But there’s a price for such a wonderful place. One of the headaches that comes with living in Sydney is the housing situation. The city is known for having some of the highest housing prices in the world, and it’s a nightmare for the people who live here. I’m telling you, the rents are crazy! I can see why so many people choose to rent a place outside the city and spend their time commuting in instead. People like me who are here temporarily from abroad probably tend to rent rooms in a shared house. Renting a place with your own private room, kitchen, toilet, bath, and so on like you would in Japan is nearly out of the question. Students who are only here for a short time have the option of living in a house if they do a homestay with an Australian family, but in most cases they’d still be an hour from school and it wouldn’t be cheap. In-demand homes that are close to the city are insanely pricey. Twice to four times as expensive as they would be in a place like Osaka, for example—maybe more. And you still wouldn’t have your own place, it would just be a room rented in someone else’s house with a shared bathroom, shower, and kitchen. If the shared living space is a condominium or apartment, you wouldn’t live with the owner but would probably have three or four roommates. Sydney is incredibly popular with students and young people on working holidays, so the shared housing market is huge. Rents have been increasing even for people who are renting their homes, so more of them are renting out their spare rooms as well. I’m one of those people renting a room in Sydney. Luckily, my room has its own toilet and bath. Timing is everything when you’re room-hunting—my friends really struggled to find a good place.
Rents are high, but the good part is that there is always something fun going on during the weekends and I never get tired of city life. Night shops light up the streets every Friday, there are flea markets and music events on Saturdays—something big or small is always on the calendar around here.
For people who live and work amidst all this activity, their days off are either spent hidden away in their homes or immersed in nature. One place that Sydneysiders like to spend their days off is a place called the Blue Mountains. It’s a well-known World Heritage Site about a two-hour drive away, which is why people tend to head out there when they have a full day.
Actually, there are mountains and regions known as the “Blue Mountains” in New Zealand, the US, and Canada—and there’s a Blue Mountain range in Jamaica, which is famous for its coffee as well. Apparently there are something like eight Blue Mountains across the world. Australia is so well-known for its coffee culture that I had assumed there was a connection to Blue Mountain coffee, but it turns out they’re totally unrelated.
There are tons of places to see there, but one of the most famous is a lookout known as Echo Point. The reason this is the most popular overlook is that you can see the Three Sisters rock formation and some of the grandest views in the Blue Mountains. People are always posting photos from Echo Point on social media, as it’s one of the iconic sightseeing spots in the park. The views from the lookout are so beautiful that you find yourself exclaiming out loud. You’ll get why the grand scenery captures so many visitors. It’s too bad I couldn’t do it justice with my camera.
The Blue Mountains also have bushwalking tracks that let you take a stroll through the forests. I recommend taking these, though they can have a lot of stairs in places—just 15 minutes will get you up a mountain. As long as you have good walking shoes, you don’t need any special equipment. I even saw some little kids pushing it up the stairs. Seeing the Three Sisters rock formations up close is impressive, and you can add in the grand views of the Blue Mountains behind them.
I visited in the middle of winter, so I was able to take it relatively easy and drink in the scenery. Apparently if you visit in the summer, you’ll get crushed by everyone trying to escape the Sydney heat—plus the foreign tourists.
The amazing views definitely top the high rents! When you really think about everything you get to experience here, I guess the rents make sense after all.
