Tag Archives: Sydney

The List of Lists: 2012 Edition

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As 2012 slowly closes its door, I thought I would share some of my favourites from 2012 with you. It has been a crazy year – leaving the US for Australia, then a trip to London which led to living an obscure Scottish Island, a six city stop around the US again, a quick two-week trip around Italy, then back to Australia. Yesterday my visa was approved to move to Pennsylvania for a while, so I am leaving the Australian heat (it was 90 today) and I am jetting off to the PA snow in a months time.

travellingassassin.maldives

Maldives. My dream destination for 2013.

The last 10 places I visited:

Isle of Mull, Scotland

Rome, Italy

Sydney, Australia

Las Vegas, USA

London, United Kingdom

Milan, Italy

Glasgow, Scotland

New York, USA

Los Angeles, USA

Oban, Scotland

 

The last 5 Films I watched:

The Art of Getting By (Loved)

Like Crazy

Drive

Take this Waltz

Martha Macy May Marlene

 

The 5 bands  on constant repeat on my iPod: (Click for one of my favourite songs official video on Youtube)

Mumford and Sons

Counting Crows

Frank Sinatra

Lana Del Rey

Adele

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New Orléans

10 of my favourite major cities anywhere in the world:

Rome, Italy

London, UK

Sydney, Australia

New York, USA

Paris, France

Dublin, Ireland

Queenstown, New Zealand

Haleʻiwa, Hawaii

Tokyo, Japan

Paris, France

 

Favourite 10 Cities in the US (So far..)

New Orléans, LA

Philadelphia, PA

New York, NY

Haleʻiwa, Hawaii

Mackinac Island, MI

San Francisco, CA

Steamboat Springs, CO

Santa Fé, NM

Cape Cod, MA

Los Angeles, CA

 

5 favourite shows I watched repeatedly in 2012:

Dexter (Can this show get any better? Seriously!)

An Idiot Abroad

Big Bang Theory

Life’s too Short (Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s new show)

Six Feet Under

 

5 must-see places in Australia:

Port Arthur, Tasmania (The whole state is beautiful, actually.)

Darwin, NT with a side trip to Ayers Rock

Sydney, NSW

Cairns for The Great Barrier Reef and a day trip to Port Douglas

Fraser Island, Far North Queensland

 

5 places I haven’t visited but really want too

Cape Town, South Africa

Landa Giraavaru, Maldives (see pic above)

Tahiti, French Polynesia

Havana, Cuba

Athens, Greece

 

5 underrated/crapped on US Cities I think are worth re considering

Washington DC, MD

Philadelphia, PA

Traverse City, MI

Pittsburgh, PA (Shittsburgh, it’s not)

New Orléans, LA – this is one of my favourite cities anywhere in the world

*Detroit is also continually crapped on, usually by me, and with good reason. The rest however, are good cities with plenty to offer if you can dig a little deeper.

 

5 artists currently bringing me Christmas joy:

The Rat Pack

Ella Fitzgerald

Nat King Cole

Elvis Presley

Bing Cosby

 

Something not bringing me christmas joy:

Kate Middleton’s pregnancy. I’m happy Will’s is getting some…but enough already. It’s the day its announced and I’m over it. Next.

 

What are some of your lists from 2012? Do you disagree with me?

It’s Rock. Ayers Rock.

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It’s officially summer in Australia –  yay for scorching hot days, sunburns and mosquitos. (Next Saturday will be 98.6. I think I’ll be packing for snowy Pennsylvania in the air con!) To celebrate surviving one more year melanoma free, here is a run down of one of my country’s most famous destinations: Uluru. I once drove from Adelaide to Sydney right after watching the movie, Wolf Creek: I was constantly looking in my rear view mirror for a crazed gun slinging bogan in a flanno ready to pop my tyres. I would love for you all to experience a similar kinda of horror desert drive. I kid.

