Sydney

Cities by the water radiate a special kind of energy, and on a sunny day like our first in Sydney, they are happy cities. The ferry took us straight into Sydney harbour, the opera house gleaming on our left and Harbour bridge towering to our right, the quay buzzing with commuting businessmen, street musicians and the forlorn passengers of a monstrous cruise ship. On the summit of the bridge arch, little shadows inched along like a colony of ants crawling to the top of a rock, the famous bridge walk. Nicknamed "the Coathanger", it is the tallest steel arch bridge in the world but what struck me was its precarious construction. The deep waters of Sydney Harbour made temporary supports impractical, so the arch was assembled by building out from each bank and met in 1930 after seven years of labour.

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We strolled through The Rocks neighbourhood, up to the observatory and through the town centre to the birdcage canopy in Angel Place, a side street atmospherically decorated with overhanging birdcages from which invisible birds tweet and sing, through the botanical gardens and all the way to Mrs Macquarie's Point which offers a panorama of Sydney's most famous features. This of course includes the iconic opera house, which we were lucky enough to see from behind the scenes, entering through the stage door where they were just loading setting and equipment for that night's performance. As a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, no alterations to the building and decor are authorised, we learned, which is a shame in the case of the intense purple carpet. As I flicked through the program, one of the opera's flagship festival entitled All About Women, occurring as a prelude to International Women's day on 8th March, caught my eye. Talks and podcasts are held, this year about topics such as "women in the age of Trump" and the "metoo" hashtag, all discussions I can truly appreciate the importance of and will be catching up on on youtube.

The cliff-top coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee we did the next day, although overrun by local fitness freaks in full gym gear, was enjoyable and a nice way of seeing the world famous beach without having to roast on it. Sydney was a breath of city life between two islands, bustling yet surprisingly easy-going and jovial, a reminder of how homely a big city was.

Sascha xx