Chronicles of a New Year's Eve in Sydney

Dear diary, this was an unforgettable NYE I'd love to tell you about...

Have you ever dreamt of celebrating New Year's Eve in Australia? We have! And also found a guest blogger who revealed us what to expect from a crazy night in Sydney.... Unforgettable! Enjoy ;)

My alarm clock hasn't woken me up yet, as it still has to ring! I open my eyes and I'm glad I don't need to see one of those dreams you wish could never end interrupted... For a minute or two I lay staring at the ceiling and while doing that I manage to wake up completely. I have a look at the screen of the alarm clock and wait until it shows today's date: December 31st. The window, screened only by the mosquito net, lets in the noise of various birds, faraway traffic and the you're-all-gonna-die-kind-of heat of the sun which gently caresses the whole building. New Year's Eve in Sydney is a mid-summer event and, although I have been here for quite a few years, this still seems unfamiliar to me. I sit on my bed and think about today's plan: sun, friends, iced drinks and unmissable barbie. Then some more sun, friends and iced drinks in one of Sydney's many parks with a view on the Harbour Bridge waiting for the worldwide famous spectacular fireworks .

I already start getting covered in sunscreen to avoid any potential sunburn. My skin-tone, ranging from ghostly pallor to "I-Can-See-Your-Veins", doesn't allow me to behave like a macho beach man. In fact, I need to spend ages spreading multiple layers of sunscreen on my body, acting like a capable circus contortionist. Only after twisting both my wists do I normally ask someone for help. Staying in the sun for a whole day in Australia without sunscreen equals taking a nap on a barbeque. It is also the best strategy to learn how the burns unit in Sydney hospital operates, and perhaps compare it to the one in your home country.

I usually wake up early to do my things in no hurry. Before meeting my friends, I get to my favourite coffee-bar and enjoy my ideal breakfast: scrumbled eggs on toast, avocado and giant flat white, one of those you first taste boiling and finish iced. While sipping it, I flip through the pages of the news on my phone. You may even wake up unconscious anywhere, only wearing leaves sticking to your body because of your vomit, without any clues about today's date and realize it's New Year's Eve just by opening the news on your phone - if that was the first thing you'd do. Newspapers, blogs, everyone is talking only about that, everybody has their own way of course, however, the only topic is Harbour Bridge fireworks. Here there's not so much to think about what to do on New Year's Eve: it is rather obvious that everyone will interrupt Whatever (with capital W) they are doing to stare at the harbour for some minutes around midnight. As midnight will strike the best fireworks of your entire life.

It's typical New Year's Eve lunchtime. Shrimp cocktails, different types of food with avocado, and the main dish: beer! All of that served with the usual barbie and miscellaneous music. Of course the whole show is performed on the beach, where people are wearing trunks or bikini, sunglasses and a smile. Cheers mate here and cheers mate there. Endless cheers mates. This is how New Year's Eve in Sydney starts.

Some may think that with a full belly they can think better. With a full belly, I can float better, insead. Floating on my back with both legs and arms wide open like a dead-body, I let gentle ocean waves lull me. After days and days of non-stop sunshine, the water temperature is pleasantly warm, especially not too offshore, where the water is still shallow and where it is still possible for you to survive a shark, whose New Year's Eve typical dish is a dopey, slightly over-weight human being whose reflexes are as prompt as those of a corpse. After all, I feel good as Sydneysiders are perfectly aware of the fact that sharks eat only after sunset... Everything's fine, then. I keep on floating calm while clouds and seagulls alternate above me.

Several floating sessions and food portions later, I can already show off my tan: bronzed in most parts, with some strips of bare flesh. That all comes from my capable and meticulous sunscreen spreading technique. It's shower time now, as I need to cool down ang get changed. Everyone starts packing their stuff in a backpack and join the crowd that has been camping since the morning around Darling Harbour. Pyrmont, Circular Quay, Darling Harbour and surrounding areas look out of reach. After calling my friend's best friend's friend and poking here and there for a million times, we manage to reach Circular Quay to meet up with a group of friends that has left before us. We couldn't find a better spot. On my right, Sydney Opera House, on my left, Harbour Bridge. Perfect!

After spending hours in the sun, on the beach, drinking beer and eating passively, sitting on the floor of whatever square may sound as comfortable as sitting on a toilet seat in flames. And I have experience to tell you this, believe me. However, the setting and the whole surroundings compensate and soften exhaustion and discomfort. I mean: just stop for a while and have a look around you. You're in Circular Quay, one of the most beautiful bays of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, on the coolest night of the year, with your friends (close friends and not); you're tanned, full, you're the perfect balance between awareness and irreverence, your cheeks blush, you smile and look bohémienne… you feel so good that you don't even sense your ass cramps any longer. In this state, in this moment, in this place you know you could do anything and feel good about it. You could even climb on the stage of that TV show on air and figure dance sexily for thousands of people. Until the most beautiful woman's soft and perfumed arms embrace your neck and take you away to who-knows-where-but-who-cares-as-long-as-I'm-with-you land. I can see all this while my Kiwi friend's sizzle-like fingers grab me by my neck, and make me sit, spitting sausage and beer saying “where the fuck are you going mate, you're drunk, nobody wants you. Sit down, fireworks will start in a minute”
Boom.

After the unexpected but awaited and desired firecracker, it's silence everywhere on the bay for a second or two. It's all screaming and shouting then. An invisible wave, like an inner vibration, shakes every single person there and unites their thousands of bodies which are getting ready for the show. In the meantime there's music, music, music and more music. I sip my fifth-ninth-tenth (who remembers?) mojito and smile, while chewing the straw and posting on Facebook - so that everybody knows - something like “im in sydny, its already newyers here in Austria, happy neq yeer evryon” Please analyze my post to learn the effects of multiple drinks. In the meantime, everything's great. Boom.

On the display hanging on the bridge the countdown starts . The water reflects the lights of the skyscrapers and of the boats floating around the bridge.
Ten, nine, eight… the music suddenly stops. People stand up and start looking at the sky, clapping their hands and screaming. Another wave, another vibration.
Seven, six, five… groups of friends get closer, strangers become friends and at last, the one you've been staring at for ages finally realizes you exist on earth.
Four, three, two... the enth invisible wave turns the quay into a giant human being that moves. Peole jumps impatiently while counting down. The whole city stops and waits for the last seconds before the delirium begins.
One. Sounds, colours and light explosion. It is so powerful that the whole show leaves you breathless and you can't decide if you feel like "this is the best night ever" or "WTF is going on?!?"

The Harbour Bridge explodes in a million of colours and the music replaces every single sound: you can only see screams and laughters. You let yourself go, follow the rhythm of the music and the bay itself. Also fireworks follow the same sound and everyone and everything simply looks as part of the same moment, of the same place.

Another sip of my mojito, half of which ends up on my t-shirt and tanned skin, and here we go. That's how things need to be going. The bay shines in so many colours you can't even tell, you feel like you don't know anyone or maybe you know them all. You simply talk to anyone, just like that. Hi mate… it's fantastic, isn't it? Sure I'll have a beer with you. Cheers… Happy new year!

This is how New Year's in Sydney needs to be. This is how it will be like if you're one of those who is going to open their eyes in the morning of December 31st before the alarm clock rings. This is how you will enjoy New Year's Eve in the place people often call "down under", but makes you feel up, up above.
Don't know about you mate, but I can't wait...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Original article written in Italian by Giordano Dalla Bernardina

www.giordanodallabernardina.com