Uluru (Oo-lah-roo) or Ayers Rock, has over 65 tours and experiences available in the National Park. NT tourism is pretty good at pushing more time at Uluru, offering suggestions for a 6 day itinerary down a three-day itinerary, visiting everything from Alice Springs, Uluru, and Kata Tjuta (Olga’s) but to be honest, unless you have extensive tours planned for Uluru 2 days would be sufficient. You’d have time to explore the rock, a sunrise and sunset, relax and even squeeze in a tour. The Kings Canyon if you have some extra money is a must with plenty of transport options (coach or helicopter depending on budget) and a sunset motorcycle tour of Uluru is also a cool option. You can visit Alice Springs, a 4.5 hour drive away but Darwin is where the real action is. If you plan on visiting the area my suggestion would be fly directly into Ayers Rock from Sydney and spend 2 or 3 days. (Qantas and Virgin Blue both fly direct) After visiting Uluru fly into Darwin or Alice Springs. My suggestion is Darwin. You shouldn’t travel here expecting a cheap trip,but the experience is unforgettable.

 Alice Springs

A Tour in Alice Springs – Feeding the Crocodile

Accommodation Options at the Rock:

Camping: Ayers Rock Campground offers cabins for up to 6 people for $150 in low season, in high season it jumps to $450. A powered camping site in low season is $41 compared to $123 and a non powered camp site in low season is $36 or in high season, $108. They do offer stay deals (stay for 4 pay for 3) and family rates.

Backpackers: Stay at Outback Pioneer Lodge. It offers twenty bed single sex dormitories and four bed mixed sex dormitories with shared bathrooms. 20 person dorms start from $38. (No children in dorms)

Luxury Options: Try the 5 star eco sensitive Longitude 131 or the Sails in the Desert Hotel. In low season a room can be as cheap as $350 in high season the rates can hit $1000. The rates include a return transfer to Alice Springs.

Darwin

The climate in winter is on average 72 and usually reaches 95 fahrenheit in the summer and often exceeds 104 degrees. The nights are cooler. While in the middle of nowhere, the area is rich in history and culture and offers breath-taking sunsets and sunrises. 

Have you been to Uluru? What did you think?

I’ll need a holiday after this holiday. Goodbye Scottish Islands, hello Italy.

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Tip: Never start working a temporary seasonal job toward the end of the season. The staff are pissed off, angry, home sick, annoyed, manic-depressive, under paid and are just realising they haven’t saved nearly as much as they thought they would by now. They hate the management, and have grand schemes of how they would run the business (and the world for that matter), much more efficiently than anyone prior to their existence. My boss has walked around for two weeks telling everyone not to piss me off because Australian women wear the pants in all relationships. (True, but it has been entirely ineffective) The Chefs scream the C word when a guest orders the Salmon from the menu (how dare they!). The dishwasher is pissed off when you give him something to wash (how dare you!) and asks for 15 minutes to catch up on the tray of cups which would take 30 seconds so the restaurant has 40 dirty tables and 30 people lining up wanting somewhere to sit. The joys. I am increasing my Vicodin levels daily just to deal.

This particular stay in Scotland is coming to a close in 3 days. I will fly into Milan for  quick tour, then to Verona, Naples, Rome and Pompeii. After Italy, I fly to New York, LA, Sydney, back to LA, Denver then to Philadelphia for 6 months. Is it just me or have I been flying more since I said I wouldn’t? The next stop though is Oban to sit my exams. 

Are any of you travelling, working full time and studying full time as well? How are you coping?

A Backstage Pass to the Sydney Opera House

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“To me it is a great joy to know how much the building is loved, by Australians in general and by Sydneysiders in particular”

Jørn Utzon

There are very few things that get me excited these days aside from pistachio macaroons, but my inner 10-year-old self insisted I do something I’ve always wanted to do –  tour the inside of the Sydney Opera House.  

Every time I venture into Circular Quay, I swear another 300,000 people have relocated there and are coincidently in line for everything I need. If they aren’t in front of me they are running past me; when I see people running in areas like a ferry terminal, I do not think of exercise, I think, who the hell are the running from? Annoyances aside, I walked the 3 minute route from Circular Quay ferry terminal to the Sydney Opera House for an inside tour of the world heritage listed building.

The tour meeting point was at the lower level, and a bubbly middle-aged woman who sounded suspiciously like Theodore from Alvin and the Chipmunks, walked up and introduced herself while handing out audio headsets. The tour started with a short climb of stairs and an introductory video that outlined the history of the building – in short, that there was an international competition for architects to design a new opera house. The Dane, Jørn Utzon, won in 1957.

