It's a long time since I was in Sydney now, about 3 years, however I am going to try to remember as much of it as possible and write it down here. I have loads of great pictures though. What is typical me when I go traveling is that I don't plan everything that I'm going to do, I just go there and go with the flow. Don't get me wrong I do plan a little bit, but I also just like to walk around and see what I find.
I traveled to Sydney and Melbourne with my husband and a friend of mine, and we had about 6 or 7 days there before me and my husband went on to Fiji and my friend, Sissel had to go home and back to work ( I had 2 months off, wiiiiii). Well, Sydney was our stop after Melbourne and there were something we did in Melbourne that we figured we did not have to do in Sydney, like the Aquarium.
As we were there in January the temperature was very nice, not too warm believe it or not, and the first day we just walked around the area where out hotel was just to get to know that area. It was in the city center by Sydney is big so that first day/night we stayed there.
We actually stayed in a hostel and soon realized that we might be a little bit old to stay in a place like that. We were 30 and the other people who stayed there was around 20, but it was an okay place to stay just for a few days. It saved us a lot of money and for me and my husband (ha ha ha who have a husband and stay in a hostel?) Anyway, we had a sweet little room with bunk beds.
There were a few things that was on our to do list in Sydney and one of them was to see the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour bridge. And what better way is it to see those two things and combine it with a trip to the Famous Sydney zoo. You have to get a boat out to the zoo and guess where you take that boat from? Sydney Harbour, by the Opera House and the bridge.
For us it was enough just to see the Opera house, we did not have to walk with the hundreds of other people around it, so the view from the boat was just fabulous. There was a lot more people than what it looks like in that picture above.
What is so funny about the Opera House is that when you see it in tourist pictures, catalogues and brochures from the city, it look completely white and shiny, in real life it is not like that at all, it is just like my pictures, not that white. We didn't realize that until we saw it.
Driving out to the zoo we also so many small, very pretty islands, some private and some public.
It doesn't take more than about 15 to 20 minutes to get out to the zoo and when you get there you take the cable carts to the top, buy your tickets before you get into the cable cart if I don't remember wrong.
There are also taxi boats going all around in Sydney so f you are a big group going together it might pay off to get one of those, I don't know.
Sydney zoo is a great place, and I really think anyone who likes animals would love it there. The place is very big so if you want to see everything you need to be there early in the morning. We were there around mid day and walked through most of it, but we could have spent a lot more time there if we wanted to. If you have small kids you might want to divide the visit into two trips over two days or so. But the animals are so beautiful and many of them you get to see very close up. I will just post loads of pictures here instead of writing a lot of stuff;)
The two pictures above is taken from inside the zoo, you have a view point there where you get this fantastic view, it is very nice just to sit down there and relax a bit.
I think we spent about 6 hours or so in the zoo and by then I think we had managed to see almost everything, could have used a lot longer if we wanted to. Our days were limited in Sydney and we wanted to get the most out of it. On the way back to main land we had a really beautiful sunset and that gave us some good pictures of the city and the Opera House.
The next day Sissel and hubby wanted to see the city from above. We had heard about this viewing tower and they wanted to go there. I wanted to sleep, I am afraid of heights and preferred some sleep instead, do not regret that ;) I got the pictures from them later so I saw the view on the pictures, it is quite stunning I must say.
You can't go to Sydney without going to Bondi Beach! We got the train out there and it took only about 15 minutes from where we were staying. The busses and trains aka public transportation is very good, easy to figure it out, not too expensive and it gets you around quickly enough. We like walking so we walk a lot as well, but there is a limitation of how far you actually can walk.
The weather was a little bit cloudy the day we went to Bondi, but the temperature was okay. I would have wanted it to be even warmer but it wasn't cold or anything. I love the heat and the sun.
What surprised me a lot about Bondi was the water. I knew before I got there that there are a lot of waves and strong currents, but the temperature of the water I was not prepared for. It was, in my eyes, freezing cold! It felt like Norwegian sea water in the summer, don't think it was more than about 20 degrees Celsius, and I think that is cold. Really thought the water in Sydney, Australia was warmer. But still Bondi is a must see place/beach.
We also went to Darling Harbour one night for dinner but for some reason all my pictures from there is no good. Don't know if it was something wrong with the camera or the photographer. That is also a place you need to go to if you ever are in Sydney. Some good restaurants there and a little bit lively, but not too much. You can also see over to the Sydney Bridge from there, not far away at all.
There are so many things you can see and do, and as I have mentioned you time was limited, so we had to choose what we really wanted to see and do. The final thing we decided that was a must see/do was to go out to Manly Bay/beach. This is also a short boat trip from the main land and you get the boat from the same place as you get the boat out to the zoo. So once again we got to see the Opera house and the bridge.
When we arrived at Manly we just walked around in the litte town a little bit, had some lunch before we went to the beach. Time to just lay in the sun and relax.
It was our last day in Sydney and it was well spent. The perfect end to some perfect days. Next for me and hubby now was Fiji.
That is some great advice :) Thanks for sharing :)
SvarSlett