The Emerald City

So here we are …. Here I am! In Sydney… The Emerald City, as they call it. Actually, this is the first time that I have stumbled upon this fact about my new home. There isn’t any special reason for this name, just a famous Australian play of the same name. Not that impressive I must say.

The reasons I am here are many, so many. Some more important than others, others less important, but still important.

It has just been over a fortnight that I landed in this city and it hasn’t taken me long to get accustomed to the surroundings. I guess the main reason for this has been my previous experience in England. Mentally I was ready for the same situations but it’s been a pleasant surprise.

It seems as if there aren’t many places that you can go and visit. You go to the city centre and it has that feel of being a metropolitan city, but that’s that. The Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, The Darling Harbour, Circular Quay, The Rocks and Port Jackson may seem like a lot of places to see, but being honest, they are so close together, it actually feels like the same place.

Anyways I don't like the famous places in a city, it is the streets, the markets, the people and the food that attracts me the most and that there is aplenty.

Actually, a walk of just an hour or so is what you need, that’s it, you are done seeing the ‘places to visit’ in Sydney. But there are other attractions too, the Bondi Beach is extremely busy at this time of the year, while the Taronga Zoo, Wildlife Zoo, Royal Botanical Gardens, Hyde Park and Madame Tussauds don’t startle you a lot, it just feels the poorer sister of London or a bad bad impersonator if I am being a little harsh.

Sydney is … Sydney. It is unlike the other famous cities of the world. First thing I have noticed about it is the quietness. Although the city has around five million people and is the biggest in the Kangaroo Country, it still has that calmness and peacefulness about it. I like it, I like quietness and calmness. As I said, just my kinda city.

It’s not overcrowded, but it is still busy, especially during office hours. But the transport system is good, the trains are not full of people all the time, which has made me like it more. It has more Asian people than I thought and apparently, fewer Australians than I imagined, which is a little strange.

The weather is extreme, the summer is hot, I don’t know if that’s the case every year, but these few days have reminded me of Pakistan for all the wrong reasons; the heat and the sweating, But fortunately the evenings are cooler, sometimes even cold. It does rain every now and then, which is good, it is raining even now, as I type down my first article in over three years.

It has the freedom; the feeling that everything will happen the way you want, the way things should be and that you will get what you deserve, you will get what you will work for, which is not the case back home, so this is something that really matters a lot.

Only one thing is missing here, I know what that is, and that’s the most important thing.

People here say only lucky ones get to live in Sydney, I must say I don’t feel that way, for now, not as yet. Hopefully, I will feel that way too because after all, it is just my kinda city.