What a quick month! One month in Sydney is not nearly enough time to experience it all, but we felt we got a good amount of “hits” in and did lots of walking and exploring.

First things first, I am absolutely delighted to report we didn’t have a terrifying animal encounter. Yes, the bats are humongous but none swooped close enough to send us running. Yes, they have giant spiders but we didn’t see a single one in our apartment. Yes, sharks are supposedly common but we didn’t have any sightings. I feel like I wouldn’t have handled any of these well, so I’m VERY thankful that our trip was uneventful in this regard.

Jaywalking is a common practice in the US, but not at all in Sydney. I’m talking even when it’s a one way street and not a car in sight…nobody crosses until the cross walk light says so. It was great, but sometimes confusing (is there something we don’t know?), and also sometimes made crossing the street take 5 minutes longer than necessary. A societal norm of following a rule? These are my people. 🙂

The beaches in Sydney and Manly deserve the hype. (PS. Suns out buns out!) I can’t speak for Bondi because we caught it on a bad weather day, but Manly Beach and, my favorite, Shelly Beach are going to pop up in my dreams for years to come. If we went back I’d want to stay in Manly for sure. I even got a little tan while we were there!

Unfortunately we are used to expensive food and drinks after living in NYC, and Sydney was right on par. Of course there is the dollar slice and a kebab shop for a cheap date, but any sit down meal will cost you. If you can, try to find a place with BYOB and no corkage fee. We had a great Thai meal for a bargain because they let us bring in our ($5) bottle of wine.

The birds. Doing their tropical climate thing that birds do, they’re beautiful here. They don’t have pigeons like this in the States. They also make crazy noises that sound like laser guns.  It was one of the wonderful, small, everyday things that reminded us we weren’t in the US anymore.

Australian coins are great. The 50 cent coin is inexplicably large and fancy, and they all have iconic Australian images on them. The heads side has Queen Elizabeth on all.  Left to right: 50 cent coin – Australian Coat of Arms; 20 cent coin – platypus; 1 dollar coin – (limited edition) Dancing man celebrating the end of WW2. Often circulated version has kangaroos; 10 cent coin – superb lyrebird; 2 dollar coin – an aboriginal elder, the southern cross, and native grasses; 5 cent coin – echidna (so cute!).

Sydney felt familiar in the sense that it was a big city, but also exotic with its natural wildlife and next-level beaches. I would absolutely go back, and would want to stay for much longer than a month. We missed out on seeing any other cities or exploring the mountains. These will be on our must-do list for next time.

Cheers, mate! We hope to see you again soon.