Mardi Gras parade tips

- If you get there at 2 or even 3 pm you will have a front row spot. The wait goes by quicker than you'd think.
- Set up on Oxford Steet.
- Get milk crates from a convenience store (seriously) or bring $10 to buy a seat. Even though you won't need them to stand on (since you are in the front row), you are sitting waiting for five hours. Also, a milk crate is wider than you are when standing, so you create more room for yourself and don't have people constantly quashing you.
- UMBRELLA -ella -ella -ella -AY AY Ay ay
- they move the fence forward at 6 pm or so. Hold on!

China town bank lions, Sydney. Nothing to do with Mardi Gras, sue me.

Sydney - parade vs. party

"Happy Mardi Gras!"

The wilderness/city opposites of the last post wasn't the only contrast for us in Sydney. Mardi Gras parade was fantastic while the after-party left something to be desired:

We got to the parade site at 2:00 pm (for a 7:30 pm start) so we had front row seats!

By the time it started, the streets were quite literally packed shoulder to shoulder:

Some of the floats were just beautiful and the vibe was awesome - cheering and smiles all around. Some favourite floats include the lifeguards, the giant-cd-fish, the Wizard of Oz, the children and parents, and the general diversity of all of them (like Thai Drag queens, or "Gay Anglicans with our Muslim friends"). We had so much fun!

VS.
In contrast, the after party was disappointing. There were thousands and thousands of people there, so I'm sure many people enjoyed it, but for us, the music was just awful. What's a dance party without good music? Plus, the atmosphere was... well, it felt like a combination of grad+YC+laser challenge+cattle yard+shirtless man-fest. Plus, did I mention the music? The taxi on the way home had better music. Don't get me wrong, I like trashy bar music. But this wasn't even that! Anyway, we had a good time making fun of it all.

[picture your grad after party] (we didn't take any pics, it turns out!)

Sydney - wilderness vs. city

Sydney was a place of opposites for us. First we stayed with local couchsurfer host Sara. Sara was wonderful. She picked us up at the airport, fed us, hung out with us, drove us around and was great to chat with.

Sara took us to nearby national park Ku-ring-gai. Even though it's super touristy in Sydney, we only saw two other people in the park - WAY more big spiders than people. We also saw a lace monitor (think of the evil Joanna on Rescuers Down Under. Man that was a good show.)

We hiked down to the ocean along the Flint and Steel track, where we found our own private beach to swim at. We did another short hike to an aboriginal stone carving site and then got a view of the city from Hunter's Hill.

host Sara near the beach

VS.
Next day we were in the city. Huge contrast: living in busy downtown at big 780 on George hostel, this was all hustle and bustle. We spent our days exploring, one of the highlights being a ferry trip to Manly Beach past the famous opera house.

Manly beach area

Opera house and its reflection in ferry window