Not your Nextdoor New Years

We were joined in Sydney by good friends Sarah and Ryan. Despite getting caught in the epic winter delays of this holiday season, our buddies made it in just a few short hours after us and were impressively full of energy. We all settled into a large Airbnb home, unusual (these days) in that it is the family's actual primary residence and was subsequently full of personal photographs, kitchen items, and clutter. Despite this, it was fantastic find, large and comfortable with a nice yard and central to an absolutely lovely inner suburb of the City called Alexandria. Nearby was a nice urban park that was also a fully leash free dog's park and we all enjoyed several jogs and walks wending through its trails and dodging doggos.

Over the next few days, we enjoyed a visit to the Australian Museum, a free walking tour of the main part of town, a team Crossfit workout, more jogs, and a handful of hikes. With all this activity, our legs started to get pretty poop. Luckily, we found a fantastic local pastry shop called Tuga to restore our calories and visited at least half a dozen times in the week.

Sydney's heart is truly its main harbor, which can be greatly enjoyed from the cliffs of the original neighborhood, The Rocks, where the first convicts were sent to settle. To the east, Sydney faces out to open ocean and hosts two of its most famous and beautiful beaches, Bondi and Coogee, both names from the original aboriginal inhabitants, meaning "water breaking over rocks" and "stinking place" respectively.

We did the stunning coastal walk between these two beaches and found Coogee doesn't stink any longer. In fact, its home to several amazing open-water swimming 'pools', modified for comfortable access (bathrooms, stairs, etc.) but directly adjacent to the open ocean. Sarah and I enjoyed time at one such female-only ocean-facing swimming pools while the menfolk enjoyed other endeavors.

Another hike took us north of the Sydney Harbour via a convenient and gorgeous ferry ride to Manley Beach and Manly Head, where they brought the convicts to quarantine before they left to fend for their own at the Rocks (or instead died at a cemetery we walked by), and was later a strategic military outpost complete with barracks and underground tunnels. After this hike, we sated our hunger at a local pizza joint, where some friendly staff slipped us in with out a reservation for several tasty thin-crust numbers.

We were about to end our time in the capital, but had to go out with a bang! A new year's fireworks bang! Getting a nice place to stand anywhere near the Harbour fireworks display requires either scoring tickets months ahead or standing in that spot for some 15 hours before the show. So, we did what locals do and headed to a slightly more distant and family-friendly hill called Dudley Page Reserve for our New Year's experience. The venue featured many beers on tap, canned wines, a live DJ, and excited Aussies of all ages and stripes. We played cards at some picnic tables while awaiting the big show, and were not disappointed by the display (either time! as they had a 9PM and 12AM fireworks show) when we got to celebrate 2023 new years first of anywhere in the world.

Sydney had much more to offer, but we had to explore at least a little more of this vast continent. So after a recovery day, during which viewed some disturbingly small sleeping quarters on a submarine you could board at the Maritime Museum and eating some more Tuga pastries, we were on a flight north to Brisbane and Gold Coast.