08/03/2023 Sydney
What to expect
- 1 Sydney
- 1.1 Eat in one of the many food courts
- 1.2 Take a scenic helicopter flight over Sydney
- 1.3 Visit the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House
- 1.4 Stroll through the Royal Botanic Garden
- 1.5 Watch the surfers at Bondi Beach
- 1.6 Do the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk
- 1.7 Eat Asian food at Spice Alley
- 1.8 Do a free walking tour
- 1.9 Go wild at a festival
- 1.10 Visit the Rocks Saturday Market
- 1.11 Take a ferry to Manly
- 1.12 Relax at Manly Beach
- 1.13 Watch sunset from the ferry
- 1.14 See the fireworks at Darling Harbour
Sydney
At 7.30 a.m. we arrived in Sydney after a 14-hour-bus ride from Byron Bay. Even though we were both pretty tired and sore from the trip, we were excited to be in Sydney!
Au pair time in Sydney
In 2008 after graduating from high school I had spent 6 months in Sydney (and traveled around the country for another six months). In this time I absolutely fell in love with Sydney. Since then it’s been my favourite city in the whole world. Sydney has just so much to offer: from stunning beaches, to national parks nearby, big parks inside the city and of course the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge. And it feels like there’s always something going on in the city. Just last week they celebrated “WorldPride” in Sydney which is held in another city worldwide every two years. But that’s enough advertisement for the city. Let’s come back to the present. “Present” is a good key word as I had planned an early birthday present for Blake today.
Eat in one of the many food courts
In Sydney a lot is happening underground, where you can find big shopping malls, the underground (daah) and food courts.
I remembered the food court underneath the QVB (Queen Victoria Building) quite vividly as they had one shop that stood out for me back in 2008: a German Bakery! Surprisingly, after all those years the bakery still existed, which made my German-bread-loving-heart really happy.
A surprise for Blake
And then we walked to the Four Seasons Hotel, where we weren’t going to stay the night (I wish), but we would get picked up from here for our next big adventure aka Blake’s birthday surprise…
My love language
Since Blake’s and my birthdays are coming up (only two days apart… and three years) and quality time is my “love language”, my idea was to have a unique shared memory on this already unique trip. Knowing that Blake hadn’t done this before and being in such an incredible (if not even the best) city, I was hoping he would like this surprise.
What is the surprise going to be?
At 10.30 a.m. we got picked up by a shuttle that drove us to an airport. And from here we were going to take a scenic helicopter flight over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and Sydney’s coastline.
Take a scenic helicopter flight over Sydney
The flight was incredible! Luckily, there wasn’t any cloud in the sky and we had a perfect view over the Opera House, Sydney’s skyline and the rest of Sydney.
On the way back we flew over Bondi Beach and the rest of Sydney’s stunning coastline. It was definitely an experience we will both never forget!
Visit the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The original cost estimate to build Sydney Opera House was $7 million. The final cost was $102 million and it was largely paid for by a State Lottery. 233 designs were submitted for the Opera House international design competition held in 1956. Jørn Utzon from Denmark was announced the winner, receiving ₤5000 for his design. Construction was expected to take four years. It took 14 years. Work commenced in 1959 and involved 10,000 construction workers.”
sydneyoperahouse.com
Once we were back in town, we had to see the Harbour Bridge and Opera House from a close up. I was so happy to be back here! Moreover, I still think that those two sights are so iconic and unique!
The Sydney Harbour Bridge
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the world’s largest steel arch bridge, totalling 1,149 metres. 4. The total number of steps walked over the past 21 years is equivalent to 7,200,000km – the same as walking from one side of Australia and back 33 times.”
bridgeclimb.com
Stroll through the Royal Botanic Garden
The Royal Botanic Garden is right next to the Opera House and it is a great relaxing getaway from the stressful big city life (not that we felt stressed in any way).
Where are we going to sleep?
Unfortunately, it was then when we got a message from Blake’s Australian friend, who we were going to stay with in Sydney. He told us that his girlfriend, who he is living with, had caught covid. So there went our free accommodation.
