Sydney

Babsi: We should talk about Sydney because that's where we are right now. And that's where we plan to be for quite a while, because it's awesome. This place rocks, rocks in capitals, it's so awesome.

Brett: So you're having a good time?

Babsi: This is the worlds best place. It's so versatile, and so interesting and it has lots of different suburbs which are also interesting. The suburbs of Sydney are not like the suburbs of Vienna, or somewhere dull like that. They are fascinating in their own way, interesting in their own right. It is a good place and it has a good vibe. It really does.

Brett: Yeah I agree, I agree. And it feels kind of safe. I might be wrong, we might have had just a lucky couple of weeks.

Babsi: It is really safe. You walk around at 4 o'clock in the morning and it's cool. It's not aggressive and creepy and wild like London. London is a scary place. You sometimes wonder if you'll make it back home alive, or maybe that's a bit over the top.

Brett: No, I've wondered that sometimes on the night buses in London, “Am I gonna get out of this alive?”

Babsi: I know, but that's definitely not the case in Sydney. And you don't get bored with it, you stay here and you don't do the same thing every day. The city is chaotic and it drags you to different places every day, depending on where you stay and depending on what you decide to do. It's a place whose sights don't get boring, it doesn't get boring to look at the Opera House. It just sits there and it is so fascinating, it looks like a sleeping dinosaur.

Brett: How many times have we been down here to the Opera House? We're sitting here right now in the little café, The Oyster Bar on the wharf looking right at it. How many times do you reckon?

Babsi: It really is the most beautiful wharf. Hmm twenty, thirty maybe. It's ridiculous, we've seen it in all different lights. Maybe not in the early morning, but...

Brett: Ha, Ha, Ha, yeah maybe not then.

Babsi: More often the late evening. Sydney a great place, it really is cool, beautiful.

Brett: Is it a bit spread out?

Babsi: It is but in the inner city you are still near the ocean. There is a bit of traffic but here at the ocean it is so peaceful and you get away from everything. The city bit can be busy and annoying but you just have to find your little corner where you can go and hide. It is so calm and the people are so nice.

Brett: I like the way you travel around town by ferry.

Babsi: Yeah, yeah it has something very Venetian in that. The ferries are like vaparetos, but big, big vaparetos. They are not the tiny Italian ones, they are really quite big and they can take a lot of people. They're great, it makes it really quite beautiful, to be able to travel from place to place in the city by boat. It's awesome.

Brett: Because the city is built round a really big harbour.
Babsi: The public transport is really quite good.

Brett: Absolutely, the public transport is excellent, but the accommodation situation is a nightmare.

Babsi: Yeah the accommodation is hard work, mind you we are not in the higher end of hotel.

Brett: Yeah but there is nothing mid range. There are ridiculously over designed and expensive hotels...

Babsi: And they are still ugly.

Brett: ...or backpackers, and there is nothing in-between. You'll find a concrete shed with shared toilets or a motel outside of town.

Babsi: And that a part of town as beautiful as Balmain has only one place to stay in that whole lovely area is stupid. And they have all these places that used to be hotels, but they are not anymore, and that is very confusing.

Brett: They are on every street corner. So you have places called something like Hotel Kangaroo but they aren't hotels they're pubs.

Babsi: The Balmain Lodge is all right, and it is very, very cheap, if you stay for a week it's cheap.

Brett: It's very cheap, but you share a toilet and the walls are white washed brick.

Babsi: It is really ugly. Luckily I brought some fairy lights on holiday with us and when I put the fairy lights up the place wasn't so bad.

Brett: Yeah, if you had to depend on the light they actually have fitted in the room you'd get sick. It's some horrible neon thing that goes, “bzzt, bzzt, hum.”

Babsi: We should write about them on trip advisor.

Brett: Yeah we should, and let people know what they're in for. And the staff, these old Australian men in shorts, “G'day, we hosed the room down for yer, in yer go.”

Babsi: Yeah, it's pretty creepy but it's cheap, and Balmain is a great area to stay in.

Brett: It reminded me of trendy areas of London like Hampstead. Like Hoxton but better groomed, like Camden without the atmosphere of threat.

Babsi: But it's different because it has so much water, and that's essential. Places like Vienna don't have any water at all, and that's really painful and you feel it in the city.

Brett: Yeah, it makes a difference to the temperature, the heat in Vienna can be unbearable.

Babsi: On a really hot day in the summer you feel like you're going to die.

Brett: And air conditioning is unheard of in Vienna, I think there are only three buildings that have it.

