A blog recounting the adventures of Justin & Dana's 2017-2018 world-wide jaunt. With pictures!
Just Scratching the Surface of Sydney
We were lucky enough to ring in the new year down under, and with 2018 still fresh we flew out to the capital of the southern hemisphere: Sydney. We arrived there with no real expectations and no knowledge of the city, other than that there’s a big spiky white building on the harbour that’s probably slightly overrated.
Or...not overrated at all.
We made it to our hostel just in time to not check in, thanks to the weird hours kept by the staff, but managed to get sorted nonetheless. After getting our stuff stowed away, we checked out the rooftop of our hostel, and wandered around for some grub. Not a terribly eventful first day.
The next order of business was Justin’s Birthday! Dana did a fair bit of research, and discovered a Bavarian biergarten a short train ride away from the hostel. The beer was delicious and cheap, and and we therefore have a treasure trove of lovely images from the evening.
This can only end well.Justin had the only green stuff on the entire table. He must be getting old.Yes, there are more photos like this. No, you can't see them.Sydney skyline at dusk.
Having thoroughly enjoyed the night before, we were rather slow to get moving the next day. We even managed to miss a walking tour of Sydney that was to take place at two in the afternoon. Classy.
The morning after. What a gorgeous specimen.
Undeterred, we did our own tour, which led us on a trip across the harbour to Manly.
Back of the opera house. It kinda looks like a spaceship from this angle.A bit further out, and we were treated to a gorgeous view of the skyline.This boat was cruising along until it capsized a few minutes later. Woops!
Upon landing at Manly Wharf, we grabbed some lunch and started hiking around. This place has A LOT of beaches, and a good amount of hiking trails winding along and through the waterfront. Eventually, the trail we were on meandered back inland, and we finished the day on Manly with a pint at one of the local breweries.
No crashing into the bandicoots, no matter how well Nintendo has conditioned you.One of Manly's many beaches. This particular trail took us all around this beach, and eventually led us passed St. Patrick's Seminary......which has been around since 1889. The seminary part was closed in 1995, and it is now part of the International School of Management. Fun fact: former Australian PM Tony Abbott attended this seminary, and dropped out, before it closed down.On the way back. We were big fans of the skyline.
While we were in Sydney, we were lucky(?) enough to witness an historical event - the second hottest day on record in the Sydney metropolitan area. It was about 43C (110F) where we were in the city, and got up to 47C (~120F) in one surrounding town. After trying to brave the outdoors for an hour or two, we gave up and hid in a mall for the remainder of the day - it was actually too hot to get back to our hostel!
Pictured: fanciful floats and general signs of happiness. Not pictured: our shoes melting into the ground.Lunch while we hid in one of the malls. It was delicious, and gave us a much needed respite from the not-quite-but-almost record breaking heat outside.
After the heat subsided, we decided to get out of the city. Fortunately, Sydney has a pretty extensive public transit system, and we were able to get to the Blue Mountains National Park via an easy two hour train ride. Once there, we were able to hike to our hearts’ content, and were treated to some fantastic views!
A view from the beginning of the trail near the Three Sisters rock formation. It wove in and around the rock outcropping and the landscape alternated between dense tree canopy and exposed rocks.A bit further along, this is one of the first views of the valley that we saw on the trail.A few hours later... The rock in the distance is the rock on the left of the previous picture.This was taken from an outcropping near the end of the trail, which provided a view of where we had just come from. The trail is nearly invisible from here, but if you look near the waterfall in the centre, you can see a tiny glimpse.After a few hours of hiking up and down and around these beautiful cliffs, we were a bit delirious!
During out last few days, we were able to catch up with some friends, found some interesting food, and checked out some of the animal attractions in the city. Since we were only there a week, we barely scratched the surface of Sydney. However, our months in the South Pacific had come to an end, and our adventure was taking us to our next continent: South America!
Justin found the most fluffiest of all puppies. We considered stealing him, but since his owner is a cop, we thought better of it.Meat pie with mushy peas on top, and mustard on top of that. Yes, it was weird. Good, but weird.Rainbow dumplings!Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree...Sadly, the only kangaroos we saw the whole trip.Whatchu lookin at?Hahaha, that's so cute and funny...Oh, that's the real one. It's bigger than the statue. Nope. Nope nope nope.This gal just loved coming by to say 'hello!'Snaggletoothed nurse shark!The view from our hostel window on the last night. The tower is the train station, which we had been walking the long way to and didn't realize till our last day. Whoops.comments powered by Disqus
