So here we are, finally in the big city where we will be making our longest stop in Australia, we are planning to stay here until the beginning of May. We arrived into Central Station late afternoon on Friday and were immediately met by Megans Uncle Ben and his oldest daughter, Shari (who was unfortunately not very well). This being so, we went straight back to their flat in Earlwood, about 7km from the city. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with Ben and drawing with Shari until Fahmiya came home with 1 yr old Aaliyah. It was great for me to meet everyone but even better for Megan as she is the first from her family to visit and also the first to meet Aaliyah!
On Saturday we were given a quick driving tour of Sydney and its suburbs after taking our first look at the world famous Bondi Beach. It's really nice with some pretty decent waves, we'll definitely be back for a couple of days there. There are also some other nice (less crowded) beaches on the south coast that we were shown. We were then taken across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (amazing!!) to North Sydney where we would be staying for the month with Zeena, Fahmiya's sister. She lives in Mosman Bay with an apartment overlooking a small marina and surrounded by trees, I'm sure the view could be much worse!! It is pretty difficult to get into the city centre by car or bus from here which could have been pretty annoying but instead there is a ferry service
which takes 2 mins to get to and 18 mins to get over to Circular Quay in the city. It was using this ferry today that we got our first sight of Sydney Harbour (or Port Jackson to use its real name!). As we came round the corner of Cremorne Point we were greeted with the oddly familiar view of the Harbour full of sailing boats with the backdrop of the Sydney Opera House and the magnificent Harbour Bridge (or, The Old Coat Hanger, as it is apparently sometimes known!?!)
The plan was to spend the day watching the "Red Bull Flugtag", which is basically people trying to fly with homemade contraptions and rarely ever doing so. Instead they just fell ungracefully into the waters of the Botanical Gardens. This was very disorganised with lots of big boats getting in everyones way and also the whole thing took SO long. We stayed for about an hour or more and then went and had a picnic on the steps of the picturesque Opera House. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the oldest area of Sydney, "The Rocks". There are lots of unique shops , lovely buildings and also a weekend market which was huge and worth a browse. We then went to the information centre and picked up a ton of leaflets for things to do here, as to keep happy I need plans!
We were then lucky enough to happen upon a pub called "Fortune Of War" where we had a drink and listened to some old time, upbeat jazz with a clarinet, double bass and banjo. It just so happens that this pub is also Sydney's oldest licensed establishment, built in 1823. A lucky find really!
We spent the evening sifting through the tons of leaflets deciding what was good to do and see in Sydney. We came up with quite a lot so hopefully we should have a fun and busy month!
On Saturday we were given a quick driving tour of Sydney and its suburbs after taking our first look at the world famous Bondi Beach. It's really nice with some pretty decent waves, we'll definitely be back for a couple of days there. There are also some other nice (less crowded) beaches on the south coast that we were shown. We were then taken across the Sydney Harbour Bridge (amazing!!) to North Sydney where we would be staying for the month with Zeena, Fahmiya's sister. She lives in Mosman Bay with an apartment overlooking a small marina and surrounded by trees, I'm sure the view could be much worse!! It is pretty difficult to get into the city centre by car or bus from here which could have been pretty annoying but instead there is a ferry service
which takes 2 mins to get to and 18 mins to get over to Circular Quay in the city. It was using this ferry today that we got our first sight of Sydney Harbour (or Port Jackson to use its real name!). As we came round the corner of Cremorne Point we were greeted with the oddly familiar view of the Harbour full of sailing boats with the backdrop of the Sydney Opera House and the magnificent Harbour Bridge (or, The Old Coat Hanger, as it is apparently sometimes known!?!)The plan was to spend the day watching the "Red Bull Flugtag", which is basically people trying to fly with homemade contraptions and rarely ever doing so. Instead they just fell ungracefully into the waters of the Botanical Gardens. This was very disorganised with lots of big boats getting in everyones way and also the whole thing took SO long. We stayed for about an hour or more and then went and had a picnic on the steps of the picturesque Opera House. The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the oldest area of Sydney, "The Rocks". There are lots of unique shops , lovely buildings and also a weekend market which was huge and worth a browse. We then went to the information centre and picked up a ton of leaflets for things to do here, as to keep happy I need plans!
We were then lucky enough to happen upon a pub called "Fortune Of War" where we had a drink and listened to some old time, upbeat jazz with a clarinet, double bass and banjo. It just so happens that this pub is also Sydney's oldest licensed establishment, built in 1823. A lucky find really!
We spent the evening sifting through the tons of leaflets deciding what was good to do and see in Sydney. We came up with quite a lot so hopefully we should have a fun and busy month!
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