with anna
|
|
A.nna
anna // singaporean. my dream is to some day live in a countryside and have a lot of dogs. reach me on
mail | facebook | instagram |
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
8 Days in Sydney, Australia Previously I decided to post on my experience Skydiving in Sydney before I actually write on my other days in Sydney because I quote, "Without the skydive experience, this trip would have been nothing but a summer getaway." and I meant it. In all honesty, Sydney is a lovely city with friendly people around. You bump into someone on the road, they'll say sweet things like after you which I promise you'll never get in Singapore. Or if you're pushing a trolley saying excuse me in the supermarket, people actually apologize for blocking your way. I've never been to Australia, and Sydney was my first city in that wild country. It was a great experience, just not one of my favourite cities. Any other ways, here are some of the things I checked from my itinerary which may help you if you're travelling to Sydney :)
Sydney Opera House
About: Sydney Opera House is a thriving hub of art, culture and history. It's one of the world's most distinctive buildings, attracting millions of visitors from all over the world.
Review: I didn't actually step in Sydney Opera House, there wasn't any good musical or rather, any musical or show I knew how to appreciate happening when I was there. Hence, I gave that I miss. But, if you're in Sydney and looking for a cheaper musical with good theatre system, check out Capitol Theatre. The Lion King was featured when we were there, we did not choose to give it a miss, but rather they were fully booked the whole week. They have 1200 seats available, and yet fully booked for all timing and days, hence if you're catching a musical there, BOOK IN ADVANCE!
Blue Mountain Day Tour
Blue Mountain Day Tour
We took a one-day Blue Mountain Tour with One Stop Adventures. Basically we trekked for 2.5 hours up and down Blue Mountain. I fell when we were about to reach the bottom, :( so I had to slowly climb my way up. It was a great view and we were really lucky because the tour started early and we managed to catch the clouds covering the rainforest - picture one.
After trekking, we had lunch which was provided in the tour. It was one of the hearty-iest meal I had in Sydney. I just have to show you..
Now you may continue drooling. It had ham, tomato, lots of corn beef and cheese with some leafy greens. And the bread, omg, the bread, crispy and soft at the same time. LOVE IT. And we were given brownies and apple too. What a healthy and hearty meal.. After which, we proceeded to Echo Point where we started trekking again - down to The Three Sisters and thank god we didn't have to climb up (background: I sprained my leg when I fell. I didn't want to continue trekking but Ben, our tour guide, told us that we will be taking the World's Steepest Railway back up, and... I cannot miss it for a leg!)
The Three Sisters
4 hours of blood and sweat to this
Honestly I do not buy the story of The Three Sisters. With all due respect for Australia's most visited by tourist location, but first and foremost, the story our tour guide told us was entirely different from Wikipedia. I didn't buy the story from Wikipedia any ways. Secondly, how can someone turn another person into a rock? Scientifically, it didn't make any sense that a Bogeyman-alike human was chasing after 7 daughters of a magician. And the magician saw and used his wand to turn his 7 daughters into rock which 4 collapsed after years past, and hence The Three Sisters. Put that aside, the scenery and view was fantastic though, and the steepest railway was really cool though, 52 degree! It was never in my bucket list but I can safely say I took the World's Steepest Railway!
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Nothing fantastic about the bridge, but you can climb the bridge though. It may cost you around AUD200, but I thought it wasn't worth it so I didn't went up. But, believe me, Sydney Harbour Bridge is prettier than London Bridge!
If you love seafood, or sashimi - you've to read the next two paragraph very carefully.
YOU HAVE TO GO TO SYDNEY FISH MARKET.
I mean it. We went to the fish market the second day we were there, and went back for more the last day before we headed back. They have the freshest seafood. And it's ridiculously cheap. 1 kilogram of sashimi cost you around AUD49. It sounds ridiculous, but the platter of sashimi I had was AUD11. Look at how many zillion pieces are there!! We had to go for the second platter. (The last day we went for 3 platter immediately, and we had sashimi coma; not kidding)
God bless you, fisherman.
As for the oysters, half a dozen cost around AUD7 and they've more which I didn't manage to try and was not a big fan of either - scallops, king prawn, lobster etc. Tip: Go on a week day, you can get seats around on a week day. We went on a weekend and we were sitting on the grass patch which we were very insecure about because the sea gulls seems to be eyeing our sashimi.
Background Info: Sydney Fish Market is the largest market of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the third largest seafood market in terms of variety in the world. Approximately 2,800 crates (around 50 tonnes) of the freshest possible seafood is auctioned each day through the computerised Dutch auction system to approximately 150 buyers.
North Head, Sydney National Park
Oh, this was a good day. We were tricked by Skydive Australia again. But we didn't let that ruin our day so we head off to Manly Beach. We took a ferry from Town Hall to Manly Beach and hired a bicycle for AUD46 a day to cycle around. From the ferry terminal to Sydney National Park, you'll need to cycle for around 20 minutes but our dear GPS gave us the wrong direction, we ended up cycling for 3 hours plus, 4 hours back and forth in total to North Head. It was still worth it, the view for breathtaking. I still remember the very moment we reach the top of the hill, I was panting from the tedious exercise, but when I saw the scenery, it literally took my breathe away.
We sat there for a good half an hour before we decided to ride back to town. It was great day, I built some real calves' muscle and my legs were hard like metal the next day. (The next day was the day we trekked for 4 hours..... It was no longer physically tiring, but very mentally challenging.)
Sydney Chinatown at Haymarket
I realized a lot of countries I've been to always have Chinatown. And that's where you find Chinese food, and Chinese of course. We love one particular store, 朱妈妈台湾小吃 Zhu Mama Taiwanese Food, they have very good soya milk with you tiao.
150-year-old Sydney Town Hall
Forgotten Songs
Rum Hospital
Yes, you get Free Walking Tour in Sydney too. They cover a range of places like Darling Harbour, Rum Hospital, Queen Victoria Building, Forgotten Songs, Sydney Town Hall, Sydney's CBD within 4 hours and end at Sydney Harbour Bridge. My favourite was Forgotten Song. The place commemorates the songs of fifty birds once heard in central Sydney before they were gradually forced out of the city. It was really artsy and pretty!
Background Info: I'm not sure exactly which country or state provides Free Walking Tour but I've been to London's and Sydney's. Basically the tour is free. You merely tip your guide according to their service. It's works pretty well if you're going on a budget trip because you don't burn a hole in your pocket with tour, and you pay whatever you're comfortable with. AND, you get better service because they live on tips only.
I didn't really enjoy the tour because I learnt that Sydney (I'm not sure about the whole of Australia) doesn't have much history and originality. The phrase that was most repeated was "They copied ***, they copied ***, they copied ***" Everything is copied. They've a huge clock copying Big Ben, they've a huge sculpture and hospital copying the Irish. Sighhh.
Hence I quote again, "Without the skydive experience, this trip would have been nothing but a summer getaway." And I quote again, "It was a great experience, just not one of my favourite city."
A few tips if you're travelling to Sydney:
Labels: australia, opera house, singapore, sydney, things to do in sydney, tips, travel, travel blog, travel tips, travels, tripadvisor, walking tour, what to do in sydney |
xx
© 2017 A. travels |