I’ve been making some observations and comparing Sydney to other cities that I have lived in. Here’s what I think.
Housing
Sydney property moves quick, real quick. Today I turned up to look at a place near Kings Cross it was an open house inspection, I was about 5 mins early and there were already 10 other people there. It was raining too. Getting a rental seems to be like a job interview, the landlords can virtually name their price and pick their tenants.
As you can imagine, prices are high here, probably not quite as bad as London but I can see it going that way in a couple of years. At least most people can afford to live within a mile of the CBD, even if they don’t live in luxury. However I would rather live in Kings Cross Sydney than Kings Cross London, they both have a rep for being a bit seedy but London is waaay worse.
The housing here is in no way as affordable as Vancouver, and people tend to live in small suburbs just outside of the main CBD rather than actually in the CBD a la Vancouver. I totally prefer Vancouver for its cheapness, high level of housing and centralised downtown, but Sydney has amazing beaches. For me London does not come close to either, I remain largely a London hater.
Transport
People tend to complain about the Sydney transport, often relating that London has it better, but I don’t think it is all that bad. First there are heaps of buses that go almost everywhere, and in my experience they move quicker than London buses, rarely is there total gridlock. Then you have the rail, city rail, suburban rail, monorail and light rail in the form of the tram, I only really know about the city/suburban rail which whizzes around the city to most the main places you want to get to. For everything else there are the wonderful, wonderful Ferries, there can’t be a better way to commute to work than hopping on a ferry from your neighbourhood wharf. There is one just down the road from my hotel.
London’s one saving grace is the oversubscribed tube, I mean you can virtually forget the buses as they are now permanently held up in traffic since Ken keeps expanding the congestion zone. The tube in London, when it works and when it is not stifling hot and/or completely packed, is pretty amazing, it goes just about everywhere. However London transport suffers from being overcrowded, unreliable, unsafe and expensive. By contrast in Sydney the transport seems to be clean, reliable, safe and efficient, it’s even affordable, a weekly ticket that gets you almost everywhere is $41AUD (£18), you can even get to Manly which is a half hour ferry ride on that ticket.
I can imagine a Syndneysider just arriving in London would have some nice things to say about the transport, you don’t really know the system until you have lived and worked with it for a while. If I still think that transport is good here after 6 months then it will become fact, until then the provisional opinion is that it’s quite favourable.
Transport in Vancouver is simple, jump in your car. I mean you can get the bus or SkyTrain in Vancouver but most will drive, and as such the public transport is a bit lacking. It’s not all that bad but not as good as Sydney or London, but it is probably the safest out of them all. People tend to drive a lot in Sydney too, and like Vancouver parking in the evening is often free and rarely all that difficult to find a spot. London with a car it’s possible but expensive and not really all that convenient.
Food
So far the food trumps London on price, there seems to be more variety and people seem to be more willing to eat out. The same went for Vancouver which excelled in Sushi. I think Sydney excels in seafood, the lobsters down at Fisherman’s Market look just amazing, and the tiger prawns, one of them bad boys could inhale a king tiger prawn from Tesco. London has some excellent food, but it is expensive and more of a treat than a regular part of your life.
Weather
Just joking.
Conclusion
These comparisons are rather subjective, obviously I don’t like London all that much. I find it too busy, too grey, too work orientated and too expensive. I like Vancouver for the total opposite reasons, it is relaxed, reasonably affordable and people have a healthy work/life balance. Sydney seems to be panning out in a similar fashion and just like Vancouver there are lots of outdoors things to do, something London really lacks badly. London needs a beach or a mountain or something, parks just don’t cut it really. There are only so many times you can enjoy jogging around the park, but I dare you to find surfing, mountain biking, hiking or snowboarding monotonous.
When David wrote to me and asked me to film a sink draining here in Sydney I obliged and was quite excited, until I actually filmed it:
In the back of my mind I sort of remembered that the direction water spins when it drains out of a sink or toilet is not actually determined by which hemisphere you are in. It is a popular myth that the Coriolis effect works on draining water. I guess I just watch too much Simpsons, it’s a shame though — my little trans-world science club with David will be disbanded before it really had a chance.
David, just for the sake of thorough non-science please send me your video.
The best way to explore a new place is to walk around it. So that’s what I did, I walked about 8kms in flip flops, I had to stop because it started raining and my feet were about to get blisters. Flip flops are not all that comfortable for distance walking, just as sturdy boots are not that comfortable for beach lounging.
Anyway, here is my route, marvel at it’s organic and random nature.
I did not really have much of a plan on this walk, I originally set out to make it to Glebe to see the area where Adam’s sister lives and I almost made it. I got kind of distracted by a big Fish Market, when I snooped around it I found it was also mainly a big warehouse full of fast seafood bars where lots of Asian Aussies were chowing on anything from snapper to lobster. The lobsters were freakin’ huge. I settled for what turned out to be rather rubbish calamari, and while I ate it I rethought my route to Glebe and decided to head for Broadway in Ultimo. I kind of thought this might be a hip area.
Broadway at Ultimo is ok. It’s got a bunch of shops and stuff but it isn’t all that cool, it’s a little like a strip mall in the US. Lots of chain stores and fast food. I was a little disappointed and after looking round the mall (which has a Kmart and a Target) I hopped on a bus. The bus took me to the Town Hall.
From the Town Hall, I walked through Hyde Park and saw some stupid birds, they just look odd. There are a lot of odd looking birds and other wildlife in Australia, I don’t need to tell you that and I knew it would be so before I left. It’s just strange coming face to face with stuff that belongs in the Zoo out in the open. Apparently there are also wild Cockatoos, I have not seen any yet. Just like I have not seen any spiders.
