I live in a house and I’ve always lived in a house. We live on the coast of Sydney, in a not particularly busy and populated part of Coogee. I’ve often looked at the tall buildings in streets of Sydney and said to myself “I wonder what it would be like to live in a tall building”.
For 3 months our house was in renovations, so my family and I lived in the heart of the City of Sydney next to George Street Cinemas on Kent Street. After being there for 3 months, I now know the city really well! I know all the streets, shops, underground tunnels often linking shopping centres and countless shortcuts – I learnt new things every day.
Living in the city was a totally different experience. Let me tell you why:
Living with less and shopping more.
I knew living in a city apartment would be a lot smaller than living in our house and in the city I shared a room with my sister Eve. Sharing a room with Eve forced me to be more organised, something I brought home.
The family lived with less and we all got used to that quickly. However, I missed lots of little things and that often meant I had to spend more time getting these things from the nearby shops. For example, if I need batteries at home then I just grab a spare one, but in the apartment, I would need to go out and buy them and waste 20 minutes. Because these things took time, we learnt to live in a very minimalistic manner, it made me realise how little we really needed to get by.
Easy Transport Options but more Exercise
The city apartment was so convenient! Being in the city meant we were about 500m away from everything: grocery stores, shops, train stations and restaurants. Our serviced apartment was much closer to school, which meant I would walk there or catch conveniently placed public transport.
We were just so close to everything, Walking was actually easier than driving especially when you think of the parking. I found myself walking everywhere. This was great because I did more exercise (steps on my Fitbit). I think I was doing an extra 10km more walking per week in the city!
Sleep and Noise
The city is always buzzing with energy and with noise. The Meriton apartments which we were staying in were skyscrapers, but even on the 54th floor, when I would open the windows, I could hear the city below! The rooms were so well insulated from noise, that when you closed the windows the sound went away.
The difference
The whole family liked living in the city. One big difference I noticed was the amount of waiting you did for the lift. And a couple of times they stopped working and we had to walk down 54 flights of stairs before school. Much, much harder than you think!
I asked my sister what she liked about living in the city, she said:
“I felt like I was living at the peak of human civilisation”.
Have you ever lived away from home without all your ‘stuff’? That was my experience, what was yours?
Ruby
Love it. Thanks for sharing your experience, Ruby, and asking about ours. I grew up a country mouse in rural Oregon and eventually became a city mouse, after experiencing downtown living in Athens, Greece, Toronto and Chicago. Currently living now in a high-rise in Portland, Oregon, I have to agree with your sister the feeling is like living at the “peak of human civilization.” It’s fun to live with so much convenience and activity around. Condo living is well suited to me because it frees me from having to spend time on yard and house maintenance, giving me more time to spend on the life of the mind. I even get to read during my commute to work on public transit.
Beautiful photos, by the way. I’m glad you had fun in downtown Sydney.
[…] Living in the City […]
[…] The storms that hit Sydney in June caused parts of my house to flood. These things tend to happen while I’m away and conveniently, I was in Norway at NDC. 🙂 The family had to move out for a few months so repairs could be made. Fortunately, we took it as an opportunity to try something new: city living. It was a lifestyle that the girls hadn’t experienced before, so while it was hard being away from home, it was a great chance for them to become temporary city slickers and see a different side of Sydney. Ruby gave a great write up of her thoughts on the experience on her blog. […]