· Birthday visit to SydneySydney, Australia · 17th Aug 2008 · Posted by Annie
Last week, Chris and I celebrated my 27th birthday in style - we flew down to Sydney on Tuesday after work, had all of Wednesday to see Sydney, then came back on Thursday morning just in time to get back to work. No, we didn't skip work on Wednesday - Wednesday was a public holiday called "Ekka" in Brisbane.
Apart from celebrating my birthday, another reason for us to go to Sydney was for me to finish off the process of getting my Chilean passport. I've had to get my fingers printed about 3 million times because apparently they won't print well. Don't ask, I don't know why...
Chris found us a super luxurious 5 star hotel right in the middle of town and organized for a "welcome pack" made up of a bottle of champagne and a red rose to wish me happy birthday. Could a girl possibly ask for more?
The rose and champagne arrangement in our hotel room ... very very nice.
We spent all day walking around Sydney - up George St, Paddy's Market, Chinatown, Darling Harbour, a brief ride on the monorail, then up Oxford St to Paddington. It was really nice just walking around in the fresh air and sun, people watching and taking photos of stuff. Oxford St was very colourful (lots of adult shops!) but Paddington seemed like a very very cool place - the type of place I'd love to have a loft apartment in.
After all that walking we felt it was time to have a nice relaxing drink down by the Sydney Opera House and take some more photos of the bridge.
The famous Sydney Opera House
Getting up at 4:30am to catch the 6:30 flight back to Brisbane wasn't much fun. Interestingly, unlike a lot of airports we've been through recently, airport security at Sydney Domestic let me and my bottle of water through the x-ray machine. Instead of asking me to dispose of it immediately, the Sydney security guards standing just past the x-ray machine asked me to take a sip out of my bottle to prove to them that it wasn't poisonous or something. Random! I suppose that's good enough way to check that the content of my bottle was what I claimed it was... or that I don't have a gag-reflex and have a very strong stomach!
Anyway, all in all, we liked Sydney. In fact, we liked it a lot. I don't think we made a wrong decision in coming to live in Brisbane but I guess we didn't put a heck of a lot of thought into it. Brisbane is a lovely city but I can now understand better why Australians call it the "sleepy city". Sydney does seem to be a lot more lively, more cafes, more bars, more restaurants open later at night... bit city things I suppose. It kinda feels like there would always be something different to do in Sydney whereas Brisbane is a little smaller and quieter... not as many cafes, things do shut a bit earlier, etc etc. I'm not complaining, I do like it here a lot, but perhaps in a while we may consider trying out Sydney as a place to live. Who knows where the future will take us, right?
Apart from celebrating my birthday, another reason for us to go to Sydney was for me to finish off the process of getting my Chilean passport. I've had to get my fingers printed about 3 million times because apparently they won't print well. Don't ask, I don't know why...
Chris found us a super luxurious 5 star hotel right in the middle of town and organized for a "welcome pack" made up of a bottle of champagne and a red rose to wish me happy birthday. Could a girl possibly ask for more?
The rose and champagne arrangement in our hotel room ... very very nice.
We spent all day walking around Sydney - up George St, Paddy's Market, Chinatown, Darling Harbour, a brief ride on the monorail, then up Oxford St to Paddington. It was really nice just walking around in the fresh air and sun, people watching and taking photos of stuff. Oxford St was very colourful (lots of adult shops!) but Paddington seemed like a very very cool place - the type of place I'd love to have a loft apartment in.
After all that walking we felt it was time to have a nice relaxing drink down by the Sydney Opera House and take some more photos of the bridge.
The famous Sydney Opera House
Getting up at 4:30am to catch the 6:30 flight back to Brisbane wasn't much fun. Interestingly, unlike a lot of airports we've been through recently, airport security at Sydney Domestic let me and my bottle of water through the x-ray machine. Instead of asking me to dispose of it immediately, the Sydney security guards standing just past the x-ray machine asked me to take a sip out of my bottle to prove to them that it wasn't poisonous or something. Random! I suppose that's good enough way to check that the content of my bottle was what I claimed it was... or that I don't have a gag-reflex and have a very strong stomach!
Anyway, all in all, we liked Sydney. In fact, we liked it a lot. I don't think we made a wrong decision in coming to live in Brisbane but I guess we didn't put a heck of a lot of thought into it. Brisbane is a lovely city but I can now understand better why Australians call it the "sleepy city". Sydney does seem to be a lot more lively, more cafes, more bars, more restaurants open later at night... bit city things I suppose. It kinda feels like there would always be something different to do in Sydney whereas Brisbane is a little smaller and quieter... not as many cafes, things do shut a bit earlier, etc etc. I'm not complaining, I do like it here a lot, but perhaps in a while we may consider trying out Sydney as a place to live. Who knows where the future will take us, right?
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