Sydney

Okay all! I have heard great things about Sydney, and it did not disappoint!

Day 1

See “We have arrived!” post

Day 2

We went down to Bondi Beach in the morning to grab a coffee and walk around before jumping on the Hop-on Hop-off bus. We ended up getting a Golden Latte from a local café, thinking we should try something new and healthy. Needless to say, we will not be doing that again… lol

The Hop on Hop off bus took us all around the Bondi area and into downtown Sydney. We went to the Sydney Opera House and saw the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The bus tour was such a great way to see Sydney; you can listen to the history of the city throughout the tour and hop on or off to explore different areas. It is definitely worth the money if you are ever in Sydney! We ended the day with dinner at Macelleria Bondi, which was a pretty cool dining experience. Their storefront is set up like a butcher where you pick the meat you would like and they cook it up for you. The food was delicious and is mom’s favorite restaurant so far.

Day 3

After grabbing a coffee at a new little café on Bondi, we hopped back on the Hop-on Hop-off bus to Kings Cross Wharf where we had lunch and some drinks. We had originally planned to go to Taronga Zoo after lunch, but had a Harbor Dinner Cruise booked for 4:30pm and were worried about time. We ended up going to Wild Life Sydney Zoo and I was honestly not a fan. I would say it is tailored towards small children than adults.

The Harbor Dinner Cruise was great. It had a delicious three course meal with beautiful views of the entire harbor. The cruise was just before the sun set, which made it even better. After dinner, we decided to try our luck at public transport back to the hotel, and it was a success! I can honestly say that I haven’t used public transportation much. We used the app Rome2Rio and wowzers, it made it the commute so easy and gave us such peace of mind. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a great travel app that will give you multiple different options to get from point a to point b and how much it will cost for each option (taxi, subway, bus, etc.).

Day 4

Today we went on a tour to Featherdale Wildlife Park and to the Blue Mountains. Featherdale is a rescue for animals that have been injured around Australia. They are brought to the park to be rehabilitated and hopefully released back into the wild. You can purchase food to feed the kangaroos, wombats and other animals.

After the wildlife park, we headed to the Blue Mountains – a rugged forest full of eucalyptus trees and cool rock formations. They are called the Blue Mountains because of the blue haze given off from the oil droplets from eucalyptus trees combining with dust and water vapor. You can take the worlds steepest passenger train from the top of the cliffs into the valley to enjoy a nice nature walk. The scenery was stunning!

Throughout our time in the Blue Mountains there was a loud chirping sound that was almost deafening at times. We originally thought the chirping was from birds, but it turns out it was from thousands of cicadas in the treetop canopies. Cicadas are giant bugs…..!!!! but are harmless enough. We didn’t actually see any, but man were they loud.

It turns out that this weekend was a long weekend and today was a public holiday, which meant all of the public transportation was either delayed or detoured down town… but we still figured it out 😀

We finished the day by going to Bangkok Bites again for dinner. It may be my favorite restaurant we have been to so far…

Day 5

Today was a colder day in Sydney – only about 20C, so we decided to head to the Westfield mall in Bondi Junction. It did not disappoint! It had six levels and had everything from Prada and Gucci to a grocery store. I finally got set up with an Australian SIM and phone plan, then we had some lunch and did a little shopping. It was a really great day just browsing all of the stores. Once we were done at the mall, we headed back to our room to pack for our flight tomorrow, and then went for dinner at a Pho restaurant nearby. The Pho was okay, but I’ve had better in Nelson, BC (thanks Ebonie)😊.