Loving Life, Loving Sydney

With VIVID here (the three week light and music festival), I have to say, I'm loving Sydney. The city is alive with hoards of people in the streets enjoying this glorious city.

I was discussing with a traveller the charm of Singapore as a modern city, like Sydney or London (because she had said it was 'culture-less', I argued it was a evolving modern city with plenty of history that shaped it, just not a 'culture' that was something you could look at in a patronising Western fashion. It was a global city and the culture was in the thoughts and way of life of the people, that shaped the activities and way they use public spaces. She then stated that she wasn't a fan of Sydney either, and that London was more 'real and historic'. I have no idea how a city isn't real? It has to be real for the people living there. If you see a city and think it isn't real, I suspect that means you haven't made the effort to see beyond the tourist trail. 

Unlike Melbourne, you can't walk down the street and be guaranteed a fabulous meal - you have to do some research but there's plenty of gems at all budgets. If you stay put in the CBD and visit the Rocks, you've missed most of what makes Sydney so special - get up to Palm Beach and catch the ferry, head to West Head or the quaint Bobbin Head,  hit the coast road south. Natural beauty bounds, art is everywhere, music and comedians are on nightly (somewhere) in the city. Sydney (like Singapore) is a city that rewards you with the effort you put into it. 

If you managed to coincide your visit with the three weeks of VIVID, get out on a boat or hit the streets, take in the festival atmosphere and be dazzled by the visual delights. If you live here, don't listen to the naysayers, visit many times in small trips to just one part - the Rocks one night, the Gardens another. Easy, accessible and free.

In it's tenth year, VIVID is now part of our city's history and culture. Real or otherwise.






Follow my Instagram for more VIVID adventures live. 

Linking this old post with #TravelTuesday #MCoW #WednesdayAroundtheWorld because it's lights on for VIVID this weekend, after missing out for two years in a row!