""You are so beautiful to me!"" a Sydney Travel Page by backpackerbaby

Sydney is beautiful, so beautiful that it's hard to be completely retained in your memory, so beautiful that you wanna stop the time when you're viewing the Harbour Bridge, no matter day or night.

Within less than a year, I was in this beautiful city again. Last year I spent most of my time on hiking in the Blue Mountains, as I knew that I would return within 1 year, I simply didn't care about going around the city. This year I really returned, I arrived on early 18.05.2006, stayed till 23.05.2006, headed to the Outback and then back on 30.05.2006 for one more night before going home. It's another short trip on this vast continent. Last year I spent 17 days in Australia, explored Queensland (the reef, the rainforest at Cape Trib, Fraser Island, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Brisbane ) & Sydney. As I wrote before,"17 days in Australia was a joke in other backpackers' eyes." This trip was even shorter, which made it more challenging, particularly in the way how I planned it and managed to do what I wanted to. This time my main focus was the Outback. However, I also wanted to see those I missed last time in Sydney: weekend markets, fish market and perhaps an opera. Yet I wanted to hike on the National Pass of Wentworth Falls again. My heart was left there last year.

Now I'm back and I still feel so good about the journey. Not only because of the outback but because I was not alone on the way (ok, except the first three days). It's always the best to share your adventure with someone important to you.

I was alone on the first 3 days and I met some people at the hostel: a funny Korean girl who went there to learn English, a group of HKCU medicine students, 2 highly-curious Korean guys who slept at 5p.m., a friendly young New Zealander mum with a kid of 12 and of course the best hostel staff I've ever met - Chris (girl) @ Sydney Backpackers. Without them, my first few days would have been less colourful. Thanks so much. Special thanks to the medicine students, for their trust on me: I suggested walking from Darling Harbour to Harry's Meat Pie near Kingscross on the first night we met. It's a much longer way than I'd imagined but they didn't complain, just enjoyed the time (and the pies of course) with me. Thanks for your companion, mates!

"Sydney, I think I'll be back."

12.07.2005
I flew with VirginBlue from Brisbane to Sydney. It's a blue start for a blue ending of my first Australia adventure.

At the check-in counter, the pretty VirginBlue girl told me that it's raining in Sydney. Holy shiX! Finally I knew that I had a loyal follower - Mr. Rainy Days. "Hey man, you've accompanied me for quite awhile during my trip, please stay away from me."

I arrived at Sydney Central Station at about 1p.m., then went to my hostel for leaving my backpacks at once. I was a bit excited at that moment as I would meet my VT friend Luca at 2 p.m. Would it be a funny day out with him? But unfortunately, he didn't show up... and my room-mates were all out. So I was on my own that day, exploring the city on my own. Just hoped that it wouldn't rain too much and get too cold.

Darling Harbour without a darling!?
With the simple map from the hostel and my Lonely Planet, I walked along George Street, went to Darling Harbour, back to George Street and continued walking to Harbour Bridge. I stopped when I saw some interesting buildings or shops, I stopped when I saw some interesting people. I found an interesting place called the Nurse Walk. I looked at the Harbour Bridge from different angles. In this way, I arrived at the harbour-side when the sky turned dark. Spending some time with my travelmates - my camera and my tripod on the lovely scenery, I felt so warm from within my heart -'Sydney Harbour, I'm in love with you.'

At that moment, what I needed were a handsome guy, a long kissss and some hugging... ...

To escape from the blue feeling I got from the city of romance, I caught a train to the Blue Mountains. I always feel good being alone in the nature.

Thanks to my stupid watch, it suddenly ran out of battery and was a few minutes slower, and made me miss my train!!! But things were not always bad, I met a backpacker from Aachen (Germany) when I was waiting on the platform. We chatted quite happily on the way. It's just a pity that we didn't exchange our email addresses.

I stayed at the YHA in Katoomba, which was an amazing hostel. Let me talk more about my stay there in my Blue Mountains Page.