Before we get started let me explain the title of this post, much like how you need to explain any good joke. Residents of Sydney refer to themselves as “Sydneysiders” which sounds a bit odd to me but then again they also call sweets “lollies” here so it could be worse. With that fun fact out the way we can get going.

Arriving 😴

After our quick stopover in Dubai we arrived in Sydney late on Friday night and got the train from the airport into the city where we had a basic but well located room at the Wake Up! Sydney hostel waiting for us for 4 nights. We forked out for a private room which was a bit more expensive than one of the dorm rooms at around £60 per night but after a 13 hour flight we were pretty happy with that choice. As I write this, almost a week after we arrived, we still haven’t fully shaken off the jet lag but we have stopped taking midday naps at least.

The next morning we grabbed what was for Sydney some very reasonably priced breakfast from the cafe downstairs. As somewhat of a connoisseur of scrambled eggs on toast I can highly recommend them, the coffee was good too.

After that we were ready to explore and headed straight for the harbour to see the bridge and the opera house. It had just started raining so we hopped on the tram, which as an aside is a really great way to get around the city. We managed to enjoy a few minutes stroll before the first of many downpours during our stay started which at least gave us a chance to test out the new rain coats we’d both splashed out on for this trip. The opera house was impressive close up and you can get some great (and free) views of it and the harbour if you walk over the bridge.

The Weather ☔️

We had checked the forecast before we flew out and while it looked pretty ominous we were hoping it wouldn’t be too bad. We were wrong. It’s not an exaggeration to say it rained pretty much the entire time we were in Sydney, on the news they were describing it as a “rain bomb” which was pretty apt. The greater area of Sydney received over 700mm of rain in 4 days which caused some pretty serious flooding in parts, for context London receives on average around 600mm in total per year!

We did our best to make the most of it and there were pockets of sunshine but after a while we were running out of dry shoes to wear so we tried to find some sheltered activities.

Rain Safe Fun

After a completely washed out trip to to Bondi Beach we decided to be a bit more realistic about what the weather would allow us to do and visited a couple of museums. First up was the Australian Museum which was really interesting and reminded me how little I know about Australian history and wildlife. We also visited the Powerhouse Museum which is inside a gigantic old tram depot and has some very cool exhibits ranging from trains to photography to space.

Continuing with the heavily tram based theme of this post we also visited the Tramsheds which is an indoor market of sorts with lots of different food available which is also inside a tram depot.

Next Stop, Adelaide 🛫

We only had a few days in Sydney which definitely wasn’t enough and with the weather being as it was we didn’t get a chance to enjoy lots of the great beaches and walks that it has to offer so we’ll be coming back later in the year for sure.

We’re flying out to Adelaide now to stay with Nicole’s brother and his girlfriend for a few weeks, they live right by the beach in Seacliff. We’ll be hanging out with them a bit and sorting out lots of admin such as opening bank accounts and hopefully getting a car which we’ll be using as our main way of travelling, more on that later 👀