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Sydney Opera House, View from The Rocks, CBD

Bradley’s Head, View from a Tallship cruise, CBD

Light Rail, Fish Market Stop

Bondi to Bronte Coastal Walk

Overview

I spent two weeks here while meeting and spending time with distant family. We were able to do a mix of “touristy” things and visiting lots of different suburbs and neighborhoods, which gave me a deep appreciation for this city! We had mobility limitations in our party, but there was still quite a lot to see.

→ Everywhere we went in Sydney (Google Spreadsheet)

Here are a few random things I loved about Sydney:

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Notes and Things

The transit is PRETTY GOOD! when its running. Yes, the double-decker trains seem a little slow and the signage is confusing until you learn how it works, but the bar is low coming from New York. The timetables are factual and the trains/buses/ferries come relatively often. Also, they have comfy movable seats.
- I noticed very New-York esque train maintenance schedules, but it seems well-run regardless and covers a large portion of the city quite reliably. They have very helpful workers guiding ppl to train replacement shuttles and carrying luggage when the lifts are down.
The playgrounds are massive. This has no impact on me as an adult, but I love seeing how absolutely bonkers the jungle gyms are. Modern American parents could never
The food!! This city is so asian and the diversity and quality of food reflects that. There are so many different neighborhoods with entrenched cuisines and they are all. damn. tasty. New York does not have the same quality of vietnamese, indonesian, filipino, malaysian food and certainly not the quality of seafood unless you shell out $$$. maybe thai...
There are public restrooms everywhere, and they are all well maintained. We visited so many public bathrooms.
The beaches and coastal walks. The water is pristine, the beaches are lovely, and they have grassy fields near them which just makes sense and uh do we have this anywhere in the U.S.? Also some parks have public-use beanbags like a muji but outside </aside>

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Visiting? Take note…

Most restaurants have a card surcharge, usually 1-3% but sometimes 5% and up to even 10% for popular restaurants. In addition, most restaurants have a Sunday surcharge and a few even had Saturday/all-weekend charges.
Pay your bill at the front/cashier!
Transport is really easy with train, bus, and ferry. I found the Opal Travel app to be better at directions than Google Maps, and really powerful for planning trips especially in the future since it knows when train lines stop running and such. In addition, Didi and Uber are both common here for carsharing. </aside>

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Navigation

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🥘🍲 Eating through Sydney 🍛🍜

Cabramatta - Vietnamese

Cabramatta (Cabra) is a neighborhood in Western Sydney, about an hour out by train from the inner city and known as Little Saigon due to its high Vietnamese population.

Cabra is packed with great Vietnamese food, snacks, and drinks, along with open markets for fish, meats, and vegetables. I loved walking around and eating everything in sight, including: