New City, Old Friend!

This weekend I flew to Sydney (only an hour away) to visit my friend Jamie and her boyfriend Dave. I don't think I've seen them in 3 or 4 years, so it was quite a treat! I arrived Friday night and first things first - saw this view from their balcony - Opera House and Harbor Bridge already checked off the list!

Jamie and I woke up early to spent most of the day Saturday doing a walking around the city to see the sights. They're apartment is conveniently located walking distance from the harbor, so we headed out by foot - first stop the Sydney Botanical Gardens & Domain. It was a pleasant walk through beautiful lush plants, so I was surprised to look up and see hundreds of bats in the trees. I'd seen bats like this before a few days prior in Melbourne - the Flying Fox. These huge bats (you can see in the pic on the upper right hand side, have wing spans up to 3ft!


Next we headed to a path along the harbor where we ended up at the Opera House and Harbor Bridge.




If you click on the bridge picture and look closely, you'll see tiny people up on top. Tourists who have alot of cash to spare can do a 'bridge walk' up to the top of the bridge!

We headed into the central business district ('downtown') towards "The Rocks", a neighborhood with a great Saturday market.


After lots of walking, we headed towards Watsons Bay for some 'take-away' fish and chips to eat picnic style in the park with a BYO bottle of wine. (All take out food here is called 'take away'). While the fish and chips were great, the views were even better. If you walk up the nearby hill there's a great view of the city. Even better is when you turn around and you're on top of a cliff facing the ocean!


The next day we headed to Coogee Beach to enjoy a 6km coastal walk to Bondi Beach. The oceanfront reminded me of Laguna and La Jolla...but even cooler!


The beaches all had these wonderful swimming pools amongst the rocks, full of ocean water!


Even spots where there isn't a beach, but great rocks and plenty of snorkling (Gordon's Bay)


At the end of the day we grabbed a bit to eat at Harry's Meat Pies - a famous staple food truck in Sydney. It was kind of like a pot-pie combined with Shephards Pie. Here's mine - meat inside with peas and mashed potatoes on top!


Jamie at I at Harry's:


I enjoyed Sydney much more than I expected to, and it was even better to visit with an old friend! Just what I needed to cheer me up after a long week away from home!