Babsi: I hate air conditioning so I'm not so unhappy about that. The architecture here is so interesting. What I find interesting is the contrast between the old architecture and the new architecture. They really, really go together. Like here at Circular Quay you have all the skyscrapers but you also have a building that looks like it was built in the 30s. You see these buildings from different periods right next to each other all over the city and I find that interesting. And all these sights, I mean Sydney Harbour Bridge is stunning, the Opera House is the same, photographs don't do it justice. You have to just stand in front of it and admire it, and I'm not one for opera houses, I really don't care about them. And you can see plays in it, it's not just the opera. There is heaps of live music, so you don't have to go to expensive clubs to dance your heart out. Something prestigious like the Opera Bar can be young and funky like a club. They have free DJs all the time, like every day. Come here to Sydney and spend as long as possible.

Brett: We've raved about Balmain, but what do you think of Bondi?

Babsi: Oh I love it. Bondi is a lot like Brighton but with better weather. How could I not love Bondi, Bondi is kind of cool. The whole of Sydney is cool and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Brett: Even with the accommodation problem?

Babsi: Pack your own fairy lights to brighten up places like Balmain Lodge, and I would still recommend it, it's so cheap.

Brett: I think only for young people.

Babsi: The North Shore Hotel is all right.

Brett: But it's hot, everything is cheap, the toaster set the fire alarm off, it's sticky, you can't open the windows because of some strange security system.

Babsi: It's still only something like 60 euros a night, even for two people. Another thing I would recommend is the weekly bus ticket, because Sydney is so spread out. And the ticket is good for the ferries as well.

Brett: In Vienna you can just wander about in the middle of town and see most of what you want to see. It's not like that here in Sydney.

Babsi: Well Sydney is ten times bigger. You've just got to live with that. Seriously we're talking about Sydney, Vienna is more like a town compared to that. You absolutely can't compare it.

Brett: Where would Sydney be in your top ten cities?

Babsi: Oh, er, hard, erm, probably 1.

Brett: One thing we have discussed a couple of times though is, what about white Australian people's attitude to the rest of the world and their own aboriginal people.

Babsi: It's difficult, a change of prime minister was definitely a good thing for Australia. I felt that immediately when it was announced and we were back in Vienna. I thought that was very good news for Australia .

Brett: I agree.

Babsi: He creates awareness of aboriginal peoples concerns, the necessity to have representation in parliament. We were warned in New Zealand that peoples attitudes to these issues was worse in Australia but I'm not sure that's true, there was an unpleasant undercurrent in New Zealand as well, but it's good to have a prime minister who cares. I think there is a change happening in Australia, I think it makes a big difference who is at the top. It will make a difference if Barak Obama wins in America, a huge difference actually, a difference you can see immediately. It makes a difference if Prodi is in charge in Italy instead of Berlusconi.

Brett: That welcome ceremony we watched on TV here, they opened Parliament and for the first time he said sorry to the aboriginal people and aboriginal people were part of the opening ceremony for Parliament, and he said he wanted that to become a tradition that would continue, which would never have happened under Howard.

Babsi: Prodi has ideas about making property cheaper in Venice, so maybe this could happen in Sydney.

Brett: You can never predict how it's going to turn out on the ground in politics, but the trying makes a difference. I mean Clinton tried to change the health system, she tried it, and that makes a difference. It puts it on the agenda.

Babsi: So would that make you vote for Clinton or Obama? That's what I want to know.

Brett: I hope they get together and they are a president, vice president team.

Babsi: But which of them would be president though, ha, ha. It's so hard.

Brett: I would want Clinton to be in charge. To reverse the normal stereotypical, man in charge, woman second in command roles.

Babsi: But that's ridiculous, are you telling me that you would not want Obama.

Brett: I would secretly want Obama.

Babsi: I want Obama because the whole system is a bit sticky and dodgy and if Bill Clinton got back to the White House you have got to think about this.

Brett: Anyone who gets to this level in politics is no angel. So is it an issue in Australia because...

Babsi: The interesting thing about Sydney is that it is still cosmopolitan. Sydney is probably more cosmopolitan than London, I can't explain it, it's just..., it's got to do with the attitudes. Because London is very cosmopolitan, and so on, and so on, but deep, deep, deep underneath, they're still racists. They really are, and here there might be more white people around and in jobs, but that was the same in London.

Brett: To get here today we just walked right through the business centre of town, and it was lunch time when the office people come out, and every single one of them was white. It was thin young women, executives and secretaries, and fat old men, the ones with the real power. It's the same as Vienna and London.

Babsi: Yes, yes, yes, but somehow, yeah I know what you mean. So London is more cosmopolitan in the look, and attitude but underneath, it's not perfect. The visuals of the street might be mixed but the attitudes are still the same.

Brett: But that's still important. A friend of mine once told me about how he liked it when he got on a bus in London and heard all the different languages from around the world. It's a groovy thing that you can be anyone and be accepted at least that much. Another friend of ours told us about the bad experiences he'd had in Australia because of being black.

Babsi: Absolutely they were racist. But that was Howard times. I really think that Sydney and all of Australia is in for a change. I feel really positive about it. I feel it's better than Vienna, because even though Vienna has all these people from the East, they are still very racist. And all these dodgy things keep happening that bring shame on Austria.

