New Year's Eve in Sydney

I couldn't resist and flew to Sydney for New Year's Eve. When you're already 'close'... (I better not tell you how much I paid for the short flight.)

Flo, who I was traveling with at the beginning of my trip in Australia, was still in Sydney so I could stay with him. He lives in a house with an Australian, a Frenchman, an Indian woman, and three Chileans.

The city was, as expected, crowded with people. But in the Northern Beaches, where Flo lives, you hardly notice all the trouble, it's relatively quiet here.

We had a great time during those days, went to the beach (along with seemingly everyone else who was in Sydney at that time...), saw some things in the city still decorated for Christmas, cooked well (finally an oven!!!) and had a few beers here and there, and finally went to a ska concert again! :-)

I met up with Jess, a friend of Nyah's, once, and a few days later with Lis and Joe, who I was traveling with on the West Coast for a while. The two of them had made plans to meet up with a group of other Dutch people on New Year's Day, who wanted to meet at 7:30 in the morning to secure a good spot for the fireworks at midnight. Crazy...

We celebrated New Year's Eve with Flo's housemates and some other Argentinians and Chileans. That means we started eating and drinking as much as possible at noon and kept going until around 9 in the evening. Then we drove towards the city to snatch a good spot with a view of the fireworks.

After some searching, we found the perfect spot at Cremorne Point. We could climb down a ladder directly to some rocks by the water, from where we had the perfect view of the water as well as the Opera House, skyline, and Harbour Bridge. (I included two pictures of our view from the internet.)

The fireworks were amazing! They were launched from eight different locations, including the Harbour Bridge, and the reflection of the fireworks in the water and the high-rise buildings made the whole surroundings light up. So beautiful! (And all of this without sitting in the scorching sun all day and guarding our spot.) :-)

Then, at around five in the morning, I walked to the beach in Manly with Jess. We snuggled up in our sleeping bags and waited for the first rays of sunlight in 2018. You could already spot some joggers at this time. Australians are sometimes crazy... We were both so tired that we fell asleep again. But we were wide awake just in time for the sunrise.

On New Year's Day, the whole house was filled with South Americans again, and we had a chill barbecue! ;-)

On my last day, Jess and I went to a Titanic exhibition. Some parts of the ship were recreated, giving you the feeling of being on the ship.

And then it was time to head back to crappy Nyah... Only 16 hours by train and bus! :-)