Sydney 101

The first half of my Australia holiday, the Sydney part, is officially over. I have covered tourist spots in Sydney, including the Rocks, Darling Harbor, Taronga Zoo and Bondi beach, and I have started liking the things I hate in Sydney in the first place.

But first, Flat White!

In Australia, I needed my coffee first thing in the morning because I had to wake up at a time when I was usually in a deep sleep back in Singapore.  Also, it’s damn cold; I needed the warm cup of joe to unfreeze my morning brain.

I ordered the usual latte and hated it on my first day here. First, they looked at me weirdly when I ordered a latte, which tasted much stronger. Before settling down with the latte, I also tried my friend’s cappuccino (my teenage-era coffee choice). Both were not to my liking.

I decided to give the flat white, Australia, a contribution to the coffee world. It seemed like a naïve version of the latte. I tried a cuppa and ended up liking it a lot. I made my friends try it and asked Fafa to try it when he visited Australia.

Harbour

My first encounter with Circular Harbour was when I took the ferry to the zoo. The air smelled Ocean-y and fishy. It gave me a headache since I wasn’t used to the smell.

We came back from the zoo and took a break at a coffee shop nearby that was perfect for people-watching, and I did just that.

While sipping my flat white, I started to enjoy the atmosphere of Circular Harbour. All types of people go about their day. The fantastic view of the bridge against the horizon. The tourists.

Circular Quay Harbour ended up being the place I took the most pictures of.

Cheap Alcohol

A café at Bondi beach sold two glasses of beer for five bucks (happy hour) and a mineral bottle water for the same price. This was both bad and good, depending on what I needed at that time.

Wind Tunnels

Man, I only experienced it for a few days in Sydney, and I totally get why people in the northern atmosphere were being draggy about winter lasting longer than usual this year.

I even wrote a poem about breaking up during winter, which I will share with you once I find the Gloria Jeans’ tissue paper on which I wrote it. Melbourne weather sucked! On the contrary, it had been sunny, bright blue sky winter days in Sydney. I enjoyed soaking up the sunshine at any time of the day; it felt like an invincible blanket or virtual warm hug.

Sydney’s darlings

I am embarrassed to admit on my first night in Sydney; I was intimidated by the Australians. Coming from Asia, I felt small and dainty compared to the locals. It didn’t help with all the loud voices and getting yelled rude versions of “look fine darling” by some teenagers filled cars at Kings Cross.

Only in the coming days I learned that it happened because it was a Saturday night at Kings Cross and that Sydney-siders are generally friendly.

I even grew to like being called “darling” here, which I had never encountered anywhere else I had been before; it made me feel like a darling indeed.

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