03/12/23
Sydney, Australia
Goodbye Hobart, hello Sydney.
Sydney greeted us with wind, a high of 25°C, a little sprinkle of rain and humidity. On this trip, it was rare to see high-rise or tall buildings. Once we landed in Sydney, it was the first sight of these tall structures after 26 days of travelling.
We flew with Virgin Australia and the moment we got on the plane, they called over the PA system that their media system was down and prompted in a joking way to talk to your seat neighbours. Did exactly that and met Danny the retired Chiropractor from Sydney. He was in Hobart doing a bike trip with his mate that lives on 50 acres of land just south of Hobart and went around the West and East of the island. I got some great tips to improve and balance training of my body to be healthy and strong with good mechanics and avoid back problems courtesy of Danny.
Hopped on the train to get into the city (12-18AUD). I grabbed my parents Opal transit cards from their last trip but turns out they have updated it so you can just tap on and off with your credit card. The Opal card really only has advantages if you are a student or a senior for discount. Otherwise, the only other advantages of using the Opal transit card is keeping your credit card clear of all your transit transactions and the card tells you how much you’ve spent and what’s remaining. Using your credit card, the transactions will be pending and will do a culmination at the end of the month. Either or, remember to tap off!
We stayed at the hotel Veriu Central. After checking in, we ate lunch at Single O in Surry Hills. We shared the Chats (7AUD), Mothership Bowl (23AUD) & the Fish Dawg (22AUD). Also, what we noticed that was different from Tasmania was that there are additional charges for using credit card and extra fees for Sunday or public holidays in Sydney.
After lunch, Bev and myself separated for a bit. Bev needed time to catch up on sleep and also tackled the task of laundry for the both of us at Foam Laundry since our hotel didn’t have laundry.
While she took some time to herself, I wanted to make sure I maximized my time and off I went. First stop was for bubble tea at Gotcha. I got the Kumquat Lemon w/ lemon, dried plum and aloe Vera (7.60AUD).
I walked up George St. It is full of so many shopping and food options. Stopped by Queen Victoria Building, Strand Arcade & Forgotten Songs Art Installation.
Since the weather was holding out, I decided to head over to Sydney Harbour bridge. I ended up walking over the bridge to Milsons Point for great views of the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Harbour bridge all in one photo. Best view is definitely at the Pier right beside Luna Park (iconic Amusement Park).
After taking in the views, I walked back over the bridge and to the massive Darling Harbour. Walked around majority of the harbour to see the Darling Harbour Woodward Water feature doing its water thing. Darling Harbour is an interesting space that they made into pedestrian-only with a mix of gardens, playgrounds and art.
Made my way to Darling Square & Chinatown and saw art such as:
-The Night Sky by Jacob Nash
-Mural of Jenny Munro – First Nations Activist by Matt Adnate
-In Between Two Worlds by artist Jason Wing
-City Lights on Little Hay St by Brendan Van Hek
By the time I had finished walking around Darling Square and Chinatown, timing wise, it worked out that I made it to Bev at the Laundry mat in time to fold. We went down the street for dinner.
We ate at My Zakaya by Buno in Surry Hill. We shared wagyu tataki (16AUD), miso marinated black cod (28AUD), spider roll (soft shell crab) (10AUD) & Bata chirashi bowl (32AUD). The food was delicious. We also got black garlic salt edamame on the house to apologize for the delay in our order courtesy of the Chef.
03/13/23
Sydney, Australia
The weather forecast lied and said it was going to rain all day but it held out with small breaks of sun but overall overcast. One of our latest starts during this trip.
Started off walking Through Hyde Park then onto George St. We stopped at Australia Square for lunch – I grabbed Doner Kebab from Sahara (14AUD) and a PB & Choc smoothie from Cali Press (11.50AUD). This place reminded me of the Path back home in downtown Toronto but with an outdoor courtyard to eat.
Fueled up, we took on the Royal Botanical Gardens and made it to Mrs Macquaries Chair for great views of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. We continued through the park and made our way for an up-close and personal view of Sydney Opera House.
Nearby, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art (free). Before heading back, we stopped by Gacha Gacha Plus for ice cream – I wanted the Mochi ice cream but couldn’t decide on just one flavour. I sampled both Genmaicha and Hojicha and they were both too good to choose only one so I got both (8.80AUD). This trip is the most I’ve had this much ice cream in such a short period of time.
We ended up working on planning our Bali portion of the trip for the late afternoon in the lobby of our hotel.
