“Sydney - Perfect Match Of Nature, City Life and Culture”

Since the last week I’ve been staying in Sydney. I checked in at Eva’s Backpacker’s, a hostel. It turned out that it is in the red light area of Sydney. It’s very interesting to see a life behind this curtain. Prostitution, drugs, alcoholism,… But don’t worry. My hostel is very safe!

The first few days I spent my time on the most famous beaches of Sydney, the Manly Beach and the world-widely known Bondi Beach (When pronouncing the word, please make sure you say bond-eye, and not bond-e, okay?). Here some impressions. Tons of new pictures in the gallery…

Blue Mountains

The trip to the Blue Mountains showed me the fascinating fauna and flora next to a big city. You will find no other metropole (I don’t know if Sydney qualifies as a metropole) which is so close to nature. At the Blue Mountains I had the chance to see native Australian animals like kangaroos and so called guans (that’s a species of iguana). I was invited to learn about Aboriginal culture and to see the famous Katoomba waterfall and the Three Sisters Rock formation. Not to forget the visit of the Olympic Park, the home of the 2000 Olympic Games.

The Blue Mountains were one highlight of lot’s of others like the Aquarium, the Sydney Wildlife World (both at Darling Habour), the Habour Bridge and the Rocks. I needed some time to figure out what “the Rocks” are. I never exactly knew what it is and where it is. So I followed the people mass. It took me to the oldest place of Sydney. It is Sydney’s first European settlement. I had luck because on this day there was a beautiful market, so I could do the souvenire shopping for all my friends (except for Philipp, he won’t get a souvenir, remember California2 Phil: That’s cool I want a freaking post card then, cuz I, as far as I remember, sent you one, from SoCal or Vegas, Baby!) …

In Sydney you can get to all places and sights by bus, train or the most commonly used public tranportation is going by ferry. I took one to get to the Taronga Zoo. This zoo is well known for his 4000 critters (from seals to tigers, koalas to giraffes, echidnas to platypuses), all in decent habitats and well cared for (I stole that phrase from the travel guide). I also joined a private tour and heard interesting stuff about the native Australian animals in this zoo. It is totally worth visiting. Check out the Zoos Homepage.

Most importantly: My round flight over Sydney in a little plane with a friend of my uncle. It was awesome, but I have to say that I got a little bit sick of the hundreds of vents so I was glad when I actually felt the ground under my feet again. Check out the pictures I took above from Sydney…

Sydney is a very beautiful city, maybe the most beautiful in the world. There you have the perfect match of nature, city life (nice picture of Sydney’s urbanity) and culture.

What I most like about Sydney: ON every corner there are different musicians (some talented Aboriginies) who are playing their Ditscheridu (I got no clue how to spell that. Phil: Okay,the correct spelling of the instrument that is immediately associated with Australia: didgeridoo) to artists who put themselves into a little glass box.

Make sure you see the updated gallery of Susi’s Down Under ‘08 Experience. Sydney Rocks!