Sydney became my home very quickly when I lived there and I saw and did so much during my time there. It’s hard to shortlist my favourite things but some outstanding memories have stayed with me until this day.
When my parents came to Australia to visit me, we climbed and walked across the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We got kitted out in an attractive boiler suit and had to first practice climbing up and down a ladder. When we started the climb for real, it was terrifying, as I could see all the cars on the road below me. However, I soon forgot about that when we reached the summit of the bridge, which is 134 metres above Sydney Harbour and looked across at the beautiful views across the city and harbour.
When my friend Kate’s parents came over to visit her, they kindly took us to a performance at the striking landmark that is Sydney Opera House. Before the performance, we had a picnic in the park with gorgeous views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the harbour and the city. It all looked so stunning as the sun went down. We then sat in the Opera House and watched ‘The Tales of Hoffman’. It was sung in French so I didn’t understand a word, but it didn’t matter – it sounded beautiful.
I love food and Sydney has some brilliant places to eat. Truthfully, I gained a few extra pounds while living in Sydney because of all the gorgeous cafés and restaurants, but what I particularly miss about eating out in Sydney is the BYO concept. BYO stands for Bring Your Own (Alcohol). Many places allow you to bring your own alcohol, which can make eating out a lot more affordable. In general, if a place permits you to BYO, the restaurant/café will display a sign in the window stating so.
Finally, my home was in the area of Manly and is my favourite part of the city! When I lived in Manly and worked in Sydney, I got a ferry every day, it was a great commute! Manly is brilliant because it’s got a gorgeous long beach which is great to sunbathe or jog on; the ocean is incredible and you can swim, jump around in the waves or surf like the locals (I even saw a distant whale once!)
Manly has lots of ocean-front restaurants and cafés serving the best food, The fish and chips on The Corso are delicious!! It also has loads of great bars to choose from, some with brilliant live music and DJs. For walking, the Manly to Spit scenic bushwalk through the National Park is brilliant, and Manly has Lots of fun events like Jazz festivals, a surf carnival, street performers and live music galore!
Sydney was a great place to live and work and I’ll never forget some of those special memories of my time in Australia.
