I'm not saying it's the best place in oz, just that it beats the hell out of any place I've lived in the States, Latin America or Europe.
The quality of life you guys have is ridiculous. I don't know if a lot of Aussies get that.
The quality of life you guys have is ridiculous. I don't know if a lot of Aussies get that.
the climate: Just amazing. look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney#Climate and marvel. Tons of sunlight, moderate temperatures but you still get seasons (so no San Diego syndrome of 70-degrees year round).
the people: unbelievably friendly and easy going. take small-town midwest hospitality and invert the xenophobia. common decency, they wait in lines for the buses, but if someone cuts in line (doesn't know or is just being a dick) everyone kind of just mutters and shakes their heads. In Chicago, someone would have gotten stabbed. But who am I kidding, no one would line up in the first place and they would just mob the entrance. I almost took a guy's eye out surfing, his response? "no worries mate, my fault" (it wasn't).
scenery / the outdoors: Sydney is the most naturally beautiful I've ever seen. I take a ferry ride for 30 minutes every morning through the harbor. This week there were whales breaching in the background and a couple of little penguins [1] swimming around screaming their heads off looking for their mother. It's like living in a Disney movie. I wouldn't be surprised one morning to look out and see a Koala riding a dolphin and giving me the thumbs up. It's just unreal. On the way home? sun setting behind the harbor bridge and opera house.
miscellaneous things:
-a lot less religious extremism, it's very european in regard to the general secularism.
-the mainstream brands of beer are really really good. you don't have to rely on microbrews like you do in the states.
-the proto Sydney girl is tall, fit, blonde, blue-eyed and can probably drink you under the table.
-coffee - this was the big surprise, my god they're crazy about good coffee here. in the states you had to hunt for a decent espresso and then fail-over to starbucks. here you can walk into any cafe and get an amazing espresso. I've never seen anything like it outside of Milan.
In summation I'd say, imagine an english speaking country with a mediteranean climate, lots of european influences in food and drink and midwest levels of decency but in a +4 million person city with a major economy. And then put it in the most amazing natural setting you can imagine.
Rather off-topic, but do you or any other fellow HNers have suggestions for places to meet other hackers or like-minded people?
In Vienna there's Metalab [2], a very nice hackerspace populated by lots of creative people. I just found out about a place called Robodino [3] in Sydney. Are there any other meetups?
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_most_livable_cities
I'm in northern europe now and while the espresso bug has hit them, it's all only just a bit better than Starbucks at this point.
(Grass is greener etc).