As my time abroad in the loveliest place on earth wraps up, I wanted to tell the readers (you guys!) my favorite things in Australia—ranging from food to the best tourist things to the hole in the walls! I am actually losing my mind thinking about how fast my time down under has gone, and I am getting a little sad and reminiscent as I write this final post and finish up my last couple of weeks here.
Studying abroad has been the best decision I have made in my college career! The friends I have made will last a lifetime. The experiences I’ve had are unforgettable. Trying school in a different country has been nothing but rewarding, and I have learned so much about the world—but especially myself and how I can take on this crazy thing called life!
Blah, blah, blah, Alex! Enough with all the sappy, sad stuff. Let’s get into the juicy stuff.
Food and Drinks Things
Starting strong, I’m gonna drive into one of my favorite things about traveling anywhere: new food! Coming from Montana with no cities and then going to school in Pullman, Washington (also not a city), I have never lived in a place with so many food options. It is honestly very overwhelming to have more than 20 choices of each type of food I am craving within a five-mile radius!
In general, Australia’s Thai food is so amazing that only the country of Thailand can compete (thank you, spring break, for giving me this knowledge). No, but seriously, all amazing Thai food! Very authentic! Here, I have found that I absolutely love pad see ew and tom yum soup! So, if you are ever in Australia, hit up the Thai restaurants. Anywhere in America doesn’t stand a chance!
Australia also slays in the gelato industry, and you can trust my opinion on this because, growing up, I always said my dream job would be an ice cream taste tester! Some say I have a special type of taste that allows me to find the best gelato places, but don’t be fooled: Anywhere you eat gelato in Sydney. you will be very, very happy with a very, very full tummy! For my lactose-intolerant friends, don’t worry. The sorbet options here are wonderful, and, I think, even better than the gelato!
If you ever find yourself craving some gelato in Sydney, some places I would recommend are Mapos, Riverno, Anita, Gelatissimo, and Messina! Mapos has real, authentic, thick, creamy gelato. Every time I’m there, they have the most original flavors!
Riverno is the showstopper in my eyes. Creamy but light at the same time, it’s a smooth gelato that literally melts in your mouth like icing. Riverno is perfect! Anita and Gelatissimo are my most frequented (to-go to and to Doordash—so they travel well!) with solid flavors, they’re two places you can always count on when you’re in the gelato mood. Messina is a special treat when I find that I’m in downtown Sydney near the Opera House. I love the feel of this place (so vibey). The flavors are very unique, but they also have the classics. If you are a gelato lover, make sure you hit Messina!
I was told when I first got here that Australia is not the place for Mexican food, but don’t be sad if you love Mexican because, boy oh boy, have I found the place all Mexican food lovers can go when they are upside down! El Camino is an Australian chain of Mexican food with free bottomless chips, salsa, and queso! They also have killer happy hour deals, two-dollar taco Tuesdays, and the best part of it all: Every seat in the restaurant has a rainbow sombrero at if waiting for you to wear when you sit down! It’s awesome. My favorite dish there, though not authentic Mexican, is their Mac Taco—it’s a spin-off of McDonald’s Big Mac, and let me tell you, it is the most delicious treat ever; my mouth is watering right now just writing about it!
When at Coogee Beach, make sure to fuel up with some fish and chips from the Chish and Fips shack right on the beach! Guard these precious fillets with your life, though, because the seagulls live to mooch! No, but for real, you haven’t had good fish and chips until you have had these. Every time I’m at the beach, I’m tempted to spend thirteen dollars to get me some! And don’t get me started on the tartar sauce; that and a little lemon is perfection!
A perfect day is getting Chish and Fips for a late lunch before starting the Coogee to Bondi Coastal Walk (which I’ll get to). Then, to celebrate finishing the 6-kilometer walk up and down a lot of steps, stop by Grumpy Pizza, get pizza to-go, and set yourself down at Bondi Beach to watch the most perfect sunset!
Now, if you’re not much of a beachgoer or chain food lover, that’s okay. There’s lots to offer in Sydney. Some of my favorite places in downtown Sydney are Morrisons, The Rocks Café, and Sydney’s Oldest Pub! If you like to ingest a little bit of seafood now and again and would like to treat yourself to some oysters on a budget, you need to hit up Morrisons on Wednesday nights from 6-7 p.m. for 1-dollar oysters and cocktail happy hour! Morrisons has much more than just that; they offer amazing appetizers and delectable entrees with a finer dining-type feel! 10/10 would recommend!
If you are a breakfast foodie, I recommend heading to The Rocks Café and grabbing a (big) bite of their breakfast options! Their eggs and benny are to die for, and they also have some killer avocado toast with a perfectly poached egg. If you are more of an advantageous diner, you’ll love their roasted mushroom open toast dish!
