Sydney is a pretty special place in the world. It’s true, I have a teeny, tiny, ginormous crush.
But, sometimes you do feel like the city is eating your face. Sydney can be a real cunning dunny rat at times, with its property prices that make breaking onto the real estate ladder about as likely as Australia winning the World Cup.
Then there’s the traffic that permits a maximum average speed of 12km/h, the patchwork public transport network and the sweaty humidity that forces you into the shower three times a day. Oh, and let’s not mention the lockout laws.
When you have friends, seemingly every week, determining the hustle too real and pulling the ripcord, parachuting out of here, you have to question why you’re stubbornly choosing to live in one of the 10 most expensive cities in the WORLD.
This is why, despite the real bitch it can be, I love living in Sydney:
1. Sydney’s god-awfully pretty
Sydney is so enchantingly beautiful it turns you into a stuttering mess, like you’re in high school again, trying to talk to a boy. The labyrinth of harbour that twinkles like a Christmas tree. The never-ending coastline that’s more inviting than a kebab shop at 2am after a night on the booze. And the character-filled streets criss-crossing the city. Anyone that says Sydney is nothing to look at is a right lune.
Bondi Beach. Image credit: Destination NSW
2. Sydney’s pleasant weather
Yeah the humidity is a bit of a pain in the arse, but it’s a small price to pay for the year-round weather that’s best described as ‘pleasant’. Summer a long, lazy stretch of never-ending warm days, and a winter so mild you barely notice it came to the party. And sun! Gosh so much sun.
Hickson Road Reserve. Image credit: Destination NSW
3. Sydney’s no concrete jungle
Despite the hustle, Sydney knows how to do a green space, with acres of parklands and national park all within reaching distance of the CBD. I love that you can be standing in bushland, listening to nothing but waves crashing and birds singing, feeling truly connected to nature, but there in the distance is the Sydney Tower Eye.
Sydney Harbour National Park
4. One heckuva beach life
Sydney’s beach vibe is as thick as whipped cream. Ocean swims before work, weekend beach picnics, epic coastal walks, stunning sunrises over the water – it’s just part of Sydney life, as are Havianas.
Coogee Beach: 1 of 100
5. Sydney’s unique obsession with ocean pools
Of course, an essential stitch in the fabric of Sydney’s beach life is its ocean pools – all 35 of them. From Cronulla to Palm Beach, a beach isn’t really a beach in Sydney if it doesn’t have an ocean pool. Not only are they a relaxed way to enjoy the, at-times, hairy ocean, they’re pretty magical to look at.
Sydney’s most famous ocean pool: Bondi Icebergs
6. It’s easier to make new friends
Making adult friends in Adelaide and to a lesser-extent Melbourne is near impossible. If you don’t have a strong school clique, forget it – you’re doomed to a friendless life. But, Sydneysiders are different (probably because the city is more transient in nature). There’s a general openness to meeting new people and expanding friendship circles beyond those you sat next to in Mrs Gates’s year three class.
7. The big city buzz
There’s a certain underlying energy to Sydney. Millions of people hustling about their business. It might make the suit-n-commute a chronic pain, but there’s no confusing the fact that you’re alive – you’re definitely not dead. Plus, Australia’s largest city, the opportunity’s here for the taking.
Image credit: Destination NSW
8. Access to some of the best weekend getaways
Mountains, estuaries, snow fields, wine regions, white sandy beaches – what doesn’t New South Wales have? Choosing where to spend a weekend escape is a perplexing exercise in first world problems.
Bournda National Park, Tathra. Image credit: Destination NSW
9. Sydney has a pretty special bridge
I can’t really explain why the Sydney Harbour Bridge ‘steels’ your heart but it does. I’ll never get tired of admiring ‘The Coathanger’, and if I do it’s time to pull that ripcord and parachute out of Sydney myself.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge puncturing the skyline
10. You’re inspired to be fit
There’s 236 days of sunshine each year, which means being outdoors is a big part of Sydney life – I like that. It also perhaps explains why Sydneysiders are beautiful, tanned and fitter than a bodybuilding Arnold Schwarznegger. You’re inspired, bullied, peer pressured to step into line.
Although, I also think fitness goals are easier to keep when it never drops to 5°C in the middle of the day, and the only exercise you feel like doing is eating the biggest bowl of creamiest pasta you can get your mitted mitts on.
The only problem with outdoor running is the distractions…
11. There’s serious history in Sydney
A city built by bread and watch thieves, the modern history of Sydney is pretty darn interesting – more so than any other Australian city. You only have to go for a stroll through the cobblestone laneways of The Rocks to realise that.
George Street, Sydney in 1883. Image credit: Alfred Tischbauer
12. Sydney is the city for day drinking
If you’re trying to think of the most nocturnal city in the world, it wouldn’t be Sydney. The harbour city goes to sleep come sun down, and with so much sunshine it’s understandable why people want to be awake to enjoy it. This includes the preference for day drinking – and, I must admit, I’ve come to appreciate the daytime tipple.
Cheersy, cheers, cheers at The Boathouse Balmoral Beach
13. You can take a ferry to work
House prices, lockout laws, humidity. Life ain’t so bad when you’ve got the wind in your hair and you’re looking out across water the colour of emeralds.
Car or ferry? Image credit: Destination NSW
Why do you love living in Sydney? Share below.
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