Time To Say Goodbye… To Sydney

Goodbye bridge, goodbye harbour, goodbye Opera House. Goodbye coastal walks, Bondi brunches, daily dips in the pool.

*Gulps*

The time has come for us to say to goodbye to Sydney and it’s not something I’m finding at all easy.

I bloody love this city. Like, really, really love Sydney. I love the landscape, the lifestyle, the people, the sunsets. (Man, those sunsets.) I have not regretted one day of our 3 year sojourn here and that’s part of the reason we have to leave really. Sydney was always meant to be a short-term adventure but we fell head-over-heels in love and could quite easily have stayed longer.

But neither hubby or I have family here so long-term it doesn’t really make sense to put down roots in Sydney. That’s why we’re ripping off the bandaid now, leaving before it gets any harder than it already is, and making a new home for ourselves in… Melbourne.

Melbourne makes a lot of sense for us because it’s where many of Justin’s friends and family are based. We’ve spent a fair bit of pennies travelling between Sydney and Melbourne for various weddings, birthdays and babies over the years and it will be nice to be able to join in celebrations spontaneously as opposed to when we have the budget. There are also good work opportunities for both of us there and property is a lot cheaper than in Sydney.

Finding a place to live in Melbourne hasn’t been easy. (6 flights, 20 inspections, going head to head with up to 20 other tenants and eventually losing – I’ll write about this anxiety-inducing experience in detail soon.) But for what we pay to rent a 1-bed apartment with study in Sydney we will be getting a 3-storey house in Melbourne, complete with home office, 2 double bedrooms and open plan living/kitchen/dining on the top floor (the ‘entertainer’s dream’ as the brochure’s say).

At the moment I’m a little too sad about leaving Sydney to get my head around what life will be like in Melbourne but I’ve always loved going for visits. I’m a little afraid of the cold weather but looking forward to the buzzing food and bar scene. It will be interesting to compare living in these two awesome Aussie cities and as Melbourne is consistently rated one of the best places in the world to live I’m looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is.

Ultimately, both Justin and I aren’t fans of routine. We like to shake things up, tackle a new challenge and, to be honest, we had got a little complacent about living in Sydney. (You know how it is, favouring nights with Netflix over actually doing something.) We’re looking forward to having a new neighbourhood to get to know – there will be much investigating into the best coffee/Thai/Mexican/chippie etc within walking distance.

But first we have to pack all our lives into boxes. We came with just 6 suitcases between us and somehow that has spawned into 80-odd items requiring a truck load of 20 cubic metres. (So says the clever moving consultant who came to take an inventory – there’s no way we could handle an inter-state move by ourselves!)

Things might get a little quiet over here (although not on Insta Stories!) whilst we get settled in (aka set up NBN). But here’s to new adventures. See you on the other side of the state line!