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This post is for the 14th Carnival of Cities, kindly hosted by http://www.chattanoogaishome.com/.  If you'd like to brag about your city, then get over to http://www.hometurfmedia.com/blog/carnival/ and join in the next Carnival of Cities.

So my city is Sydney.  I am a born and bred Sydney-sider and although I love to travel and see the world, Sydney will always be home.  We have great weather, beautiful beaches, restaurants that are on par with those in Europe, leading-edge art and culture, magnificent scenery and friendly locals.  

If you think of Crocodile Dundee when you think of Australia, think again.  We have world-renowned wineries just two hours from the Sydney CBD, the most beautiful natural harbour in the world and the famous Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras every March.  I have taken many, many foreign visitors to see the amazing New Year's Eve fireworks off Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Sydney has something for everyone's taste.  Enjoy the eclectic, alternative ambience of Newtown and the weekly markets of Glebe.  Have a coffee at the Badde Manors Cafe  in Glebe and say hi to the folks at Goulds Books in Newtown - possibly the largest second hand book shop in Australia.

If Armani and Prada are more your cup of tea (or double ristretto), the lower north shore suburb of Mosman and it's surrounds and the monied eastern suburbs of Double Bay and Vaucluse should do the trick.

No trip to Sydney would be complete without a visit to the Opera House - not just Opera, though.  You can see anything from rock concers, to ballet, to jazz.  A friend of mine recently appeared in one of the theatres there in an experimental theatre piece called 'Emergence'.

Unlike the UK and Ireland, our pubs and bars are really just drinking establishments.  If your'e after a cup of coffe, breakfast or lunch, you will have a wide choice of early opening cafes serving European style coffee and English style breakfasts.  Although there is a Starbucks on every corner, take advantage of our wonder cafe culture and try a double long black, a machiato or a cappuccino, made especially for you by Sydney's particular breed of handsome European Baristas.  And try not to drool.  Over the coffe OR the baristas!

Compared to countries like the UK and the US, Sydney has a short European history.  Our indigenous people, the Australian aboriginals, have a history dating back 20,000 years.  Europeans first arrived here in 1770.  Established as an English penal colony, Sydney's new population suffered under the burden of famine, drought and disease.  Perahps an early sign of the Aussie spirit, we survived, then thrived, then prospered despite these harsh conditions.

Many people don't realise that Sydney's  first 'European' settlers included Africans, Asians and Americans - the penal ships that brought the English convicts to Australia also made many stops along the way at other English colonies to collect convicts.  We are a proudly multi-cultural city and over the generations have embraced the hardships of the land to which we are born.

We are Greek, Italian, Sudanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Chilean, Mexican, Lebanese, English, Scot and Irish.  We come from the islands of the Phillipines, Tonga, New Zealand and Fiji.  Our ancestors bones lie in Norway, in Germany, in Turkey, Egypt and in too many other places to name, but we are all Australian and from our proud cultural heritages we have made the tapestry that is Sydney.