Muddle Through Memoirs

My first week in Sydney

Where to begin on my first week in Australia. Sydney has really thrown everything at me so far, from crazy flash rain storms, thunder and lightning, 30km/hr winds and baking heat. Still, variety is the spice of life I suppose.

When I arrived at my first hostel after a 24hr hell flight the first thing I expected to see was certainly not a life-size cut out of Taylor Swift, but unbeknownst to me I was walking into a pop culture storm, with the whole city swept up in Swifty-fever. For me, this manifested in the form of a fanstastic bout of luck that put myself and my roommate in the same team as a super fan and her brother for the hostel’s Taylor-themed trivia night, which we then proceeded to win with 100% accuracy. I admittedly brought almost nothing to the table but, being the only person on the team to know that Taylor’s favourite desert is cheesecake (a fact I learnt in the lift on the way), I like to think I played an important role in our $100 bar tab success regardless.

On the back of our trivia success, the next morning we all headed over on the ferry to Taronga Zoo. The aboriginal word Taronga means beautiful view and this is certainly true with the zoo’s high placement affording panoramic views of Sydney harbour. Going in with no expectations I was honestly stunned by the size of the zoo and sheer amount of amazing animal encounters it offers, a personal favourite was our starting point with the koalas, who were totally unbothered by our adoration and were happily napping, and the giraffes, who we happened across exactly at their feeding time.

The next day I headed out for the botanical gardens which were both vast and beautiful. The focal point for my walk was Mrs Macquarie’s chair, a view point that similarly boasted a fantastic view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. The gardens made for a lovely place to spend a morning, and a good spot for lunch if you could keep the ever-lurking bin chickens away.

Nevertheless, the midday heat was beginning to get to me so I headed for the nearby Museum of Sydney to cool down and have a look around. This museum, though fairly small (located in the old Government House), offered a great insight into the beginning of settler colonialism in Australia. The model ships of the first voyages were cool to see but what really interested me was the short documentary film they had running about the experiences of Australia’s first people when the British came knocking. There were two figures depicted in the film who caught my particular interest. The first was Bennelong, an important figure from the Eora people who made the voyage to England and back and was an example of the isolation born from being caught between two cultures and societies. The second was Windradyne, also called Saturday by the settlers, who was Wiradjuri resistance leader in the Bathurst war and who ultimately brought peace through his attendance at the Parramatta annual feast.
The museum also offered an exhibition on the Sydney Opera House at 50, which included a fantastic miniature of the opera house made out of shells.

One of the best ways to see the city is definitely through a walking tour, mine was free through the hostel (WakeUp! Sydney) and lasted 4 hrs (a bit longer than expected in the heat!) From our starting point in Haymarket we made our way through Hyde Park to the Anzac Memorial, an incredible monument to all who have laid down their lives in conflict. It’s Art Deco design was striking amongst the Sydney skyscrapers and the peaceful silence inside was very moving. One aspect I was particularly drawn to was the domed ceiling which displayed a sea of 120,000 golden stars, representing the servicemen and women killed in WWI, most at the battle of Gallipoli. Shortly after we headed to St Mary’s Cathedral, a stunning gothic styled building with beautiful stained glass and statues.

Our next stop was the New South Wales State Library, home to over 1 million books, and which also houses an art gallery that contained an exhibit of First Nation Australian portraits taken by Charles Rodius between 1831-44. These portraits were not only beautiful and detailed but also unusual in a clear departure from the contemporary favour towards caricature among the colonists. Instead these portraits depicted the subjects with the respect and dignity they deserved.

The tour wound up with lunch in Circular Quay, a wander through Darling Harbour and finally a quick dash through Paddy’s markets.

At the weekend, as the masses descended on the city for the concerts, I headed down to Coogee to stay at a Mad Monkey on the beach front. Though I arrived to high winds and rain, the weather soon turned around and allowed me plenty of beach time as well as the chance to do the coastal walk to Bondi.

I started the day at 6am watching the sunrise on the rainbow steps at Coogee beach, my friend and I did it in our pjs since all we had to do was roll out of bed and run down the stairs but everyone else was far more civilised and clearly much more used to the early starts.

I started my hike (an hour or so later) armed with an iced coffee and my water bottle. The route takes you from Coogee to Clovely beach, next to Waverly Cemetery and on to Bronte and Tamara beaches, then Mackenzie Bay and finally to Bondi. The three beaches dotted along the middle of the route were each beautiful, with white sand and a clear blue sea, putting Skegness to shame really.

I found Waverly Cemetery particularly striking, positioned right on the coast’s edge with the perfect outlook over the ocean, seeing every sunrise and sunset, witnessing hundreds of thousands of people walking by in awe of their surroundings. Not a bad place for your final rest.

My favourite stop was definitely Mackenzie Bay, however, where I sat up on the rocks at the cliff top, ditched my music, and just watched the waves crashing against the rocks. I have quite a complicated relationship with the sea having both a healthy fear and adoration for it. There’s something just so inherently peaceful about listening to the waves, so many of us are drawn to the shorelines by the ocean’s magnetism, like a part of us is still yearning to be a part of it. Well, we all did come from the cambrian explosion I suppose so maybe it’s still rooted in our DNA.

The walk took me just over 2hrs in total, and like just about every other person who has ever done this walk I absolutely loved it and would definitely do it again if I found myself back in Sydney in the future (or every weekend if I lived here!)

Finally, arriving at Bondi I got to see the iconic Iceberg pools, before making my way down towards one of the world’s most iconic and recognisable beaches. One of the things I loved about Bondi that I wasn’t expecting was the vast array of incredible wall art dotted along the sea front, an attraction all of their own. I arrived at Bondi for approximately 10.30am and was by now pretty starving and hyped to bag possibly the best breakfast bap I will ever eat: bacon, egg, avocado, hash brown, rocket, chilli jam and aioli.

Having spent the day sunbathing at the beach, perusing the bondi markets and looking in at the small local art gallery, I headed back (by bus) to Coogee to have dinner back on the rainbow steps where I started my day, watching the sunset this time and enjoying the live music before seeing the very awesome though unfortunately unphotographed orange moon.

Thus ends my first week in Sydney…