Part 22: Australian Goodnight
Finishing off Leg #1 down under in Sydney
Coming Up:
Halftime
The Weather Gods' Favorite Traveller
Night Walk, Day Walk
Is it spelled Harbor or Harbour?
Cliffs and Beaches and Beaches and Cliffs
Extra Cold Intro:
It’s officially halftime guys. I’m writing this edition of the blog about Australia but from the comfort of California. Yup, my expedition to the East has come to a conclusion. 8 countries, 3 months, 22 blogs, and 1 irreparable addiction to fish-shaped/Nutella-stuffed waffles later we are back in the States.
But fear not, there is more adventure to come. This colder intro is mainly to explain the upcoming multi-week absence of blogs in your inboxes (heartbreaking I know). There will be more blogs to come and more stories to tell, but for now I’m going to enjoy a vacation from my vacation with some time at home.
Cold Intro:
Is Australia perfect? The week I just spent in Sydney put up an excellent case for it. Clear skies, warm (but not sweaty (phew) ) temps, blue water, and beautiful coastlines. After just a day or so in Sydney, I began to understand the hype. Should I move here? Should everyone move here?
If you were a Debby Downer, you could point out that the week before I got there was rainy and cold. You could also point out that while I was in Japan earlier this year, Sydney’s temperatures were up in the high 90s every day. However, I choose to believe that the conditions of Sydney are a perpetual state of perfection as they were while I was there.
Sydney reminded me culturally a bit like Los Angeles. Very laid back, but very active (I know this sounds paradoxical). I don’t think I’ve seen more joggers in my life. Walking around the beaches people of all ages are in pretty crazy good shape and shockingly tan. I spent my week balancing the city life in Sydney’s Central Business District (which the cool kids call the CBD or Central) and the beach life in Sydney’s coastal and harbor beaches. Let’s get into it!
Thursday - April 3rd, 2025
Despite my 3-hour flight from New Zealand being mostly offset by a 2-hour time change, it was still late at night when I arrived in Sydney. I was staying in Central for the first couple of nights on my trip at a hostel that was just an easy train ride and a short walk from the airport.
Having spent my entire day sitting in cars and planes, I cleared my busy schedule and went for a night walk. As engaging as it would be for me to depict every step of my hour walk, I’ll save you guys the time and myself the words. In its place here is the single photo that I took that did not come out blurry.
Friday - April 4th, 2025
First day in a new city, what’s the big plan, Jack?
Adhering to tradition, the first day in a new city merits me walking around until my legs physically hurt or until my level of sweatiness forces me indoors, so that’s what I did.
I’ve admitted in the past that I have a bias towards cities built on the water. Most cities are built near a river or a coast but the water isn’t always part of the city’s character (ex. Tokyo, Seoul). Sydney Harbor makes it unavoidable. Any city built on a harbor like this is bound to be awesome. There are so many coves and bays that there feels like an infinite coastline and the city embraces it.
Sydney is geographically blessed, they are the coolest kid in class and they know it. In the CBD they’ve turned the entire coastline into a beautiful walkway along the water. My walking today took me along Barangaroo (extremely fun to say) up and around Darling Harbor and then underneath Sydney Harbour Bridge (Harbour == British Harbor). Once you come up from under the bridge you get a great view of the Opera House and all of Sydney’s commuting ferries coming in and out of the main port in Central
I got a coffee at a cafe right next to the Opera House and enjoyed the sun and caffeination. My walk later took me through the Botanical Gardens, which is a huge park just south of the Opera House, and to The Rocks, a historical area by the bridge with shops and cafes.
My legs eventually burnt out, so I went back to the hostel and rested a bit. In the lobby, I met a British traveler who was in Sydney on a work visa. I’ve discovered while on this trip that this is super common. Australia (and also New Zealand) give out year-long work visas somewhat liberally, and they’re very popular with Europeans. Particularly in SE Asia, I met a bunch of people who were traveling right before or after their work visa in Australia. I met a range of people who work their jobs from home remotely, to people who have teaching jobs, to people who do gig work serving cocktails at pool bars. It’s not very common for Americans from what I’ve seen. I’ve noticed there is a much different work culture between Europe/Australia and the US for people in their 20s and what is considered a normal/acceptable career path. But! That’s a conversation for another hour.
I went out with a group of people from the hostel in Central. It’s always fairly easy getting a group of backpackers to go out together. Most people don’t know anyone in the city and want to meet other travelers. We had a group of around 10 people consisting of people from Britain, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Germany, and the US.
We went to a couple of bars and had a good time. I was talking to this Sydney local at one point who was telling me about how he is a partial owner of a racehorse. When I said bye to him later, I’m pretty sure this guy gave me a tip about a horse race to bet on that strongly sounded like it was fixed (forget to make that bet!).
Saturday - April 5th, 2025
I had another great weather day in Sydney. I spent the first half of the day walking around Sydney, getting breakfast in Surry Hills, walking back around the Barangaroo (still fun to say) boardwalk, and getting lunch at The Rocks. I went to the Australia Museum hoping to get a little bit of historical context for the country, but the museum was a bit of a miss. I think I was perhaps a tad above their target age demographic (lot of little kiddos running around).
