Have you ever been to a place everybody wants to go to and you just realise: dreaming of this place was better than actually being there?
No? Well I have, although that sounds a bit overdramatic.
I have already been twice to Sydney and I must admit it’s one of my least favourite places in Australia. But before I’ll ruin your dreams completely let me explain myself and while reading keep in mind that I am not a huge City fan.
Three years ago I’ve been there the first time with my family (my Mum, Brother and Oma) over New Years Eve, which is basically the biggest cliché ever – everybody is in Sydney for NYE. We had a table directly at the Sydney Harbour with an amazing view over the Oprah House and Harbour Bridge, the atmosphere was electrified and everybody had their time of their life. Well ALOMOST everybody – could kick my ass right now for sometimes being such a grumpy teenager in the past. I wasn’t really grumpy that day, I had also a lot of fun, but these extreme masses of people are not my thing. And Sydney is a huge ball of people rubing their sholders against eachother and breathing in the neck of the dude infront of them at NYE.
But that’s not really what I wanna talk about. The firework was amazing and I really get it, I get why people want to go there. The lights, the bridge on the left, the Oprah House on the right. You see something direktly infront of you what almost every person I know wants to see.
And then the party is over. The night comes to an end and the sky turnes light blue with some soft white clouds. And suddenly the magic is gone. The roof of the superduper famous Oprah House is more dirty-yellow-ish than white and the Harbour Bridge turns out to be just another bridge. And the best thing of all?! There are somehow ALWAYS stupid ships in the way when you want to take a cliché-photo with the house of houses.
As soon as you overcome the fact that you’re really in Sydney you start realising that the city itself is… well a city. There are shops, there a people and exept for the harbour-section it could be any other european city.
To admit Bondi Beach is indeed a beautiful beach with some stunning waves. You maybe need to be really careful there in the water, cause the waves are not always visible, but underwater and they love to grab your legs and dip your face underwater, but it’s also a lot of fun.
Last year (2016) in August, my best day in Sydney was indeed at Bondi Beach and I was honestly impressed by the Coastal Walk. The water is amazingly turquoise and the view overwhelming.
It’s possible that I wasn’t completly able to get the beauty of Sydney both times I’ve been there – the first time I was definetly not able to realise anything at all and last time I had an imensive jetlag – but I spoke to many people who have been there and many of them agree with me:
It’s a nice City but not at all as breath-killing as expected.
There is one thing I regret, I haven’t seen it: The Blue Mountains. I’ve seen amazing pictures from there and I feel in love with any national park so far, so I am pretty sure it would have lifted my opinion about Sydney at least a bit.
But I think everybody experiences everything differently and everybody should ALWAYS create its own opinion. And you can always impress people by saying you’ve been to Sydney. What do you want more?!
What do you think about Sydney? Have you been there and liked it? Is it (still) a dream of yours to visit it?
See you, Saskia xxx
TravelWithSaskia 