G'day mate!! Well, that's definitely something I'll remember from my short stay in Sydney! Cecile would be so happy with everybody saying 'mate' all day long!! :)
Sydney... I must say that I got really excited about going there, even if I was going to spend only 4 days (just to have a taste for Australia!). Every time I was telling that to an Australian, he/she went a bit mad, but well that's how the trip was designed: Australia is so huge that it would need to be a trip by itself for at least a month, so... 4 days!
Getting to Sydney was a bit difficult: 4 security checks at the airport in Bali (yes: 4!!). They really take the 2002 and 2005 bombings seriously, Australians are not welcomed by everybody in Indonesia. At least, I felt that the flight would be safe!! Managed to get 3 seats for myself as well, which granted me the luxury of sleeping the maximum possible time: 3 hours!
In Sydney, all single rooms were above my budget except one in a backpacker hostel, which I chose. Well, this was really a 'party' hostel as they call it. People everywhere, drinking in the kitchen, in the corridors, a deep smell of illegal smoke hanging around in the air, and doors slamming nights and days (I mean late afternoons!). But that was alright, as I had 4 days only in Sydney and was not supposed to sleep much either.
Erin, one of the Aussie I met, could not make it on Saturday night, so she gave me the number of her flatmate. We went out drinking and even clubbing, which was really good fun! Straight away, I met about 15-20 people, and from there I did not spend any of the following days alone which were fully packed with mainly drinking sessions! Australians are really friendly, welcoming people, I was amazed! Some people told me that people in Sydney were a bit less approachable than in other cities (which apparently is true), but I did not have too much trouble! I mean, nobody can give more attitude than the French anyway! :) (not me of course!).
The city itself is rather ugly I have to say, with loads of buildings from the 60s perhaps, so not the prettiest. It still has a reminiscence from the UK, with Victorian architecture, Tudor style in the government house (which I visited, very proud). And anyways Australians seem to be the experts in tourism: they created any entertainment and museum possible to keep yourself busy. Even in the rain, because yes it rained for the first 2 days... Ok, it was just raining 20min or so from time to time, but still I was shocked! I thought that everywhere in Sydney people would be in swimming suits carrying their surf boards around, under the sun! Well, it's not exactly like this. And with my sun tan over the past 7 weeks, people seem to look at me as if I was going to die from skin cancer tomorrow (as the TV ad says: 'there's nothing healthy about a tan'). Anyways...
I took one day out to see the 3 sisters, this famous formation of rocks a short drive out of Sydney. This was rather good fun, the guide was very knowledgeable and drove through other places such as The park with kangaroos, The Rock (Kings Tableland Loohost) = a 350m cliff, Wentworth Falls Bushwalks. We had a nice 1 hour walk along some mountains down to a waterfall, that was really good. The 3 Sisters are not very impressive as such, but they have a deep meaning to the native Australians (I forgot which tribe!). There was a nice walk down, but the area is now far too touristic, so little interest walking on the pathway in the supposedly wild environment... And did you know that the word kangaroo comes from the aborigenes not understanding what the English guy asked them the first time he saw some kangaroos? Apparently it means 'what do you mean?', sounds plausible, I mean we have 'vasistas' in French for some windows which means 'what is it?' in German!
Anyways, people were fairly relaxed during the tour, and I spent most of the day with my latin fellows (2 Italian girls and 1 Spanish guy). We finished the tour at the Olympic Stadium, which I would not have seen otherwise... After Beijing's olympic site, that looks less impressive, but still nice!
In terms of wildlife, I have seen some kangaroos in the wildlife, they are really cute! There are no koalas around there as they eat some eucalyptus trees which do not grow in the region (they only eat leaves out of 4 types of eucalyptus, so difficult!). In terms of insects, I saw a few things in Sydney which I do not recall seeing in Europe, like bigger bees and flies and other stuff... Always kept my distances... We saw a hole in the ground where the deadliest spider in the world lives apparently, but it did not come out. Anyways, apparently only 2 people or so die from deadly animals in Australia, which is not much as most of the deadly species of spiders, snakes, etc are in Australia!
Some thing which is really annoying is the flies. They keep coming to your face, wherever you are, as they are looking for sugar which is in sweat I guess. One guy was telling me that when he puts gel in his hair in the morning, they all come and fly around his head. I checked on the day I left Sydney, and that's true, everybody carries his flies proudly around the city! :)
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Photos Australie
Carnets de voyage Australie
Vidéos Australie
Carte Australie
Guide de voyage Australie
Santé Australie
Billets d'avion Australie
