We spent 4 nights, 3 days in Sydney and it was nice to unpack the whole backpack for once and make a mess of the neat and tidy hotel room floor...:-). I was somehow not really inspired to write something inspiring while there, and am still a little in writers block. This has nothing to do with Sydney though, which is a great city with so many inspiring things to discover.
We got up early the first day and drove to Bondi, an Eastern suburb of Sydney, and went for a nice walk along the beachfront and cliffs. This is obviously where all the beautiful people live, because we didn't see anyone who was not running, surfing, or doing some other form of exercise (we saw a crazy yogi-yo too), either alone, with their dog, children or personal trainer. We also walked past what must be the coolest swimming pool in the world (right next to the sea), and I will post a photo of that when i get a chance.
After a caffe latte and some bananabread, we were ready to hire a board and hit the waves. I got a bodyboard, Mike a surfboard, and just when we got into the water (that was not cold by the way), the wind had turned and the sea almost flat :-(. Nevermind, we still had fun. But a couple of hours were enough for me to get cold, and hungry. We warmed up with some fresh fish & chips (which can by no means be compared to the one you get in the UK). Then we had to return our hire car back in the city, and made it from downtown to the harbour just in time to catch Sydney highlights, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, in the glorious light of sunset. I took about a million photos, and again will post some asap.
The next day was Mike's birthday which started with a small birthday cake (with a candle!) for breakfast, and then we headed back to the harbour to see the opera house and bridge in daylight, and have a wander around the Rocks.
Then in the afternoon, we headed back to the hotel to get changed into something more fancy, because in the evening we were meeting an old high school friend of Mike for drinks & dinner. Mike was very nervous, because he hadn't seen Manu for more than 10 years. When really i should have been the one to be nervous, because i was of course totally underdressed in my "backpackers" clothes. But this is one of the nice side effects of travelling - you just don't care :-).
Anyway, the evening turned out to be a great one, and Manu and her husband Tony are really lovely people! Having lived in Sydney for 5 years, and visiting family in Luxembourg only once a year, Manu, a "yummy mummy" of 2 (aged 5 and 3) expressed her regret that "home" was so far away from Australia, and that she wished she could see her family more often. But on the other hand, she and her family are really happy in Sydney (who wouldn't be).
So that evening there were at least 3 Luxembourgers in Sydney!
I personnally have to admit that I prefer Melbourne to Sydney. It's a tough choice, because both places are of course places to be on holiday or live, both have their pros (no cons here really :-)) but in my eyes, Melbourne has a more laid-back feeling and slow pace.
The last day in Sydney it rained!!! Can you believe it??? But thankfully, it didn't rain all day, and we combined a harbour cruise with a visit to the zoo.
And there, I fell in love.
It was love at first sight and really intense.
He was rather small, extremely cute, with this kind of dark eyes that you could loose yourself in.
And he was salt & pepper ALL OVER...and a koala bear.
