Our little short trip to Sydney

What do you think of when you hear the word Australia? Of course, lots of sand, long roads, and endless beaches come to mind as quickly as nasty spiders, venomous snakes, and boxing kangaroos, but we also quickly thought of a big city: Sydney. After we didn't really have Sydney on our itinerary, but after a quick flight check, we realized that it's not so far away, so we spontaneously decided to just fly there....when will we be in Australia again, right? So, said and done...

After spending the previous day in Springbrook National Park, we still had our rental car until the morning. Since our flight was at 06:05 (yes, at that time it was the wallet and not the mind that decided), the car had to be returned by 05:00 at the latest, which meant we had to get up at half past three. You can imagine our brief moment of regret after getting up in the middle of the night two days in a row. But well, we knew what we were doing it for. So off to the airport, drop off the car, hop on the plane, take a short nap on said plane, and boom, we were already in Sydney... in the morning at half past seven. Since we didn't really have a plan of what we wanted to see, we had to drive into the city first, which gave us the first mini shock. While the public transportation looked great and clean, the price that the nice gentleman at the ticket counter told us for such a ride was quite shocking. He actually wanted 20 dollars... for a 12-minute ride. But well, we didn't see an alternative, so we closed our eyes and went for it. After a good fifteen minutes in the rush hour of the subway, we were already in the middle of the city of Sydney.

After two weeks on a small cozy island and then on the relaxed Gold Coast, we were greeted here by a bustling metropolis teeming with people. Busy business people, leisurely tourists, and school children filled the streets...and we were right in the middle of it. One skyscraper after another lines up here, but you can also find smaller, older buildings with interesting architecture or smaller and larger churches. After orienting ourselves for a moment, our first mission was clear: breakfast! After a culinary excursion to the Golden Seagull restaurant (again, the wallet spoke), we were strengthened enough to explore the sights of Sydney.

Our first stop was a very spontaneous trip to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Originally, we didn't plan on visiting an art museum, but so many people were streaming in and out of the building that our curiosity eventually got the better of us. And what can we say? It was worth it! In addition to art from the 1800s to the present, you could admire Australian and Asian artworks in particular, and a few European paintings were also on display. In particular, we liked the exhibits of the Australian Aboriginal people. Definitely worth recommending. After about two hours, we were saturated with art and started our way back.

Right at the harbor, you can find, of course, the world-famous Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. We naturally didn't want to miss out on that and strolled leisurely towards the harbor. On the way, we passed by a really beautiful garden, which, after a short research, turned out to be one of the absolute must-see attractions. The Royal Botanic Garden is right by the harbor, is a good 30 hectares in size, and absolutely invites you to take a longer walk. The great thing about it was also: admission is free ;) We had really fantastic weather and joggers were passing by along the harbor edge every few minutes, and we lay down on the lawn to soak up the sun. We have never seen so many joggers pass by within a few minutes even on the Gold Coast. But maybe such a view is more motivating than Karlsruhe's city park, because from there you also have the best view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.

After admiring this world-famous building from a distance for a while, we naturally wanted to get closer and made our way towards the Opera House, along the water. On the way there, we could observe the preparations for the upcoming Sydney Vivid Festival, which was scheduled to start two days later (unfortunately, unfortunately, unfortunately). If that doesn't ring a bell, you can quickly google it, but we were a bit sad that it didn't fit into our schedule. The preparations alone left a lasting impression.

The Sydney Opera House looks fantastic from a distance, but only up close can you really grasp its true dimensions. So we stood right in front of this giant building, looked at the characteristic peaks, and imagined what it would be like to walk up the grand staircase in evening dress and tuxedo to watch a great opera....ah, yes.

Right behind the Opera House stands the no less famous, and much larger than expected, Harbour Bridge. This 86-year-old arch bridge spans a whopping 503 meters across Port Jackson and is mainly made of steel. This bridge is truly fascinating not only for civil engineers. From a distance, you can watch many people climb up to the top of the bridge and wave down. We were also a little tempted to climb up there, but the price of over 200 dollars was a bit disappointing for us. So we preferred to make ourselves comfortable at the harbor and enjoy the sun :)

Then it was time to find our hostel. It was located on the world-famous Bondi Beach...at the other end of the city. But since we didn't really have a plan, we decided to just walk there, the about 10 km shouldn't be a big problem, right? So we walked through parts of Sydney that we probably wouldn't have otherwise come across. We had a little picnic on the edge of a sports field, climbed the hills of Sydney (yes, there are definitely more hills than we thought and yes, they are also higher than we thought), and after about 2.5 hours, we reached our little hostel at Bondi Beach. It was exactly as we had imagined: lively, fairly clean (apart from the kitchen), and super noisy. But we were so tired by then that a park bench would have been enough for us if it weren't for that nagging hunger. Then we found a small pizzeria run by an Italian, where we got really good pizza again. After dinner, it was the end of the day for us and we went to dreamland.

The next day, we got up early again because our flight back to the Gold Coast was in the afternoon and we had one big goal: Bondi Beach! World-famous for its great waves for surfing, as new surf fans, we naturally had to convince ourselves of its quality. Just three blocks from the hostel, we were already standing right on the beach and, in fact, despite the lousy weather we had that day, dozens of surfers were in the water. And the waves there are really great! We immediately understood why so many are drawn there. After a while of watching, it started to rain a little unfortunately, and we decided to walk along the coast and roughly towards the airport. This rough direction then turned into a roughly 10 km walk to the airport, passing many great rock formations and steep cliffs by the sea, and long residential areas between the airport and the sea.

After walking so much and sometimes having slightly sore feet (our hiking shoes were nicely in Surfers Paradise), we have to say that it was worth it. We saw much more of the city than we would have with the train and also experienced everyday Sydney...at least as much as we could in 1.5 days. Our conclusion for this city: A very beautiful metropolis where having a bigger wallet is really advantageous.

Back in the Gold Coast, all we had to do was quickly pack our bags because the next day we were already going to Auckland. Our first days here and our little adventure of "buying a car" will be in the next post ;)

Greetings to Germany:*