It has been several days since I arrived back in Queensland, so I feel this is the best time to blog about my experiences in Sydney. I was Twittering on location (see @smartypants120) somewhat, but there were certain things I did not have time to comment on (holidays are distracting and quite a bit of work).

Firstly, the domestic airport terminal is nice. It looks very fresh and nice; Brisbane could try an upgrade compared to Sydney’s terminal. But that’s where the niceness ended. The direction to the city centre is very loosely signed, and hard to use for a visitor. Using the iPhone to navigate the busy streets of Sydney was stressful; be thankful you were not in my car! But I did end up at the hotel, thankfully. Luckily, the trip back to the airport was a little less difficult.

The hotel I was in was very well appointed, and was very nice to stay in. It was close to everything. But that turned out to be a bad thing, in a way. There were a number of busy night hangouts, and there was quite a bit of noise. This could have been subdued by the NSW police crackdown under Operation Unite. But people were wander around in the early hours of the morning screaming. What is wrong with you people?

Clearly the people of Sydney are very proud of their harbour. It is a wonderful shade of turquoise; it was pleasant to see such a clean bit of water. The setup of Circular Quay is interesting, it’s everyone for themselves to board a ferry. Obviously I did not fall into the water and drown as a result of this. The vista of the harbour is a wonderful sight to behold. But…

The streets always smelled, and not in a nice way. Everywhere I went, a strange odour. Always different, never pleasing. Some of this could be attributed to the fact that you can smoke wherever and whenever you like in Sydney. Sad face.

While it was very nice to visit, I am much happier living in Brisbane. We don’t have as much smoking happening anymore, our public transport is a little cleaner, people have to ability to drive correctly and we have orderly queues for entering ferries and buses. It is the longest I have been away, but I still had a nice time in the unofficial capital of Australia.