Why flying 24 hours around the world just to arrive in a place which looks like the US?

That’s what I was thinking when I arrived in Sydney for the first time. To fully comprehend the allure of Australia it took me a while.

Actually it took the encounter of one of my funniest and best colleagues, Maggie, an Aussie from Sydney, who can schimpfen and drink like a champion. And it took the personal advice of my travel hero Tony Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet, whom I had the honor to speak briefly with on the sidelines of a travel writer’s summit in Berlin. Tony had recommended to do the three-day Bay of Fires walk. So my wife and me walked three full days through beautiful forests and along the sensational coastline of Tasmania, passing dozens of sea lions frolicking on powder-white beaches, until we finally reached the Bay of Fires lodge, an architectural and culinary marvel on top of a red-boulder-strewn s paradisiacal beach. It’s the only lodge in the world where you really have to earn great food abd great wine by walking for  three days to reach it.

Sydney is one of the best places to elaborate about the important question of the most beautiful and livable city in the world. 2013 I afforded myself five weeks of vacation, one week dedicated to a painstaking analysis of each of the following cities. Each analysis of course included also  a lot of dining & wining: From my then home in Rio, I flew to Cape Town (finally nr. 5), on to the fragrant harbor of Hongkong (my nr. 4), continued to Sydney und crossed the International Dateline to San Francisco. Lastly, with a few more pounds on my hips, I returned to my home under the Sugar Loaf Mountain (nr. 2). Culinary wise and thanks to its cosmopolitan attitude (apart from New York and maybe HongcouverI I have not seen such a distinct Chinese impact), Sydney gets many things right. It is  iweltoffen and a haven for foodies (with a Din Tai Fung or a Dim Sum joint never far away), it is ringed by ocean and city beaches alike and offers wonderful promenades along the inner harbor and along the open sea. I like its skyline with a mix of the iconic Opera building, old Victorian and shiny new and I very much enjoyed weekend trips to hills, wine and the sea If you’re lucky to have a friend who owns a house close to Harbour Bridge, it’s also a great location to celebrate New Year (nr. 4 on my Champions League). The overall winner is San Fran, by the way, thanks to its awesome food scene (from Georgian to Chinese, nothing is impossible), its rolling hills with hin the city, flower power vibe and Henry Miller’s Big Sur, Mendocino, Yosemite and Lake Tahoe skiing nearby.

Finally on my fifth journey Down Under, again a business trip, a serendipitous encounter in my favorite Sydney bookshop Kinokunya alters  my Weltbild: It’s not a meeting with a bookseller but with a world map: First I am confused. Everywhere there is a lot of blue. It’s the deep, endless Blue of the Pacific with the Indian Ocean to the left. In the heart of the Big Blue I discover, just in the center of the world map, lie Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Places which could not sound more remote for us are weekend destinations for our Antipodes. As always it’s just a matter of the right perspective.