Travel Memories: Sydney, Sydney, Australia

‘And the winner is… Sydney!’ For those unaware, these were the words uttered by the president of the International Olympic Committee, the late Juan Antonio Samaranch, in 1993 as he announced which city would be hosting the 2000 Olympics. They became extremely iconic words for all Australians, and, for the rest of the 1990s, excitement and anticipation grew as the new millennium drew closer - and with it, our nation’s opportunity to host one of the world’s biggest sporting events for the first time since 1956.

The 2000 Olympics were arguably one of the best Games ever, and they were perhaps also one of the first major occasions to truly showcase Sydney, and Australia in general, to the outside world, for whom Down Under had previously often been something of an unknown - some faraway land at the bottom of the world where kangaroos hopped along the streets and people got eaten by sharks and crocodiles (some of these stereotypes are annoyingly still perpetuated to this day, but don’t get me started on that..).

Nowadays, with the world having got much smaller, many foreign travellers visit Australia every year. And if there’s one city they all visit, it’s Sydney - the nation’s largest and most iconic metropolis (but NOT, as is sometimes assumed, the capital city. That would be Canberra). Of course it is also a popular domestic destination for Australians living in other parts of the country, and I myself have been there numerous times, both as a child and as an adult. This blog post features photos I have managed to salvage from some of my most recent trips. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).