Christmas Day is quiet in Sydney because almost everyone is busy at home with their families and the shops are closed. But Sydney comes alive again on New Year's Eve, when shops are open and when everyone is looking forward to the yearly spectacular fireworks, in Sydney Harbour along Parramata River, and at the Harbour Bridge. Australia celebrated its centenary of federation (100th anniversary of being a nation) on January 1, 2001 so it was sort of a double celebration. On Dec. 31, 2000 we, along with thousands of others, were already at the Sydney Opera House surrounds at 2:30 PM. Our position provided a perfect, unobstructed view of the Harbour Bridge, which is the main location of the fireworks.
The crowd was international. There were a lot of Japanese teens (some were ill-mannered, smoking in the crowd!), a French couple (they were at our back and they opened a bottle of champagne when the clock struck 12!), a German couple on our left, chatting with Aussies, and many others like Taiwanese, Singaporeans and good-looking South Americans. There were actually two sets of fireworks displays, one at 9 PM and the other at midnight, with the latter involving the Harbour Bridge. We got to see both. Imagine, we were glued to our location for almost 10 hours and we only got up if we had to go to the toilet! Anyway, that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it was worth it! Police estimated that there were 1 million people, total, who stood around the vantage points and got to see the fireworks display live.