Daniel Topalovic
Course: MSc Business Innovation and Management Consulting
Country: Germany
University: Hochschule München
UTS Year and Session: Spring 2018
During my Master´s degree in Munich, I decided to do a semester abroad so that I could see a new country. As the winter semester was the perfect time to go abroad, I wanted to move to a warmer region with native English speakers. Since I've already been to the US, I chose Sydney over California with the UTS as my Go-To-Uni.
Living in Sydney
Sydney is pretty big with a population of around 5 million people. The coolest areas are Surry Hills, Paddington, Bondi and Manly. The Australian lifestyle is pretty chilled out, so I recommend going out for breakfast and brunch in Surry Hills and Paddington, as this is where you can meet the most locals.
Nights out in Sydney are not as much fun as in Europe, but I still loved going out and trying different places and meeting new people all the time.
Starting with the main attractions in the city, I advise to do them at day-time and night-time. The Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge look amazing from The Rocks as seen in the panorama above.
The beautiful beaches are other great attractions that are obviously well known. The coastal walk from Bondi to Bronte is famous, with amazing lookout spots along the way. On this walk you will also walk past many more nice beaches including Tamarama Beach. The walk starts at the pools in Bondi and ends at the pool in Bronte.
Road trips around Sydney
Escaping the city is very easy. The natural sights around Sydney are amazing and it is only around one or two hours to reach the national parks by car. Renting a car for a day is also not that expensive if you go with some friends and you share the costs. Also, driving on the other side of the road is a great experience if you have not done it yet.
East of Sydney, there are the Blue Mountains which is a very big national park with a lot of things to do. We did the Grand Canyon hike starting at some lookout spots where you have a great look on the mountains. After that the hike goes down into the woods and it looks like a rain forest in the jungle with amazing waterfalls. The lookout spot for the three sisters is best if you do it in the evening when the sun goes down as there are almost no tourists and the sunset is stunning over the mountains.
Jervis Bay is a three-hour trip to the south of Sydney with great nature, a lot of animals and amazing beaches. We arrived in Huskisson where we had our accommodation for the weekend. The view from the beach is stunning with changing color of the water as the sun color changes – we took an amazing picture with our drone. The next day we started with breakfast on Chinamans Beach at sunrise. The beaches in Jervis Bay have white powdery sand and the water is greenish blue. Unfortunately, we had some clouds during sunrise, but breakfast was still good. In addition, we spotted wild kangaroos and wallabies in the area, as they also love the beaches there.
At the Booderee Botanic Gardens, you can see some snakes and turtles if you are lucky. I also recommend trying to chill out at Cape St George Lighthouse. Here you can see whales and/or dolphins depending on what time of the year you visit Jervis Bay.