Sydney is kind of a weird place.
If you keep it to just the Sydney Harbour area (bridge, opera house, argyle stores, botanic gardens, coast walks, Museum of Contemporary Art) and beaches in the area (like Manly, which was awesome), the place is incredible, lively and like a dream come to life.
It's just the other 80% of the city kind of sucks.
Dirty, hurried, rude, horribly expensive, riddled with smoke and pushy strip club marketers (at least in Kings Cross for the latter part) and with no real heart to it, Sydney is a city with one really tremendous area and a whole lot of crap surrounding it.
I spent a total of three nights and two days there and I can safely say I have little to no interest in ever going back. I got the experiences I wanted (and some I was entertained by, like with the aforementioned pushy strip club entrepreneurs in Kings Cross) and am pretty much set now.
Having powered through the city, I am now in Brisbane for two days of animal power (the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to start and then the Australia Zoo tomorrow) before heading to what I hope to be somewhere with honest to god life and vitality - Noosa. My great white hope of small town joie de vivre.
So far though, I have found Australia significantly lacking in comparison to New Zealand. It is truly unreal how expensive this city is. Here are some prices to give you an idea how much I am dealing with, and keep in mind this will be in Australian dollars which are stronger than American dollars.
Movies in the theater: $17.50 ($10 in Anchorage)
Comics: $6.95 ($3.99 in the US)
Coke (as in the beverage, not the drug): $4 ($1.50 in Anchorage?)
It is insane. After just a few days, I wish I had spent my whole time in Oceania in New Zealand.
The things I really want to do here too are both pricing and timing me out. Going to Uluru (Ayers Rock) would likely ultimately cost me $1400 AU dollars and 5 days, to which I say SCREW THAT. Even getting up to the Great Barrier Reef promises to be rather prodigiously expensive. Stupid huge country.
In short, I already am excited for the cheap thrills of Thailand.
At least I know tomorrow brings the promise of koalas. That will make things better. They always do.
Sigh...
Koalas are awesome.
Music of the day: The sound a cash register makes when it bankrupts me (it sounds like a baby or a 27 year old Alaskan man named David Harper crying)
3 comments:
Good news on the money front, tax refund BIGGER!
I am sorry you are having less than an awesome time. When I lived in NZ I had plans to go to Australia and I was talked out of it by the locals. Good to hear that my decision to stay in the north island for 12 months was not a bad one!!! :D I hope you get to have some cheap fun soon!
Kellie - New Zealand was DEFINITELY better, but Australia has made a comeback the past few days. I just wish the weather wasn't crap right now!
And Thailand will definitely be cheap fun. :-)
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