If you find yourself on Rocks Street in the evening time and fancy a beer, you must head to Sydney’s Oldest Pub and get a stubby of the Stone Wood! Take your glass outside, find seating in their dimly lit patio, and enjoy this lively ‘hood of Sydney! #Vibes
School Things
Don’t worry, Mom—I also kept up with my studies, I promise! While working on school after class and around campus this semester, I found many good spots to sit and complete my schoolwork! UNSW in Sydney has amazing spots outside to study. One of my favorite spots to hit up in between classes is the Mathews Arcade and Pavilion on the upper campus! They have a lot of food options, which helped me get through study sessions. There is a lot of outdoor seating near wonderful greenery and big trees.
Also, during the beginning of the semester when Australia was still in the heat of summer, the Pavilion would be a perfect place to finish up school in the afternoon because there is tons of seating with shade. My favorite study snack to help me persist was the hand rolls on campus. They were so good, I owe my GPA this semester to those little buggers for helping me through it!
Another amazing spot to sit and study at UNSW is at the Quadrangle. The Quadrangle is a square with a large grassy area and a border of shaded booths close to the International Housing I lived in this semester. The location was perfect for a quick escape from my room to get outside and be productive! And I also felt so comfortable doing my homework in the middle of campus at an outdoor booth.
Anytime I needed to get off campus but wanted to work on school, I would take a short bus ride to Coogee Beach, set myself up at Little Jack’s Café, watch the waves, and get er done! Little Jack’s Café is the city’s little hole-in-the-wall-café. There are tons of hanging plants, benches with pillows, wide open windows, and a few picnic tables outside. Little Jack’s Café would be the place a group of us would head to really grind the school out and then head to the ocean afterward as a reward!
Daily Things
School in Australia is a lot different from the United States’ university system. I haven’t decided which I liked better, but both were stimulating and rewarding experiences. In Australia, I only took three classes that met twice a week and had about three essays in each class. There was a lot less busy work for school here, but I didn’t mind at all because I had a lot of exploring to do in the great land of Australia.
A lot of my exploring was done at the beaches all around Sydney. My favorite exploring included shell searching at all the beaches, and now I have this giant collection of shimmery seashells that I used as room décor in my dorm-type room this semester! If I had to choose which beach had the best shells, even though they all had amazing shells, I think I would have to go with Bondi Beach! Bondi has a bunch of rocks on each side of the beach, and these huge rock formations have little tide pools and crevasses in them. This is where I find my treasures! Not to be too biased, but my favorite and largest shells I have found have been from my treasure hunts at Bondi.
I spent a ton of time at the beaches not only shell searching but also lounging, body surfing, getting my glow on, and walking the coast! The Coastal Walk is a ~4-mile walk along all the major beaches in NSW around Sydney. It spans from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach and has the most amazing views of many calm bays and the crashing waves at some of the bigger beaches.
The walk is always packed with runners, dog walkers, and tourists, but it is still such an amazing time. My favorite segment of the walk is when the trail dips down onto Bronte Beach, and then you walk up a bunch of stairs after a quick sandy walk and can see all the way to Bondi. The walk is best at sunset, in my opinion, because the ocean blue glows against the pinks and oranges of the most colorful sunsets I’ve ever seen.
Along the Coastal Walk, Tamarama Beach (or Tammy, for short) is one stop away from Bondi Beach. This beach is one of my most frequented beaches, and I think my all-time favorite beach. There are these crazy rocks that provide awesome shade and seating along each side of the beach. Also, the beach isn’t too long horizontally but rather vertically, and at the end of the beach farthest from the ocean, there is a small picnic area with giant pine trees, picnic tables, a BBQ, and grass lawns. This beach, sculpted with large rocks, has the best spots to tan and lounge in the sun, and the water is bright turquoise. So beautiful!
Another trip I frequented was across the harbor on a ferry. This is Many Beach. I often went here on my free weekends to take a trip through the city and then stop at the markets they set up at the Manly strip. The market has many local vendors, yummy local foods, and often small free concerts going on. The vibes in Manly were unmatched, and it always felt like a little vacation heading there!
Tourist Things
Even though I had over three months, the city is so large with so much going on that I was always reminded that I was a tourist. This I wasn’t upset about thought. Sometimes, it was nice to embrace the tourist I really was and cave into the attractions they advertised!
One of the main reasons, if I am truly honest with myself about why I came to Australia to study abroad, was due to the movie Finding Nemo! I love that movie, and a lot of it is in the city of Sydney. So, of course, I had to hit up the Sydney Aquarium! The Aquarium, and aquariums in general, always fascinated me. I love the water and all the sea life creatures, so I could spend forever there. The animals we saw were so crazy cool. It amazes me how many different fish species there are in Australia and the whole world. Besides fish, we saw jellyfish, penguins, and sharks! I loved my visit there and would go again in a heartbeat. I also purchased a baby Nemo stuffed animal at the gift shop to remember the amazing time!
