What to say about Sydney

Well, it’s been a quick minute since I was actually in Sydney, because while I wanted to write about it, I didn’t have much to say because I only ended up spending about a day and a half there and a lot of that time was spent a bit hungover. (That’s what happens when your late-twenties ass goes on a hostel pub crawl with a bunch of 19-year-olds.) (They were lovely 19-year-olds, I truly enjoyed their company.)

A shopping mall on the pub crawl

So I put off writing about Sydney for a long time (half a year, in fact) because I felt a bit bad that I had skipped a lot of the best things about Sydney. The things everyone told me I shouldn’t miss. The things I didn’t want to miss, it’s just that my general well-being had other plans for me.

My cousin had told me over and over that Sydney was “stunning” (her words), and well, I sort of get what she was going on about. Sydney was a bigger, wealthier, more important city than Melbourne for much of Australia’s (with the exception of the gold rush), so it make sense that the buildings would be a bit more ornate and stylish. But what I was really looking forward to were the beaches: Manly Beach, Bondi Beach, Coogee Beach. I had planned to arrive by car around 1 pm, check into my hostel sometime before 3 pm, and then get out to do the Bondi to Coogee walk by the afternoon and maybe stick around for the sunset.

State Library of New South Wales

But obviously, I didn’t do any of that.

Instead I went on the pub crawl and I had a lot of fun meeting new people (even though they made me feel old) and derailing some 21-year-old from Oxford’s attempts to hit on me as I told him how much more I loved scummy English accents over posh ones (I waxed on about Yorkshire accents and even threw in a reference to Birmingham just to really rile him up).

Opera House and Harbour Bridge

The next day I went on a walking tour, and then intended to go to Manly Beach, or Bondi Beach but just… didn’t. I took a nap instead. (I am, after all, too old now to party with 19 year olds and not need a nap the next day.) Oh well. Sydney isn’t going anywhere. Hopefully the beach will still be there when I come back.*

*There’s a real possibility it won’t, climate change, etc, but fingers crossed!