Where were we going to sleep tonight now? Since Sydney is even more expensive than the other cities we had been to on the East Coast and this was a last minute booking, we expected the worst. Luckily, Blake found a private room for little money. It was about half an hour outside the city centre. But there was a bus stop right in front of the hotel.
Fun times during rush hour
After buying some breakfast stuff for the next few mornings, we picked up our backpacks from the storage room at Central Station and made our way to the hotel.
By now it was rush hour, so it was quite the act to get us and all our bags including the food bag onto the crammed bus.
La cucaracha
At the hotel the first thing we saw was a big cockroach. I honestly don’t mind any insects, but I do get panicky when I see cockroaches. If you look past the fact that the hotel used to be a former strip club and you avoid looking at the stained carpet everywhere inside, it was actually not a bad hotel 😉.
09/03/2023 Sydney
Watch the surfers at Bondi Beach
Sydney has amazing city beaches. The most popular one is probably Bondi Beach. So of course we had to check it out!
We relaxed a bit at the beach with a frozen yoghurt while watching the surfers catch some big waves.
Do the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk
After that we did the famous coastal walk that starts at Bondi Beach and goes all the way to Coogee Beach. On the way you pass a lot of other stunning bays, cliffs and beaches. Overall, it was a very beautiful walk!
Eat Asian food at Spice Alley
In the evening we caught up with Danielle, a friend of Blake’s, who he had met in Cambodia in 2016. She showed us an amazing hidden food court called Spice Alley near Central Station. It was a hole in the wall with lots of Asian food stands for a reasonable price. It is quite common in Australia to bring your own alcohol (BYO). Same occurred here, so Blake’s friend Danielle had brought lots of different Australian beers and did a little personal beer tasting with us while we were enjoying delicious Thai food.
Beautiful beaches, a wonderful walk, tasty Thai food and cool company – we absolutely loved this day!
10/03/2023 Sydney
Do a free walking tour
…but try and find a better one than ours
After the disappointing walking tour in Brisbane, we wanted to give it another try, this time in Sydney. The tour was packed with lots of (old) people. But unfortunately, the guide as well as the tour weren’t that interesting either. After the unsatisfying walking tour we took the bus back to our hotel in order to get some rest for our big plans tonight.
Go wild at a festival
Tonight we were going to see Kygo again at the Palm Tree Festival. We are feeling a bit like groupies right now following him around the world as we had already seen him perform live in Lima, Peru.
This time he was playing at a festival together with other DJs, such as Tiesto and Lost Frequencies. The festival was awesome! It felt great dancing and partying together and having yet another memorable experience together in Sydney!
11/03/2023 Sydney
Visit the Rocks Saturday Market
Unfortunately, today was already our last day in Sydney. It wouldn’t be a real visit for me if we didn’t visit at least one market 😉. So we took the tram to The Rocks near the Harbour Bridge.
This is Sydney’s oldest historical area, located directly under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in the centre of the city […] It was originally the site of the first European colony, established in 1788 when convict-bearing ships came from England to set up the colony of New South Wales. The name itself came from the original buildings which were made of sandstone.”
blog.goway.com
The market, which is held every Saturday and Sunday, was big and beautiful with some food trucks at the end of it.
Take a ferry to Manly
From Circular Quay we took a ferry to Manly. In my opinion this is a must-do when you are in Sydney as you have a fantastic view over the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge when you pass them by ferry.
Relax at Manly Beach
Manly is a cute beach and surfing suburb with a cool vibe and a long sandy beach close to the downtown area.
We stayed at the beach for a bit, which was way too packed with people (I guess that’s what you get on a Saturday).
After that we had some delicious Thai food at Manly Thai Gourmet with a nice ocean view.
Watch sunset from the ferry
For once, our timing was perfect as we saw an amazing sunset behind the Harbour Bridge when we caught the ferry back to the city centre.
See the fireworks at Darling Harbour
Every Saturday at 9 p.m. the city displays fireworks at Darling Harbour. When we got there an hour early, we weren’t the only ones with this “unique” idea. A lot of other people had already been waiting here for the show to begin. But it was definitely worth the wait! The ten-minute-firework-show over Sydney’s skyline right on the water at Darling Harbour was outstanding! Together with the sunset from the ferry, it was the perfect ending to our time in Sydney and on Australia’s East Coast!
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