What I Missed About London When Living in Sydney.

London and Sydney both have their advantages and disadvantages, but I thought I’d just round-up some of the things I missed about London when I lived in Sydney!

Proper nightclubs

Sydney just doesn’t have proper nightclubs. There is one – Marquee – and it isn’t great. It’s a sister nightclub to Marquee in NYC (which I’m also not a huge fan of). Clubs in Sydney are basically bars with a small dance floor, and I constantly found myself missing London’s nightclubs with their tables, bottle service, fancy lighting, and awesome DJs.

Historical architecture everywhere

Sydney actually has some great historical architecture, especially in the CBD and the Rocks, however it just doesn’t compare to London’s. I missed walking through London and just being completely SURROUNDED by huge grand buildings that were hundreds of years old and steeped in history and stories.

Such a huge array of things to do

There isn’t a whole lot to do in Sydney other than go to the beach and go wild at a yacht party. In the winter months and whenever it rained (often, FYI), there was barely anything to do other than sit at home and watch Netflix. Sydney’s museums aren’t great, there are hardly ever any concerts, gigs, or theatre productions, and the pub culture isn’t quite the same as in England.

Being in a major cosmopolitan city

When you come from a major city and have visited many of the biggest cities in the world, living somewhere like Sydney is a bit of a shock. It’s such a small city with a tiny CBD with ‘skyscrapers’. The lack of events and the fact Sydney has lockout laws and you can’t go to a bar or a night out any day of the week other than Friday and Saturday, just hammers home that you’re not in a major cosmopolitan city.

Incredible festivals and events

As I mentioned above, Sydney doesn’t really have many festivals and events. I did see Tinie Tempah while I was there, and I went to a cool day-festival in the Hunter Valley, but there is nowhere near as many events and festivals as there are in London and the UK. There’s also a severe lack of plays, ballet, theatre productions, and musicals. Sydney tends to only have one musical on at a time, and the tickets are crazy expensive because they’re so in demand. I’ve heard Melbourne is way better for events though!

Takeaway sandwiches from Pret and M&S

Being able to just pop round the corner from work to buy a sandwich or salad from Pret or M&S is something I seriously took for granted while I lived in the UK. Australia doesn’t really *do* takeaway sandwiches, meal deals, and salads etc. Although some branches of Woolworths in Sydney do really incredible salads  (not Woolworths’ own brand)!

Salad bars

Omg I missed Vital Ingredient and Tossed SO much while I was in Sydney! The only salad bar I could find near me in Sydney was ‘Salad Bar’ (yeh, it was literally called that), but it wasn’t that great and had nowhere near as many options as Vital and Tossed.

A plethora of cuisines

Another thing I really missed was literally being able to find a restaurant or food truck close-by dedicated to ANY kind of cuisine you can think of from anywhere in the world. Sydney’s restaurant and food scene is pretty restricted when it comes to international food. In London if you feel like Hungarian food, or Eritrean, or Caribbean, or Moroccan, you could walk down the road and find it. Not so in Sydney.

Shops and cafes staying open late

Oh. My. Gosh. I think this was the biggest shock for me. HOW, in a major international city, are the shops allowed to close at 5pm, and the cafes at 3pm?! It’s actually insane. In London shops stay open until 8-9pm, and cafes stay open until around the same time. In Sydney the shops in the CBD stay open until 7pm, and 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays, so you only get an hour of shopping after work. But the shops in the suburbs close around 5pm. Cafes tend to close anywhere between 3pm-5pm, so no grabbing a quick coffee or snack late in the afternoon or after work on the way home!

Living in a truly multi-cultural society

My social circle and friendship group in London is completely varied when it comes to nationalities and ethnicities, so it was super weird to suddenly only have Caucasian and SE-Asian friends and colleagues while I was in Sydney. I missed the soul and vibrancy of London, the multi-cultural society, the inclusivity, and the lack of racism. I was gobsmacked by the level of racism in Australia and especially Sydney, and really missed London’s diversity.

Being so close to Europe

Sydney is super far from everywhere. There are direct flights to domestic destinations (although Perth is a five-hour flight), and the three major New Zealand cities (Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch), and you can get some direct flights to a few of the nearest South Pacific islands (but direct flights aren’t regular and not every day). But that’s it. I missed the ability to jump on the Eurostar and go to Paris for the day, or fly to any European city for an overnight trip and be there within an hour or two.

Tubes every 2 minutes

Miss a tube in Sydney? Gotta wait another 7-15mins! This obviously isn’t a *huge* deal (especially as Sydney’s trains are almost always empty, and double-decker), but when you’re in a rush it’s annoying AF and made me miss London’s tubes appearing every minute.

A real Christmas

London is AMAZING at Christmas! Sydney is not. Naturally London goes all out as it’s, ya know, winter and Christmassy. In Sydney it’s hard because it’s summer and there isn’t really such a thing as the ‘festive spirit’. London goes all out with decorations, lights, shop displays etc. Sydney to be fair do have some (boring-ass) Christmas lights, a (fake) Christmas tree, and David Jones goes all out with the festive window display (this is always awesome), but it just isn’t the same. I think even NYC’s Christmas decorations can’t compare to London’s epic lights.