We’ve picked out the things you to do in Sydney at least once, from kayaking under the Coathanger and cocktails with a 360-degree view to our favourite weekly markets.
Here at Time Out, we make no secret about the fact that we love Sydney – helping you enjpy the best of this place is pretty much the guiding light behind everything we do. But despite holding our beautiful Harbour City in our heart, even the most devoted Sydneysiders get antsy. And by antsy, we really mean disproportionately pissed off over those little inconveniences of Sydney life. We know that many of these aren’t reasonable – hell, some of them aren’t even sane. But we defy you not to agree that at least a few of these things have also filled you with a white-hot, completely irrational rage.
Sydney buses
Whether it’s the loosey-goosey respect for a timetable, watching the bus you’ve been waiting for for the past 25 minutes speed past without stopping, that jolt you get when the driver starts up as you're tapping your Opal, being up in a stranger's grill when standing in the aisle, or that "old cabbage smell" (as one Time Out staffer put it), a Sydney bus's aim in life seems to be winding people up.
Sydneysiders with umbrellas
Using an umbrella should be a simple task, right? Apparently not in Sydney. They’re either being used to impale the eyeballs of hapless passersbys who get too close, or mangled and shoved in the bin.
Taxi drivers asking for directions
Isn’t knowing how to reach the place passengers need to go to literally 50 per cent of the job? Can I have a discount for directing you to somewhere you seem to think is an obscure enclave like, I dunno, Surry Hills?
Giving Bondi just one more chance
Even though you know, deep down, what’s going to happen, every couple of years you decide to give Sydney’s most famous beach one last go, only to be reminded by the terrible parking, the hordes of people, and the insane amount of time it takes to both reach and leave it, that it is one of the single most infuriating locations on Earth.
People who live in the Inner West pitying you for not living in the Inner West
Contrary to popular belief, suburbs outside of ‘the bubble’ are not some kind of dystopian, post-apocalyptic hellscape. Telling an Inner Westie that you live in Parramatta or Crows Nest or Cronulla can feel like you're telling them you’ve got a terminal illness and only days to live.
New Year’s Eve
Yes, yes, Sydney has the NYE fireworks display. Yes, it gets broadcast all over the world. But actually being in Sydney on December 31 is a maddening mix of overpriced events, irritating crowds, and negotiating the whims of all your indecisive mates in a vain attempt to have a 'good time'.
The damp
Despite the eye-watering sums most renters have to pay, not to mention the stratospheric cost of actually buying a property, there are very few pads that don't have at least some damp and potentially life-threatening black mould to contend with.
A banh mi made with a brown roll
WHY WOULD YOU MESS WITH PERFECTION? The king of sandwiches should not be sullied with anything other than a fresh, crusty, white baguette. And to say otherwise is just plain sacrilege. Anyone who dares disagree in the comments, please consider yourself the beneficiary of all our irrational rage for today.
Cafés that stop serving coffee at 3pm
Just when you could really use a caffeine boost in the early arvo is, for reasons that don’t make much sense, the exact time most baristas hang up their aprons for the day.
Slow walkers
Especially on Pitt and George Street. C’mon people! Pick up the pace!
Train station layouts
We’re not sure who decided that Central and Town Hall stations should be absurd labyrinths with minimal signage and a million confusing exits, but whoever it was is a probably cackling from the heavens every time someone steps out into Eddy Avenue instead of Devonshire Street like they wanted to.
How normal people turn into psychopaths when driving in Sydney
There is a horrifying transformation that seems to take over Sydneysiders when they get behind the wheel. Folks who are usually sweethearts suddenly become hellbent lunatics, honking at the car in front if it doesn’t move a millisecond after the lights turn green, and weaving in and out of traffic to reach the next set of red lights a few moments before those they overtook.
Driving in Sydney
Just because we can acknowledge that peoples’ behaviours when driving in Sydney are a bit OTT doesn’t mean we’re immune from that very same road rage ourselves. Even the tiniest level of inconvenience caused by a fellow road user will turn us into a seething monster.
Venues you didn't realise were 'cash only' until you came to pay
Who the hell carries actual currency around with them any more? We’ll make allowances for markets but that's it.
Those aformentioned eye-watering property prices
Nuff said.
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