For those living under a rock and are not aware, (while I applaud you for living green, living under a rock is limiting your Vitamin D intake and  your chances with the opposite sex) the Opera House is directly across from the Harbour Bridge and the tour offers panoramic views of the Harbour. The Opera House holds 1600+ performances a year and is one of the busiest performing arts centres in the world.

The Concert Hall is, without an ounce of hesitation, breathtaking. It is one of the most intimate stage settings I have seen, and with the size of the seats, no bigger than on a  plane, you might have to get intimate to get comfortable. It has the Grand Organ, one of, if not the largest mechanical tracker action organs in the world with over 10,000 pipes. It is here that we were able to sit and listen to the Sydney Orchestra practice the ‘Tribute to Gershwin.’

At the Opera Hall, I watched (with much interest)  the male counterparts of the Australian Ballet flex some serious gluteus maximus while simultaneously falling in love with Christopher Rodgers-Wilson. For those trying to avoid flexing their own gluteus maximus, the tour consists of around 200 steps (though thankfully for those with ‘no-thankyou exercisus’ a notable few are descending.)

The tour duration was roughly 1.5 hours though I previously saw it advertised for 1 hour. My group was full of teenage American girls asking politely but not too subtly to stay at the Ballet. When the tour guide started talking about how hard it was for men to do the splits we called it a wrap. The ticket for an adult is $29, online concessions for Australian seniors and students. Family discounts available.

There are many, many things to do in Sydney as this is only one of them but to be honest, it should be in your top 3. It is quintessentially Sydney.

Have you toured inside of the Sydney Opera House? What did you think?

Down Under : 5 Quintessential Must-Do’s In Sydney, Australia

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The first thing I noticed as I arrived in Australia besides the fact I’m in dire need of a tan, is how expensive it is. (Zoo entry: $44, a guided walking tour $41, Hop On Hop Off $36) Since I am an Australian who hasn’t been home in almost a decade I decided to be a tourist in the city just a short drive from my hometown. I made it a point to visit only the quintessentially Australian gems among the heavily overpriced tourist traps and create an experience and not a pricey weekend away.

I started the day by relaxing at the Traditional Chinese Garden of Friendship at Darling Harbour. ($6) Instantly calming in the centre of the manic city, the waterfall and traditional chinese architecture were both relaxing and soothing and definitely worth exploring. I then caught the ferry from Darling Harbour to Circular Quay which gives you the cheapest and best views of the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. ($5.40 one way) I strolled along to The Rocks Markets (free) which are smaller compared to some others in the area (Manly /Bondi are good) and you need to have a bit of a bulging wallet to buy anything but the atmosphere of the most historical part of Sydney is quite amazing. (The Rocks is the area developed by freed convicts from the nearby Hyde Park Barracks)

I walked a few blocks up to the Hyde Park Barracks which is now a World Heritage Listed museum ($10 entry) The original barracks house artefacts from convicts (1819) such as shoes, utensils, clothing and even some rat skeletons from the 1800′s found in archaeological excavations. I then walked across to St James and visited the enormous Westfield at Pitt Street, wandering through high fashions stores such as Mulberry and Chanel down to the ground floors urban themed shops and hip new designer collection displays.

After being lost in the land of materialism for a good 6 hours (I know, terrible!) and purchasing Jurlique and Aesop goods (Australia has amazing organic skin care products) I headed to High Tea at the Sydney Opera House. Famous Australian Chef, Guillaume Brahimi created a Sydney style teas, pastries and petit fours for us while we sat in the world heritage listed building drinking tea and listing to Opera. (Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 2-4pm, $145) While pricey, this is the quintessential Sydney experience.

I had a quick bite to eat and a hot chocolate at a Darling Harbor overlooking the water and watched the fireworks then headed back down to The Rocks through Pitt Street for the Ghost Tour of the historical and oldest part of Sydney. The tagline: “Macabre tales of murder, suicide, hangings and hauntings in the birth place of Australia.” The 2 hour walking tour (by lantern light!) did not disappoint. ($42)

By the end of the day, ‘touring’ the lovely city, I realised I had been to 2 World Heritage Listed Sites and seen 3. The things I chose to do in Sydney were carefully selected and are now memories I will revisit forever. High tea, fireworks, museums, shopping, historical museums and a ferry ride under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a ghost tour and markets: could the day have been any better? I think not.

What do you like to do when you visit Sydney?