Sydney, Australia

Sydney

I started a new job last year (at the same company) that allows me to travel sometimes to work at our conferences around the world. So far, I’ve been to Toronto, Ottawa, and the best yet: Sydney, Australia, in September. Not only am I lucky enough to have this job opportunity, but I also work with awesome people, so all of my work travel buddies have been stellar. I didn’t write about Toronto or Ottawa because they were very short trips (no offense, Canada, I do love you). But I have to get Sydney in the books.

Sydney Fish Market

It was the longest flight I’ve been on to date (Austin to LAX to Sydney) and I finally experienced the swollen feet I’ve heard so much about. I’ll be investing in compression socks if I’m on a plane for 15 hours again. I landed in Sydney on Friday at about 7 in the morning, made my way through some confusing customs and ID checks, and jumped in a cab to our downtown hotel. The conference was at a Sheraton right across the street from a big city park, walking distance to all the main sights. After I checked in, I made my way to the café to meet my coworkers. Bruce, the big boss, was already there having breakfast, and Anil and Dianne arrived shortly after I did. Our last crewmember, Ganesh, was flying from Malaysia and would arrive later that day. Bruce had lots of work to do, Anil was going to wait to meet Ganesh, but Dianne and I were ready to hit the town. We took the cheesy hop-on/hop-off city bus tour and let a guide show us around town. We saw the shipyards, the state library, and botanical gardens, and then hopped off at the fish market to meet Anil and Ganesh for lunch. Then Dianne and I hopped back on our bus and saw the Rocks, the Opera House, and Sydney Harbour Bridge before ending up back at our hotel. We met the rest of the crew and let Anil and Ganesh begin their culinary tour of Sydney for us.

Opera House and Harbour Bridge

We walked down to Darling Harbour for Indian food and an unexpected high-schooler rave scene. Kids were trashed and falling all over each other, wearing brightly colored clothes. There were ambulances stationed around and they were all tending to drunk or high teenagers. It was very confusing, but the dinner was delish. The next four days were all work, but Anil and Ganesh did not disappoint with their dinner selections. We had Malaysian, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, and more seafood.

Inside the Opera House

View from my upgraded seat

On Saturday night, I treated myself to a ticket to the symphony at the Sydney Opera House (there weren’t any operas scheduled). I thought I bought myself a cheap seat in the nosebleed section, but when I arrived, it turned out that your dummy narrator bought herself a ticket for earlier in the week, before I was even in Australia. But the Opera House turned out to be my lucky place. The box office manager slipped me a ticket they had reserved for someone who didn’t show up, three rows from the orchestra! Then the bartender slipped me a free glass of wine. And when I left, Sydney gave me a free fireworks display over the Opera House. Everything about that night worked out for me and it was a highlight of the trip.

Opera House fireworks

The conference finished on Tuesday night, and everyone except Dianne and I flew home early the next morning. On Wednesday, Dianne had booked us a hiking tour in the Blue Mountains, about 2 hours outside of Sydney. We met for breakfast and then went outside to meet our tour guide. There were only 2 other people in our group, besides our guide, and they were from Houston. I wondered if Texans are to Australians what Australians are to us: everyone I go, there are Aussies. Maybe we’re all over their country.

Blue Mountains hike

It was cold and rainy for the start of the hike but it quickly cleared up and our guide Gynes told us we lucked out. Normally there are tons of people hiking the Blue Mountains, but the weather probably kept most of them away that day. We only saw one couple during our 3-hour hike. It was beautiful. We started by descending into a valley and walked through lush rainforest before getting to the valley floor. We passed eucalyptus trees and various plants I can’t remember that Gynes happily pointed out for us. After the hike he drove us to a lookout spot to see the Three Sisters, an iconic spot in the Blue Mountains.

Three Sisters

We got back to the hotel in the early evening and I got ready for dinner. Dianne opted to stay in, so I walked over to an Italian restaurant one of our conference speakers recommended to me, and it did not disappoint. It was a small, dimly lit, very elegant place and they gave me a seat by the window. I got a glass of Chianti, delicious ravioli, and fresh salad.

The next morning Dianne and I met up for breakfast but we had different items on our last-day to-do list, so we split up after eating at the hotel. She was going to Bondi Beach, which I really wanted to see, but not enough to spend the time getting out there. Instead, I opted for hours of wandering around the botanical gardens before visiting the Australian Museum. The gardens were the third highlight of my trip, after the Blue Mountains and the Opera House. I could have spent all day wandering around, smelling flowers and walking through various gardens. The museum was interesting and taught me a lot of the atrocities that the British inflicted upon the aboriginal people in Australia. It was also the only place I got to see koalas and kangaroos. (I know the Sydney Zoo is lauded, but I don’t like zoos so I had to settle for sad, taxidermized animals in the museum.) Then I walked down to Barangaroo Harbour for a late lunch before going back to the hotel to pack up for my flight the next morning. I decided to end the trip with a relaxing room-service dinner and get lots of sleep before my very long flight home.

Botanical Gardens

I don’t know if I’ll get to go on another work trip like this one, so I’m just going to appreciate how lucky I was to get to fly across the world and see a little slice of Australia.