Can I even call myself a tourist in Sydney if I don’t mention the Opera House and Sydney Harbour? The Opera House and the setting around it were often my safe places during my time studying abroad. I loved the views of the Bridge and the water, especially at night. The Opera House on Wednesday nights had fireworks shows, and they were always fun to watch! The Opera House also has a boujie bar called the Opera House Bar (original name, right?), which has the yummiest Bloody Mary I have ever tasted.
Also, when in Sydney, I recommend taking a harbor lunch cruise to get views of downtown Sydney unlike any you’re getting from land! Also, it should be noted the food was fabulous. (Wow, I talk about food so much I think my future job should be to write food reviews.)
The Rocks Street (previously mentioned), where all the great food was, also has adorable weekend markets that I often would stop at before Manly Beach or if I ever found myself downtown on the weekends. Here, they have amazing artwork and framed pictures, authentic food from all around the world, yummy snacks and sauces, and tons of beautiful clothes and handmade jewelry. The yummiest snack I had was at the Rocks Market—it was a twisted potato on a stick with chicken salt, one of Australia’s signature seasonings!
All in all, even if I come back to enjoy Sydney after college on a working/holiday visa, I would still participate in tons of tourist attractions because they are amazing sights to see and activities to enjoy!
Nightlife Things
Similar to the food, restaurants, and activities, Sydney has tons of bars, clubs, speakeasies, and things to do during the later hours. A few different places became my regular spots to dance and socialize. The best place to dance is Bungalow near Sydney Harbour. Often, this bar has theme nights, and one of my favorite nights we went to was Taylor Swift themed. Now, I am not a big Swiftie, but it was cool because the big scary bouncers handed out friendship bracelets! Also, my friend Taylor has some great dancing skills and the views of the place were unbeatable.
On Sundays, a weekly thing to do was dress up, head to Coogee Pavilion—Coogee Pav, for short—and tear up the dance floor in the upstairs club. Here, I also really enjoyed the music and vibes. They always had a different DJ, but the music was always bopping, and it was a good time! Coogee Pav right on Coogee Beach is a great place to go if you’re looking for variety because there is a huge dance floor, some seating near the bar, and then an awesome wrap-around outside deck! So, any vibe you have, you can find yourself enjoying the Pav!
A lot of the friends I made through TEAN and during study abroad lived off campus and in Bondi Junction, near Bondi Beach, so sometimes I would cross town and join the crew over there at Bondi Public Pub! The Pub was one of the places I could always count on to meet the coolest Aussies and Kiwis! The vibe seems more classy in the Pub, but it truly isn’t. There is a smaller dance floor, but it’s usually packed, so it wouldn’t be the first place to go if I was in the mood to dance.
Besides dancing when I was out, I also enjoyed a good old karaoke night, and we found the best hidden gem this semester to participate in whatever songs we wanted to sing without judgment. For the last month or so of study abroad, we made Friday night our karaoke nights at the Imperial Hotel! Amazing. I sand some solos but typically preferred the duets or singing from the crowd as backup. My personal go-to karaoke song is “Burn It to the Ground” by Nickelback. It’s a banger and will always get the crowd going! One night, I also sang with one of my gal pals, Ellie, and we knocked the house down with Shania Twain’s “Man I Feel Like a Woman”!
One of my favorite nighttime experiences and kind of traditions I made with my roomies was Jazz Night on Wednesdays! One of our friends, Kevin, bartended during his time abroad at this nightclub/speakeasy called Kalyx’s ( I like the name because it rhymes with my name). We found this small hole in the wall in Randwick due to him working there. So thank you, Kevin! Jazz Night on Wednesdays was so lowkey, and we would be able to talk to the musicians in between songs and chat with them! I loved Jazz Night because I could wear sweatpants, chill out on a couch, and listen to amazing smooth music!
Holy, I seem to be quite long-winded talking about Australia, but as you can see, there is a lot of awesomeness going on on the opposite side of the world. I wouldn’t have wanted my Australian experience to go any other way. The school I did and the classes I took were fulfilling and the experiences I had will last me a lifetime. Most of all—besides everything I learned about myself while abroad and experiencing a different life—I am beyond thankful for the connections and friendships I will bring back to the States. This includes all my fellow Americans but also the many Aussies, Kiwis, and global friendships!
Lots of love for all the abundance the best parts of life Australia brought into my world. I love Australia and 1,000 percent recommend taking a chance, jumping off the deep end, and studying abroad down under to experience the different things Australia has to offer!
Alex Madsen, Washington State University, is studying abroad in Australia with TEAN.
