Let’s get this out of the way.
If you’re looking for the top 10 Instagram-able places…this is not where you’ll find it.
If you’re looking for the best places to visit, I’ll post some of my most favorite links below for you to check out.
I’m no photographer…so my photos are like what anyone with a smart phone clicks. Some are good. Some…uhhh…not so much.
So…if the above are what you’re looking for in my Travelogue section – honestly, you won’t find them here.
What I have are stories – most of them are directly connected to the places I visit and the people I meet. Some aren’t. Most stories are about good and happy experiences. A very few…not so much. I’ll be honest about all my experiences – with humor and no malice.
These are stories that have affected and changed me. I hope you like them as much as I’ve enjoyed experiencing them. Enjoy!!
Sydney, Australia – Where Life Came a Full Circle
By the messy optimist
What’s not to love about Sydney, Australia?
Gorgeous men? Check. Gorgeous women? Check. Terrific tanned bodies galore? Double Check. Cheery smiles all around? Check again. Just a city, country that oozes friendly behavior? HECK, CHECK.
It was no surprise then that I absolutely loved, loved, loved my stay in Sydney. But Sydney, to me, is more than just a place I visited and a new city and country I explored.
It’s where life for me came to a full circle.
You think that sounds pretty dramatic, no? You can actually hear someone with a deep voice – Morgan Freeman, maybe?- announcing this over a microphone, “Sydney is where Roopa’s life came a full circle!” right?
HAHA! Dramatic it is. But it’s also real. Life really did come a full circle for me in Sydney. But before I explain all that – let me walk you through some of the must-see places in Sydney.
The Many Amazing Sights in Sydney, Australia
Sydney is full of breathtaking sites to see. From the stunning Opera House to Darling Harbor, from the Sydney Harbor Bridge to the Royal Botanical Gardens, from The Rocks to the various cruises from Circular Quay, from Sydney CBD (Central Business District) to Bondi Beach (and Manly and Bronte and Tamarama beaches and many more) – there is just so much more you can do and so much to see and love in this naturally breathtaking city.
Not to mention – the weather is fantastic during times when it pretty much sucks around the world. Like Decembers and Januarys. There are very few places in the world where you can actually travel to during those months without any hope of freezing your toe nails off – but Sydney is one such haven during the freezing wintry December colds. So, if you’re ever stuck wondering if you can actually unfreeze and wear shorts during Decembers and Januarys – Australia and New Zealand and Dubai – these are some must-see places you can visit.
And I firmly believe that when the weather is awesome (like it was when I traveled in December-January) to Australia – the people are friendlier and funner to be around.
When Everything is Digital!
Before I continue gushing ad nauseum about the glories of Sydney – I do have one bone to pick, one axe to grind with the Aussies. And this grouse is something a lot of my fellow crazy travelers will appreciate – which is that every visa stamp we get in our passport is like a badge of honor for us. It’s more than announcing to the world that we visited yet another country. It’s more than just swagger. It’s more than counting the number of visa stamps you have with other travelers and praying you have more. It’s all that. It’s also a traveler’s rite of passage. You WANT, you NEED that stamp in your passport. I can’t explain why…you just do.
But traveling to Australia means that on a tourist visa – everything wrt the visit happens offline. Meaning – your visa is a separate document (you don’t get a visa stamp in your passport) AND the immigration guys at the airport do NOT stamp your passport with an entry/exit stamp either. It ALL happened digitally and online.
I’ve NEVER experienced that before. And I HATED it.
Singapore, Vietnam and many other countries do a separate digital visa BUT you do get an immigration stamp in your passport. Not so with Australia. They check the visa document and make an entry DIGITALLY and let you inside the country. And that’s it.
It was very weird.
And as I eloquently described above my deep-rooted need to collect visa and immigration stamps in my passport (very akin to a silly badge of honor for frequent travelers, I guess and it’s silly, I know) – I was really sad not to get either when I visited the gorgeous country.
When Life Came Full Circle
To return to my original point about Sydney and life coming a full circle there – honestly, personally, Sydney was more than just another tick in my list of countries I visited. And I didn’t even plan for what eventually did happen there. Like, I didn’t mean for it to happen but life does get in the way, sometimes – in a very GOOD way.
In a WONDERFUL way.
As it did with me.
So, I have first cousins I have never met. Like, ever. Then there are other first cousins I’ve met when they were babies and I was a young kid. But for whatever reason – I have first cousins I have very little contact with. It’s probably because we have always lived in different places within India and within the world.
Or, maybe it was because we never made the effort to meet up.
Not because we didn’t want to but because – like I said – life, routine, school, college, jobs, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, children just get in the way sometimes. This whole process of ‘living’ gets in the way.
That’s why traveling is so awesome.
And that’s why Australia is such an important country to me.
It’s where I finally met one of my first cousins after decades. Because of privacy issues I won’t get into details here (if the cousin is OK with it – I’ll come back and add their pictures below) but suffice to say that I spent an entire week in Sydney living very close to them.
I got to know my cousin and family (which included my cousin’s mother-in-law and children). I completely fell in love with my cousin’s younger child and those seven days were some of the best, laugh-out-loud fun days I have ever had in my life.
So yeah…I was in Sydney and I LOVED the Opera House. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Bondi Beach and would move there permanently if someone would let me. I LOVED the Botanical Gardens.
And I just LOVED Sydney. Totally and completely.
But I LOVE Sydney more because it was the first time in a looong time that I took a pause from the business of living and earning and routine to rediscover the joys of childhood and of family.
And I’m happy to say that a few months back I traveled for a week (within India) again and met up with another first cousin and family as well.
Travel is bringing my life full circle.
And it’s a fantastic feeling.
I hope you feel equally fantastic and I hope traveling does for you what it’s doing for me.
Bringing life a full circle.
Things to do in Sydney:
https://travel.usnews.com/Sydney_Australia/Things_To_Do/
