Countries Visited

    Australia
    Austria
    Bahamas
    Belgium
    Belize
    Bermuda
    Cambodia
    Canada
    Cayman Islands
    Costa Rica
    Czech Republic
    England
    Greece
    Guatemala
    Italy
    Japan
    Laos
    Malaysia
    Mexico
    The Netherlands
    Norway
    Singapore
    Spain
    Thailand
    United States
    The Holy See
    Vietnam

    Travel Goals

    1. Climb to Everest Base Camp.
    2. Climb Mt Kilimanjaro.
    3. Learn to Scuba Dive.
    4. Visit every continent.
    5. See the Galapagos Islands.
    6. Sail down the Amazon River.
    7. Climb Ayer's Rock.
    8. Travel on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
    9. Go into space.
    10. Throw tomatos at La Tomintina in Spain.
    11. See the sunrise from Mt. Fuji.
    12. Try to figure out the Buddhist messages at Borobudor in Indonesia.
    13. Visit the Pyramids
    14. Safari in East Africa for 3 months.
    15. Go to the World Cup!
    16. See Macchu Picchu.
    17. Join the Century Club. (100 countries visited)
    18. Join the Mile High Club. (Hey why not?)
    19. Do development work in a 3rd world country.
    20. See Petra Jordan.
    21. Backpack the Eastern Block.
    22. Go back to Alaska and see the Northern Lights.
    23. Vegas Baby! Vegas!
    24. Greek Island hop.
    25. Cycle Tuscany.
    26. Visit India.
    27. Lounge forever in the Seychelles.
    28. See Morocco.
    29. Oktoberfest!
    30. Caravan across the Sahara.
    31. Visit Tibet.
    32. Go to the Cannes Film Festival.
    33. Go to the Sundance Film Festival.
    34. Eat a sushi meal at NOBU
    35. Pacific Island hop.
    36. Spend a night in the Ice Hotel in Sweden.
    37. Go to Israel.
    38. Carnival!!!!
    39. and it's slightly less cool cousin, Mardi Gras!
    40. See Glacier National Park before the glaciers melt.
    41. Fly first class on some long international flight!
    No Service Fees! Promo Code: NOFEE

Sydney

January 13, 2008

Originally, I was going to be in Sydney for New Years but my plans fell through and I ended up in the rainy weather of Surfer’s Paradise again, where because of a cyclone there were no fireworks. Though I did party hard, it wasn’t the best New Year’s I’ve ever had. But I digress, for I am finally in Sydney. And I love it.

It’s an amazing city. I can’t quite put my finger on it but there’s something about Sydney. It has charm, class, it’s beautiful, and exciting. In short, amazing. Besides Perth, it is my favorite city in Australia. If I was moving back to Australia, I’d live in one of these two. I came to city and meet up with some people I’ve been traveling with on and off throughout Australia. In OZ, everyone goes the same way making meet ups real easy. It was with those friends that I first gazed on the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge. Standing in front of them for the first time was breathtaking. Though they are man made, they are stunning and beautiful to look at. I stared out at them for awhile, taking them in- the icons of the city. Seeing them was a highlight of Australia, in some ways just as great as Uluru.

Most of the time I was in Sydney it was cloudy but the weather did clear up to have a few good days. I spent those days wandering the city, which surprisingly is really walkable (everything is within 20 minutes of something!). I explored King’s Cross, which is an interesting mix of backpackers, clubs, crack heads, and prostitutes. The main strip of the area, Darlinghurst Rd, is filled with bars, backpackers, and bums. Here they all mix in together to form a cheap and seedy area that at night gets pretty wild. Yet once off that street the whole area changes and becomes quite the posh living area. Old 18th century homes, some of them looking like English cottages, dot the streets next to recent condominiums and high rises. The streets are clean, the people friendly, and the area filled with little green spaces. All of which is within easy walking distance to the park that over looks the harbor. I was pretty impressed with the area despite its seedy reputation.

I was most impressed with the gardens and opera house area. The Sydney Domain/Royal Gardens are massive and quite lovely to wander around in. It’s easy to spend hours in the area. I walked around for about an hour and saw maybe less than half of the trails and I’m not a slow walker! It’s definably a good respite from the craziness of the city. Sydneyers would agree as there were heaps of them sunning and hanging out in the park the day I was there.

It’s from this place where you get the iconic photo of the Harbor bridge and Opera House. I took loads. In fact, I took loads of pictures of the opera house and bridge every time I went near them. I didn’t do the bridge walk thought because at 300 dollars, it was out of my price range….well, that and my intense fear of heights kept me away. And of course, I meet a fellow MySpacer while I was there. She showed me Darling Harbor which seemed a great place to take your family, girlfriend, or just go out to eat- nice trendy restaurants there. We didn’t go to them but we did go to the Chinese Garden. Great place! Highly recommend it! Thanks Lou Lou for the good time!

Sydney is everything it is hyped up to be.

Posted by NomadicMatt | Filed Under First RTW | 1 Comment