City by the sea

10th January - Sydney

After Bris, it was straight down to Sydney care of Virgin Blue, Branson's cheap ass airline. Although Bris was pleasant in its SimCity way, this was a seriously good city.

Full of all of the nonsense that Australians love, such as trees, parks and sports facilities, it has an ultra modern feel. It even has a monorail, although admittedly its junk, like something from a 70's Doctor Who episode. But at the same time, the city appears to have all of the culture and diversity that you need if you want anything interesting to do.


Understandably we had a glimpse at all of the main sights, although nothing really appealed. Indeed the pleasure of our stay was in just strolling around the city, taking in the strange mix of architecture and wasting our time. Incidentally, more cities should be built on this much water.

On our first visit, we were met by hoards of Barmy Army fans, who were quite understandably pissed in all senses of the word. Although this gave the city a bit of a Prince of Wales Road feel, I did see one mildly amusing t shirt, which no doubt you have seen already.

We stayed in a number of different hostels, but the preferred one was in Darlinghurst. Just down the road from Kings Cross, its full of restaurants and bars and rich kids. It felt a little like Fulham, although not quite as unpleasant and perhaps with a hint of originality. The whole valley to the east of the city centre is full of cool low rise buildings, trees and would be an awesome place to live.

We also went to Bondi where I was comprehensively beaten by the waves.