Dubai & Sydney

This was the trip that took me to a new hemisphere. Dubai first — the Grand Excelsior Hotel, the impossible skyline, the desert heat in November. Everything about the city felt like someone had imagined a future and then just built it.

Then Sydney. I’d end up calling it my favorite city in the world, and I knew it almost immediately. The harbor, the Opera House, the light. I stayed in Darlinghurst at the ibis budget, which is a very un-fancy way to experience the most beautiful city I’d ever seen.

The Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb, the SkyWalk at Sydney Tower, Bondi Beach, the Blue Mountains. Australia delivered on every promise. I’d come back three years later for the Pacific mega-trip, but this first encounter set the bar.