I am a complete arachnophobe, I become paralysed with fear just looking at a small spider. When I heard about how common and how large Huntsman spiders were here I almost decided not to come. Fortunately it seems they are not so common that you are going to see them while laying in the park or in the shower, both of these places I inspected carefully before using. I also tread very carefully through any areas that have any kind of nature encroaching on them. This included the walk from the hotel to the station which has a fair few trees lining the road. I steer clear of garbage bins because I know tiny killer spiders like to live around them, I see their webs sometimes just as I see a suspect web outside of the shower window, no spider but a web all the same. I am keeping my eye on developments with that one, just as the neighbour who overlooks this open window into the shower might keep an eye on any number of spider aware showering guests. Aussies obviously are not shy about their bodies.
Back to the walk. Yes, I walked through the park and toward the seedy Kings Cross area. Lots of car rental places on the road to Kings Cross, must note that Thrifty do a car for $19 a day, “no hidden fees”. That’s a cheap car. It started to get a bit too seedy so I turned toward The Domain park and got swarmed by bugs that seem to just want to bug you for the sake of it. Stainforth told me they are after your sweat, I hope that is not true. I got out of the park (bugs ruined it for me) and meandered to the Opera House, by this time my feet were telling me to give up, but I persevered. It was sort of worth it, I mean I had to see the Opera House at some stage, and it was cool and everything, but I think I was too tired to be excited.
It then started to rain a little bit so I headed to Circular Quay and got a ferry back to Kirribilli, I found it dropped me off almost on the doorstep of my hotel. This is excellent because I can now really take advantage of my weekly travel pass.
That was my walk. Hope you enjoyed it, more photos as always over at Flickr.
So yes, I have arrived in sunny (and it is very sunny) Sydney, Australia. The fiasco probably started in earnest when Adam cut his finger off instead of picking me up from my house and driving me to the airport. However, it was an honest mistake and one that I am satisfied he has paid for, although I am not sure he has really learnt from it. Adam, I hope they managed to reattach it, I imagine the rehabilitation will be lengthy and undignified but eventually I trust you will be able to type again. After going through many mixed emotions about Adam’s finger, I managed to compose myself and find alternative transport to Heathrow terminal 3. The trip to the airport was uneventful, I even dozed off for a bit. It would have been much more fun if Adam had not cut his finger off, I admit I scorned his name a couple of times, I am sorry Adam.
At around 9:45 pm I boarded a Boeing 747 400 series and was squished into an economy seat between a rather chubby Australian woman and a very tall Singaporean gent, it was not pleasant and a vague sense of fear and panic began to wash over me as I desperately looked for seating alternatives. There were none, some hippy late-comer kid snatched what I hoped would be a spare window seat. Food was served, I ate beef which was supposedly a meal “designed” by Gorden Ramsey, it tasted like muck. To this day the best air plane food I have ever had was on a Air India flight from London to NYC, the flight may have been smelly, uncomfortable and sweaty but the food was good.
I slept for a bit and then awoke feeling a bit like I might puke. I let fear and panic wash over me again and convinced myself it was the rather odd tasting ice cream that was making me feel ill, I tried to calm myself down and sleep some more. I woke again to the woman in front of me actually puking. I thought this would be the end of the road for my comfort and it would be inevitable that I too would puke soon, my only decision was to chose to puke on the tall Singaporean or the fat Australian. However, I managed to keep my stomach under control, the vomit lady in front was taken somewhere to convalesce and the very attentive staff (Air Singapore stewards are very efficient) began cleaning the seat. It was at this time I felt something drip on my foot, later I would discover it was vomit.
Singapore airport was a weird experience for me. By this point I had no idea what time it was, and I felt really exhausted.
A lady with a vacuum strapped to her back just came into my room and did a quick once over, it was a little surreal, apparently I will see her again tomorrow.
Where was I, yes, Singapore airport, terminal 2. I walked around a bit, dazed, hungry and in need of internets. I found some internet kiosks and fired off a few emails and checked my Facebook, the essentials, then I went and took some quick photos before I gave in and went to the transit hotel where I had a room reserved. The transit hotel is a hotel in the airport, it is conveniently positioned so that you don’t have leave the transit mall and go through immigration etc. I was quickly dispensed to a clean room which had no windows but all the other essentials, including a TV on which I watched The Racoons in an unknown foreign language that sounded a bit like German to me which I dismissed because, well I am in SE Asia. As the room had no windows my sense of time became even more disabled and I eventually drifted off to sleep. It was not the best sleep I have ever had and I did not really wake up feeling refreshed, but a shower before I left the hotel helped me feel a bit better.
I ate a cheeseburger at Burger King. For this crime I apologise. I needed a quick food fix and sadly the noodle place looked pretty bad in comparison.
The flight to Sydney was largely uneventful, this time I had an aisle seat, I was grateful for that. Slept quite a bit, ate some god awful breakfast, which is still sustaining me. Oh, I should also note the films I watched;
Simpsons the Movie - Basically a long episode The Simpsons, not all that good.
Harry Potter Goblet of Fire - Fell asleep, not all that good.
Die Hard 4.0 - Solid action.
I am sure I watched a bunch more than that, but I often fell asleep watching them and/or accidentally leant on the remote and stopped the movie half way through. Restarting the movie is not an option as they fast forward only marginally faster than they play.
So here I am in Sydney, in a tiny but clean room, outside it is very sunny and I think I might use the remaining energy that I have to go and walk about and find some food. I hope this email has not been too long, I probably won’t write as much agian, it’s just nice to document and share the trip.