There’s a large Thai community and authentic Thai food around in Sydney especially near Chinatown. We ended out night having dinner at New Thaination. We ordered Tom Yum Goong Noodles w/prawns (18.50AUD), small Noodie Kai Mara (chicken, Chinese broccoli, bitter melon w/glass noodle) (8.90AUD) and a yummy Thai milk tea (6.80AUD).
03/14/23
Sydney, Australia
23°C
I woke up early and went for a walk to Darlinghurst for some savoury pastries at Tenacious Bakehouse. They are known for their own take on sausage rolls, Portugueses tarts and croissants. I got a Pork Mandu – sesame seed encrusted “sausage roll” (10AUD), Portuguese tart w/miso caramel (12AUD), grape fruit tart (12AUD) and a matcha latte (5AUD).
We walked over to Chinatown to have Yum Cha/Dim Sum at The Eight with my dad’s best friend – Uncle Ronald and Auntie Maisie who live in Sydney. I haven’t seen them since 2012 when I visited Hong Kong.
With the help of Auntie Maisie and Uncle Ronald, Bev was able to purchase Sea Cucumbers that her Aunt in the Philippines had requested us purchase as we were going to travel to the Philippines after Australia. We had great success. We even had a video chat with her aunt in the Philippines trying to bargain with the shop owner for a better price.
The rain didn’t seem like it was going to let up so we returned to our hotel for a bit and saw the clouds start to open up a bit. Seeing this opening, we chanced it and decided to hop on the train and head down to Coogee Beach to walk the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk (1-2 hours). There were beautiful views along the coast and so many beautiful beaches. Tamarama beach was probably my favourite beach along the way. There is even a Cemetery on this coastal walk. As we turned the corner to get to Bondi, the skies as we looked left were dark gray as opposed to the blue from where we had just walked.
The rain came down hard but not for too long. We met up with our new friend Ian who we met on our East Tasmania tour a few days prior (who is originally from Argentina but is currently living in Australia working at a hostel near Bondi). He took us to some hidden gems that not too many tourists know about since Bondi Beach is top of the priority list for the area.
He guided us on a little walk to Bellevue Park and Cooper’s park. Bellevue park has beautiful views above the city where outstretched, you can see Manly Beach. It’s very interesting to see an abundance of bats flying around and it’s a normal thing.
Cooper’s Park is a super lush park (tropical-like) with walking trails. It also has a river that divides Sydney in two. As you walk into the park and closer to the river, the smell of lemon myrtle and other plants fills your nostrils as you stroll through.
With Ian’s recommendation, we ate at The Mill in Bondi Junction. We shared the Angus burger with a side of truffle fries (25AUD), Szechuan salt and peppered squid (18AUD) and a green leaf salad (8AUD).
03/15/23
Blue Mountain, Australia
What a beautiful day. Humid but ranged from 19-30°C. We did the Blue Mountain day tour with Coast Warriors. Our Tour guide was Tom.
We made some new friends. Do from France (retired Geophysist), Nazar & Tai from Seattle and fellow Canadians Stefan & Anthony from Edmonton as well as Sonal from Etobicoke.
1hr drive to Glenbrook. You can see the famous Australian Painted Panorama in the back of Dolly’s Donut. We also stopped to grab snacks for the day. At Glenbrook GreenGrocers, I grabbed an Acai bowl w/honey (14.50AUD) & Cotton candy grapes (5AUD).
We went to Lincoln lookout. The closer you walk to the end of the main lookout area, there is a little cave and a lower platform you can go down. If you peek over a little bit more, you’ll see 2 car wrecks below.
Blue Mountains got it’s name from all the eucalyptus trees heating up in the sun making the oils and vapours raise up creating a blue haze.
The next stop was the most intense portion of the tour. Wentworth Falls. You can walk many paths to see these falls but the beauty of this one is the fact you can walk all the way to the bottom. The only thing is that it is a 200 step climb 100m into the valley. What goes down must come back up.
We had a lovely sandwich lunch picked up from Glenbrook that we ate while enjoying views of the mountains.
For a proper viewing of the Three Sisters from multiple angles we arrived at Echo Point Lookout.
There are many stories behind the Three Sisters. One version tells of a neighbouring warrior tribe with brothers who wanted to capture and marry the three sisters but it’s not allowed so the father turned them to stone.
Our final stop was to Jellybean Pool where many had a dip to cool off from the day.
As we returned to Sydney, we went to dinner w/Stefan & Anthony in Darling Harbour at Muum Maam Barangaroo. We ordered the Barramundi green apple salad (32AUD) & Massaman coconut curry w/wagyu beef w/roti & rice (45AUD). What we learned over the day was that Anthony & Beverly were basically kindred spirits. Same same but different. The sunset was calm and wonderful to end the night.
