Hey, it's only February 4th (Clarice's birthday by the way) and I'm just now getting to New Year's in Sydney. Suck it up, cupcake!
New Year's Eve (NYE) for us started very early. We had a 6:00AM flight out of Hobart and had to drop off the rental car first. While security in Australian airports is not quite as strict as in the States (it is getting there) we still needed to be at the airport about an hour before the flight, so we left the hotel at 4:30AM. If you know me at all, you know I cannot function without a shower, so that meant not a lot of sleep for me! ***sigh***
We made it back to Sydney, got the car out of airport hock and made it home with it still pretty early in the morning. Straight to bed... well Clarice unpacked first (this is her normal function, she could not sleep with dirty laundry in a suitcase and not in the hampers).
We were invited to spend NYE with Paul and Amber, our good friends who live in North Sydney. It is only a few blocks from their place to a nice spot along the harbour where we could watch the fireworks off the Sydney Harbour Bridge and elsewhere in the harbour. Since Sydney is a little bit bigger than Warsaw, we figured we were in for a treat.
One of the nice things Sydney does on NYE is "Family Fireworks". Somebody smart (probably a mother) said, "Hey my kids are awful NewYear's Day because they stay up all night just to see the fireworks. Maybe if we had an earlier fireworks we could put them to bed and save a lot of parents a ton of grief. Kind of like a late Christmas present." (I don't know if those were his/her exact words - I'm paraphrasing... well making it up, but you get the idea). Anyway, to appease all the little ones Sydney launches fireworks at 9:00PM as well! What a great idea, especially considering that it is summer here and people want to be outside and see fireworks. The entire early fireworks, though not off the bridge, was a very "4th of July" atmosphere with people playing loud music, munching grilled meats and generally having a good time. After walking down to the 9:00 fireworks, we trudged back up the hill to Paul and Amber's for some more refreshment before making the exact same walk back down just before midnight.
Another interesting thing about Sydney's NYE celebration is that they have a theme every year complete with a glowing symbol of that theme on the center of the bridge. This year's theme was "Creation" and the symbol was predominantly the Sun, but it changed shapes often during the fireworks before settling back into Sun form when they concluded.
The entire event was spectacular and easily the biggest fireworks display I have every seen live. The shot things off not only the harbour bridge, but all up and down the harbour mouth. The crummy video below, captured with Clarice's camera, so not even begin to do it justice.
New Year's Eve (NYE) for us started very early. We had a 6:00AM flight out of Hobart and had to drop off the rental car first. While security in Australian airports is not quite as strict as in the States (it is getting there) we still needed to be at the airport about an hour before the flight, so we left the hotel at 4:30AM. If you know me at all, you know I cannot function without a shower, so that meant not a lot of sleep for me! ***sigh***
We made it back to Sydney, got the car out of airport hock and made it home with it still pretty early in the morning. Straight to bed... well Clarice unpacked first (this is her normal function, she could not sleep with dirty laundry in a suitcase and not in the hampers).
We were invited to spend NYE with Paul and Amber, our good friends who live in North Sydney. It is only a few blocks from their place to a nice spot along the harbour where we could watch the fireworks off the Sydney Harbour Bridge and elsewhere in the harbour. Since Sydney is a little bit bigger than Warsaw, we figured we were in for a treat.
One of the nice things Sydney does on NYE is "Family Fireworks". Somebody smart (probably a mother) said, "Hey my kids are awful NewYear's Day because they stay up all night just to see the fireworks. Maybe if we had an earlier fireworks we could put them to bed and save a lot of parents a ton of grief. Kind of like a late Christmas present." (I don't know if those were his/her exact words - I'm paraphrasing... well making it up, but you get the idea). Anyway, to appease all the little ones Sydney launches fireworks at 9:00PM as well! What a great idea, especially considering that it is summer here and people want to be outside and see fireworks. The entire early fireworks, though not off the bridge, was a very "4th of July" atmosphere with people playing loud music, munching grilled meats and generally having a good time. After walking down to the 9:00 fireworks, we trudged back up the hill to Paul and Amber's for some more refreshment before making the exact same walk back down just before midnight.
Another interesting thing about Sydney's NYE celebration is that they have a theme every year complete with a glowing symbol of that theme on the center of the bridge. This year's theme was "Creation" and the symbol was predominantly the Sun, but it changed shapes often during the fireworks before settling back into Sun form when they concluded.
The entire event was spectacular and easily the biggest fireworks display I have every seen live. The shot things off not only the harbour bridge, but all up and down the harbour mouth. The crummy video below, captured with Clarice's camera, so not even begin to do it justice.
This video is much better. I'm "borrowing" it from YouTube. It does get kind of loud.
We had a great time, and a special thanks to Paul and Amber for having us out! Definitely a NYE to remember! Hopefully 2009 goes that well all year long. So far... so good!
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