Sydney is a beautiful city! I made the most of my time here, but I’d love to come back sometime and get to experience it with Kris.
My flight got in Friday, March 14 at 8:30 am local time. The first order of business was convincing customs not to charge me for the 1/2 case of wine I’m bringing to NZ. I succeeded thanks to a copy of my itinerary and a very kind customs agent.
Next up, I needed to stash my luggage, since I just needed my carry on and didn’t want to bring the rest into the city with me. After wandering around a bit, I found a set of lockers and got that sorted. An Australian SIM card for my cell and a couple of texts to let everyone know I had arrived safely and I was on my way into the city.
Sydney airport is only about 20 minutes from the city center, so it’s quite convenient. I got to my hostel near Kings Cross (basically the Times Square of Sydney), changed my clothes and stowed my bags, then went off to explore.
First stop: The Botanic Gardens. Sydney has a lovely garden, free to the public and well worth a stroll. They have signs everywhere that say things like “Please walk on the grass! These are your gardens and we want you to enjoy them!”
From the gardens, I got my first view of Circular Quay and the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge:
I walked over there and took the obligatory selfie:
I then hopped on a ferry and headed over to Manly Beach. It was a gorgeous day and you couldn’t beat the views on the way over.
Manly itself was beautiful as well. I took a stroll along the water:
then headed to the local microbrewery to get some lunch (and by lunch I mean beer). This was my first real introduction into how expensive Sydney is–about twice as much as Portland! It was $9.50 for a pint of beer or $15 for the sampler!
After lunch I headed back to the hostel and cleaned up a bit, then met family friends Larry and Simon for dinner over in Newtown. They were so hospitable and we had a lovely time at dinner. Unfortunately, I am the worst so I forgot to document the moment.
I crashed about 9:30 and apparently missed quite the happening bar scene in Kings Cross. One girl in my dorm was just getting back as I was getting ready to go around 6:30 this morning.
Today I headed over to Bondi to experience the most famous beach in the world. I took a quick detour to experience the Sydney coffee scene and the “flat white” made me miss my coffee dates at Barista with Kris:
Bondi was gorgeous! They have a trail that runs all along the coastline so I took a few hours to go hiking and it was well worth it–just stunning.
After that I swam a bit (don’t worry, Mom, I didn’t get sunburned) and headed back to Sydney to get my stuff together and head to the airport. My flight is boarding in a few minutes, so my next post will be from New Zealand.
Cheers!
Risky Lizness 