in the shade at first, but eventually the sun came out of the shadow and turned us into sweaty, waving, panting dogs who wondered why they were doing this. At least we could take turns, so that someone was always walking around or cooling off briefly in the shade. In between, I spent an hour in the bathroom because the line was incredibly long, I watched a few episodes of H2O because Teen Wolf was removed from Netflix (yes, I shed a few silent tears because I wasn't finished yet), and nothing else really happened. Anna and I then checked out the completely overpriced food and alcohol prices, because it wasn't allowed to bring your own alcohol to toast here - but we just looked at each other sadly and quickly decided that there wouldn't be any toasting today.
After a few hours, Anna left us because some friends of hers found another good spot, and even though we could have joined her, we were pretty satisfied with our view for now and also unable to go through the whole city again. So there were only three of us left and around 6 o'clock, the weather suddenly changed from blazing sun to rain clouds. When the first drops fell, you could immediately feel the restlessness of the crowd we were sitting in: We can't leave our spot now, we don't have rain jackets with us, what should we do, ahhh. Unfortunately, we didn't have rain jackets either, even though I had been in favor of it earlier in the morning, and before we knew it, all our trash bags were gone and served as makeshift rain protection for someone else. When it started pouring non-stop, I just wedged my backpack between my legs for protection, held a half-full supermarket bag over my head, and while sitting on my towel, hugged my knees with one hand - surely this is how you survive an earthquake. But I still got soaked to the bone, and Daniel and Linni were no different. It rained for almost an hour and afterwards we were all done with our lives - but what surprised us was that really no one had left their spot to seek some shelter - probably just out of fear for their spot.
When it was only drizzling a little, we started with the damage control: we packed all the wet and dirty towels into a bag, because we couldn't sit on the now muddy ground anyway, took off our wet shirts and put on our sweaters, which we had actually brought for the slightly colder night, and now we were just standing there until our toes hurt, because they hit the front of our shoes all the time on the slope of the hill. It got really cold and we just hoped that midnight would come soon.

The children's fireworks at 9 o'clock were already amazing, beautiful and impressive, although we realized that the lamp right in front of our eyes was pretty annoying. And even though Linni suggested that we could just go back to the hostel now, take a shower, and then watch the midnight fireworks from Glebe - the backside of Sydney - Daniel and I were so opposed to it, because why did we go through this whole day if not for the midnight fireworks. So we stood in the rain for a few more hours and just waited annoyed.

The minutes passed slowly, but when it was almost the new year, we told each other our resolutions: I wanted to be more open to people in the new year, especially since I would soon be alone because Linni and I would separate in Sydney. And then the countdown started, and it was really weird to shout it in English, but it was also pretty cool. And the fireworks that followed topped it all - colorful lights everywhere, hearts, spirals and loud explosions that created a lot of fog, into which moving spotlight patterns then emerged. Hugs were also not neglected and we all loved each other.
The fireworks lasted a total of 15 minutes and at the end there was another grand finale - right afterwards we packed our things and moved with the crowd to catch the bus. I thought that was a bit of a shame, because normally you would be wide awake and happy now, but we were just tired and wanted to get to bed as quickly as possible.
The fireworks were worth going through this slow day, but I definitely wouldn't do it again, and now I'm even more excited for my next New Year's Eve - when I'll be back home again.

Song of the day: No Hay Nadie más by Sebastian Yatra, because a Spanish group behind us went wild in the rain to this song and at least made some atmosphere.