After spending the weekend catching up with various friends in Brisbane it was time to fly south to Sydney. This is one of my favourite cities in the world and I have many close friends living here so I was very much looking forward to the visit.
We were picked up at the airport by my friend Amanda, who we were staying with, and decided to ward off the jet lag with an afternoon stroll around Centennial Park followed by a bbq with her housemates in the evening.
The next day the 3 of us headed up to Camp Cove, a gorgeous little beach full of yummy mummies and their babies! Some much needed beach time was followed by a delicious seafood and frose (yes, frozen rose wine!) lunch at Watson’s Bay. We decided to stay with the beaches and next went to Dan’s favourite Sydney beach – Bronte. He relived his time as a professional beach bum 17 years ago and played in the huge crashing waves before we hit our final beach for the day – the famous Bondi beach.
None of us are particularly keen on this beach as it’s so huge and crowded but we visited a friend who lives there and enjoyed smoothies and some gourmet ice cream from Messina’s.
On the Wednesday Dan wanted to headed back to the house that he lived in as a 21 year old post uni traveller. So we drove over to Leichhardt and found his old street. He couldn’t remember the exact house number but we took photos outside a couple that he recognised (only to later find out from former housemates that he’d got it completely wrong and we’d been at the wrong end of the street!) before having lunch at a 1950’s established Italian restaurant he remembered.
We had decided to treat ourselves to a massage after all the backpack carrying we’d been doing and found a great Thai massage place on Norton Street. An hour later and we’d been thoroughly pummelled and were feeling very relaxed!
We then headed to Bondi Junction where Dan got his second haircut of the trip – 10 times the price he paid for his previous $1 haircut in Quito! The day was rounded off in a lovely little Vietnamese restaurant on the Bronte road.
The following day, Dan and I decided to be tourists and walk round the city visiting our old haunts – my favourite building the Sydney Opera House, the Botanical Gardens, Darling Harbour, the Rocks, the QVB and Sydney’s newest area Barangaroo.
A quick change back at home and we were out again to the East Village Hotel in Darlinghurst for drinks with all our friends. We had a wonderful night catching up with English and Australian friends, some of whom we’d not seen for years.
It was a slow start the next morning but the weather by now had turned from hot and sunny to cool, grey and rainy. Once the morning rain had passed we decided to head into the city for a spot of shopping before catching a ferry to the north shore. After missing the first ferry by 30 seconds we then proceeded to get on the wrong ferry! All was not lost however as the crossing to Taronga Zoo was lovely and we were able to walk a lovely coastal trail around to Mosman past some gorgeous hillside houses and cute coves. We headed back and I cooked dinner for Amanda and her housemates and we had a quiet night in watching trashy American and Australian TV!
By now it was Saturday and Amanda had organised for us to have lunch with my closest aussie friends in Paddington. The prosecco and laughs flowed before Dan and I walked to nearby Paddington market – one of my favourite spots when I lived in Sydney many moons ago. A spontaneous bag purchase later and we headed home to recharge our batteries before heading out for my friend Maddy’s birthday drinks in a hip bar in Newtown (which made us all feel decidedly old!!)
Our final day loomed and we headed out to Centennial Park for breakfast and a catch up with some friends and their kids before Amanda drove us to the airport and we said our tearful goodbyes. I love Sydney and am always sad to leave but know I will be back to visit again soon!
Tiredbuthappytravels 