Brett: I don't want to say Australia is bad, it's not, it's just not good. Vienna is bad.

Babsi: Yes. Vienna is bad. In political campaigns you've got all these dodgy posters hanging all over the place. It's one big uncomfortable fact, and here, I think it's better here than Vienna, but I don't think London is so perfect, it is an issue. London is an interesting and special place and you'll never forget it but it is so grim. This grim thing, the British have taken it and made an art form out of it in music and painting and television.

Brett: We've only ventured into the suburbs here in Sydney a couple of times, but I found them grim.

Babsi: You found them grim? Balmain? no.

Brett: No, we just went to see the zoo and we walked through one of the suburbs, Mossman I think it is, anyway it's so suburban. Anyone who's seen Neighbours will recognise it. They are these mid size houses, kind of palatial but not a palace, bigger than a normal house. Gardeners turning up, kind of deserted because everyone is out at work apart from mums in jogging pants. Everything looked after and painted, awful, just awful place to live. The burbs, Wisteria Lane.

Babsi: But the funny thing is whatever bothers me in other places, doesn't bother me in Sydney. It's really weird.

Brett: Why is that?

Babsi: I don't know, I just like it too much.

Brett: I see.

Babsi: I don't know. I thought it was ok. I'd live in one of those houses if it meant I could stay in Sydney.

Brett: Gasp. You'd live in one of those horrible suburban little houses.

Babsi: If I could stay in Sydney yes.

Brett: My, my. So how many spirals would you give Sydney?

Babsi: Ten, but we only give five, so I'll give it four because of the accommodation.

Brett: Oh really?

Babsi: Hmm, the accommodation is really annoying.
Brett: Is there anywhere in the world you'd give five.

Babsi: Well I do like San Francisco.

Brett: But Bush is in charge and you vowed you'd never go to America while he's still in power.

Babsi: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. First Barak Obama has to get elected and then I can go to America again. And Schwarzeneger is governor so I have a problem with that too.

Brett: Yes as an Austrian, your countries most embarrassing...

Babsi: I really wish I wasn't Austrian. Every bad thing that happens seems to come from Austria somehow. I do like Italy, and Italy under Prodi is a fine thing.

Brett: So how about Venice?

Babsi: I don't know, probably.

Brett: So everybody should go to Venice, that's our recommendation?

Babsi: No, no, no Sydney, go to Sydney if you can as a student. Just go to Sydney. So how many spirals would you give Sydney.

Brett: Three.

Babsi: Oh, why?

Brett: It's a bit like a mall, all the architecture is modern, made of cheap stuff, made of plastic. All the rooms are square with low ceilings. Everything is nicely painted. It's not real.

Babsi: That's interesting. That's an interesting perspective. Now you say that, I can see it – but I don't agree, I don't.

Brett: Darling harbour especially is like a mall with no roof. They don't need one because the weather is so good.

Babsi: But it's so pretty with the water and the fountains.

Brett: It's not real like Venice.

Babsi: Venice is also bad for accommodation. You're kidding yourself man.

Brett: But it's real. The rats, the filth, but Jazz and people laughing.

Babsi: Sydney is real but in a different way.

Brett: It's a European idea imposed where it doesn't quite work and everyone is fighting hard to prevent the bush from taking it over again.

Babsi: No, that's the other cool thing. It's so green there is so much green stuff here.

Brett: Yeah, yeah, they allow little patches of bush as novelties but it's not part of their life, it's not who they are. They're in the pub, they're in the office, they're in the burbs.

Babsi: But that's just normal life.

Brett: Not in Vienna. Sitting in a Viennese café you are connected with the land, with history. Your waiter probably comes from a country subjugated by the Austrian Empire two hundred years before and still bears the grudge, he'll throw your coffee at you.

Babsi: That kind of real, I can really do without. And you'd still give it three spirals, you complain about it so much and you still give it three spirals. How many spirals would you give Vienna.

Brett: Three.

Babsi: WHAT? That's not true. You can't give Vienna three and Sydney three. Is there any city you would give five stars to.

Brett: That's hard. It has to be wind swept and majestic sometimes, but sometimes quite nice so you don't go bonkers. Venice.

Babsi: Venice, so that's your number one city in the whole world. It is quite cool. We're going to have to go live there and pine for Sydney. Though the vaparetos are a lot more expensive than a weekly ticket round here. Sydney is real and groovy in a different way.

Brett: What way?

Babsi: A different way.

Brett: What way?

Babsi: It's happy. It allows itself to be happy.

Brett: Maybe that's the feeling I'm uncomfortable with.

Babsi: Well then you're just weird.

Brett: I think that's a really good place to end, Sydney is happy.

Babsi: Come to Sydney

Brett: Drop everything and come to Sydney.

All photos by Barbara Stanzl http://pink-lioness.deviantart.com/