We spent 6 days in Sydney early in December, and I figured I'd make it the focus of this entry in my Aussie info packets. Sydney is the largest city in Australia (3M people), and is on the southeast coast approximately 200 miles from Canberra. It is sort of like the New York City of Australia - if you can't find it there, you probably won't find it anywhere. The climate is quite mild - it never gets to freezing, and some folks swim year round. It is the host of the Olympics in the year 2000, and because of the season reversal, they will shift the summer Olympics a bit towards Spring or Fall.
Sydney was not a "designed" city like Canberra, and has been allowed to expand in a rather haphazard fashion. Thus one can take a very nice highway to a point about 30 miles from the center, after which you hit traffic lights every 2 blocks, winding, narrow roads with insufficient lanes, and other driver-unfriendly aspects. We got to the edge of the city in about 3 hours, and then spent >1 hour getting the last 25 miles to our hotel in one of the middle suburbs. This is why many people fly the distance or take a bus or train. Within the city there are far too many cars and not enough places to park. We relied on public transportation while we were there.
The public transportation is among the cleanest I've ever seen. It is all no-smoking, no-drinking, no-eating, and I think I only saw one little bit of graffiti the whole time we were there. The most fun aspect of public transportation was the ferries - they have 5 or 6 ferry lines (one which ran fairly close to our hotel) and are generally as fast or faster than trains in getting to the center of town (Circular Quay). It was cheap too - a half hour ride cost about $2US. The locals complained that the public transportation didn't go to enough places with sufficient frequency, which was their excuse for the volume of cars, but it was fine for us.
I was at a conference for 3 days at McQuarie University, while Meredyth and Nathan explored on their own. Then we spent the whole weekend touring the city, and headed for home Monday morning. Some of the must-see attractions if you are ever here:
The Opera House; you've all seen the pictures, with it's scalloped surface sticking out into the harbour, but it really is a magnificent piece of architecture. It had a rather stormy beginning - it cost > $100Mto build, and had such mishaps as broken marble walkways from trucks delivering final loads of supplies. The whole thing is held together by steel tension rods, which must be adjusted once or twice a year. The interior is stunning, with 4 concert halls, numerous recital rooms, gift shops, bars, etc. When it first opened, the majority of Australians hated it, but as it became the symbol for the city and recognized world-over, they suddenly became very proud of it.
The Zoo: they say the giraffes in Sydney zoo have the best view of any animals in captivity - the zoo sits on a hill across the harbour from the city center, and so they get a beautiful view of the skyline, the Harbour Bridge (like the Golden Gate Bridge, but a bit shorter), and the Opera House. You take a ferry across to the bottom of the zoo, and then take a cable car up the side of the hill, passing over many of the exhibits. The zoo has been modernizing over the past couple decades, so most cages have been replaced with 'natural environments'. Some of the highlights included
Museums, etc.: There are numerous museums of very good quality (maybe not world quality, but certainly worth checking out). The Science and Technology museum (called the Powerhouse, because it occupies an old power station) is huge and hands-on, with many components directed towards the very young. A lot of it showcased Australian innovations. There are 2 aquariums (Meredyth and Nathan went to one and enjoyed it), a Natural History museum (a bit over Nate's head), and lots of art galleries. We bought a couple Aboriginal art pieces at very reasonable prices.
Shopping; The immensity of the shopping options is awesome here - even the truly dedicated shopaholic couldn't cover everything in 2 weeks. The real pain about shopping in Australia in general is that things close at 6PM most nights, which really constrains those of us busy with other things during the day. However, entertainment runs through the night (the cause of much of the alcoholism problem in Australia is, in my opinion, 24 hour bars), with lots of live music, gambling, and the like.
Etc.; lots of beaches near by (though we didn't get to them), with virtually year-round swimming and surfing. The street entertainment was often very amusing, especially in the harbour areas. Darling Harbour has lots of shopping, entertainment, a monorail, a carnival, and lots and lots of tourists.
Conclusion; At a certain point, all large cities start looking the same. Sydney is very much like the big cities of Europe (not enough crime to be like a large U.S. city), with the exception that it has no really old buildings and has very modern and user-friendly shopping and public transportation. In the same way that Boston is not a good representation of life in the rest of New England or the U.S., Sydney is not representative of life in Australia. When we first came here we were a bit disappointed that we were based in Canberra rather than Sydney. We are now glad about how things turned out. Canberra is a much nicer place to live, while Sydney is fun to visit.