In the afternoon I packed my bag and went to the ferry. Destination? Home! Well, not my home. A friend’s home. A friend? A home? One of my good college friends is an Aussie from Sydney (Hi Maddy 👋 ) and her parents were nice enough to host me for the second half of my Sydney adventure. So a huge thank you (!!) to Slim and Alison (Maddy’s parents), who were fantastic hosts and made me very at home in Australia. They live in suburbs east of the CBD, so I took a very pleasant ferry ride to their side of town.
Where the ferry docked was right outside of a hotel with a beach club, and Slim and Alison were waiting for me there when I disembarked. It was midafternoon on a Saturday with beautiful weather so the beach club was very lively. We had a drink and did some quick catch-up before heading to their house. Slim and Alison took me to a lovely dinner by the water that night too. It had been a couple of years since I’d seen them, but it was great seeing familiar faces and staying in a real home after being on the road for the last several months.
Sunday - April 6th, 2025
It wouldn’t be a reach to say that the star of the coast of Sydney is Bondi Beach. Today, Maddy set me up with her friends from home Ali and Jonah to take me around Bondi (where they live). Bondi reminds me of Santa Monica. It’s not a full-on city, but it’s a hub of activity. It’s a very popular place for people in their 20s and 30s to live and has a very active and healthy lifestyle that comes with it. Sunlight, cafes, and beaches. Is there much more you could ask for?
Another great weather day and the area was lively. What looked like a pretty packed beach, Ali and Jonah assured me, was nothing compared to how busy it gets on a nice summer day. Ali, Jonah, and I got bagels, then did a walk around Bondi shops and to the beach area where we soaked up some sun.
Later, we left the ocean coast and went to a harbor beach. The beach was called Shark Beach, which at first I thought was intended to be ironic until I saw the nets surrounding the swimming area. The plunge we made into the water was brief, refreshing, and very intentionally nowhere close to the net’s boundaries. The beach wasn’t huge, but it was still nice. I would say the strength of Sydney’s beaches is in their quantity rather than their size. There are a lot of different places to go with different vibes with its harbor and coast, which is very different from Los Angeles's single coastline and Santa Monica’s behemoth of a beach.
In the afternoon I spent some time walking around the Bondi area before walking back to Slim and Alison’s home. I got a good hour's walk through the eastern suburbs. Main takeaway? They got hills in Sydney! A sweat was worked up on the journey home. I had dinner with Slim and Alison at their home, which was not only delicious but also the first home-cooked meal I’d had in the last 3 months.
Monday - April 7th, 2025
Beach walk day. Gifted with another beautiful day of weather, the beach was calling. I went back to Bondi Beach, where I did a pretty incredible coastline walk down through the coast areas Bronte and then Coogee south of Bondi. I mentioned earlier that this part of Sydney is fairly hilly. This is partly why Sydney’s coast isn’t all beaches like LA’s. Hills by the coast translates to cliffs on the coast. While endless beaches are nice on paper, the cliffs are pretty spectacular to see.
In Coogee, I soaked up the sun by the beach and hung out at the cafes there for a bit before doing the same walk back. I’m starting to understand why everyone here is so active and tan.
Tuesday - April 8th, 2025
You may have noticed that every day’s documentation so far has started with a comment on how nice the weather was. Today was my last full day of the trip and I think the weather chef in the sky was trying to beacon me home by serving me a plate of overcast with a side of drizzle.
Despite the weather shattering my view of Sydney being in a constant idyllic state, I still went to a beach area today. Manly Beach is a popular beach area on the north side of the harbor that has a ferry port on its harbor side and a beach on its ocean side. Despite being just on the opposite side of the harbor’s mouth, there’s no bridge or ferry or bridge connecting Manly to the eastern suburbs, so I had to take two ferries (one to CBD, one to Manly) to get there. There are definitely worse forms of transportation than ferries, but I’m not sure if there are many that are better. Oh no! I have to sit on the water and get awesome 360 views of a stunning city and be outside! Shoot!
I had a good day walking around the area exploring getting some good eats and coffee. The beach in Manly was pretty big for Sydney standards and it doesn’t take much imagination to imagine how nice it’d be on a sunny day. Guess I’ll have to come back to Sydney sometime to find out!
Wednesday - April 9th, 2025
Today I time travelled. Flying from Sydney to California takes about 14 hours, but you move back a day, so I was lucky enough to live April 9th, 2025 twice. On the flight, I ate the gruel that Delta fed me, finished my book, and watched The Godfather Part II and Lawrence of Arabia (7 hours of combined viewing time).
Three months passes pretty fast. I’ll save the full reflections for when I’m done-done, but it’s a strange feeling finishing this leg of my trip and being at home now. Three months is a long time but also goes by very fast. All things come to a close, but luckily for me, I’ve still got some gas left in the tank.
Talk to you guys soon,
Jack
Hurry back! I love your blog ✍️
Welcome home, indeed, Jack! Europe awaits. See you soon!!