Sydney, Australia: 10 Different Angles of the Opera House

So I realize the blog has been M.I.A. for about two weeks - which I apologize for.  Some not-so-great issues threw a wrench in my blogging abilities, which I will explain further in the next couple posts.  But I am committed to finishing it.  So for now - the end of Australia.


After saying good-bye to Jess and his fam, I took a flight to Sydney for a couple days of exploring by my lonesome. Is it sad that the first thing that came to mind when people asked me what I wanted to see in Sydney was, "P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way!" Apparently my entire knowledge of the world has been shaped by Disney movies.


What It's All About:
Sydney - that big famous Australian city.  It's obviously one of the largest cities, it's the capital of New South Wales, and has the well-known sights of the Sydney Opera House, Bondi Beach, and the Sydney Harbour.

The Opera House!

And just to clear any confusion up, it is not eternal summer here. Sydney at night was the coldest I've ever been ever - which makes sense, given that it's way South of Brisbane.



Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Arrived in Sydney, checked into my hostel - and met up with a travel friend of mine, Sarah!  Sarah is from NYC originally, also left her job to travel, and we had met in Colombia a couple times - in Salento, Medellin, and Cartagena.  And after a couple months, she had ended up in Sydney doing the working-vacation thing - and ended up at the hostel down the street from me!
• Sarah, her hostel friend Matt, and I headed down to the famous Bondi Beach the next day.  Yes, it is the middle of winter in Sydney, but I wanted to see it! There is also a really picturesque walk you can do from Bondi to Coogee Beach, which I also wanted to do.

And here is Bondi Beach!  Which is apparently famous because of a TV show I've never seen. Also, it was SUPER packed the day we went because it happened to be the day of a famous race called City2Surf - and Bondi Beach was the finishing point. The beach is not usually this packed in the winter.

I love the ocean

Sarah and I!  We sat on the sand and sunbathed (in winter jackets) and chatted for a couple hours

Then we started the walk from Bondi to Coogee Beach

There's a fancy swimming club/restaurant on the way out. How pretty is this pool?

Part of the oceanside walk - the walk itself is supposed to be around 7km, but I'm going to say that's a lie - it felt more like 20km. But it was beautiful (and exercise!), so no complaints here

The walkway extends alongside the ocean the whole way!  Though apparently a big storm this past summer destroyed parts of the walk, so there were a lot of detours for repairs and such.

Sarah, me and Matt

Also, the walk passes by several other beaches - which is A TEASE when all you want to do is reach Coogee Beach and you come upon a beach and think "omg maybe that's it!" and THEN YOU FIND OUT IT'S NOT.

This beach had a lot of surfers. Australia has a lot of surfers.

We walked by a fancy cemetery. Some of these tombs were super, super, super old

Here is another fake beach that is not Coogee Beach

Then the sun started to set so we stopped and watched for a bit (I am now starting to realize why this walk may have taken us so long.....)

That cloud looks like a big box!

This man was very dedicated to taking a cool photo - he hauled himself over the safety fence, then lowered himself onto the cliff's edge for a photo.

It's sunset! And we still have not made it to our destination.

AND HERE IT IS. COOGEE BEACH, EVERYONE. It was a miracle we made it before it got completely dark. We hung around the area for dinner, then headed back home afterwards (which is apparently located in the red-light district of Sydney. Congrats, us)

• The next day, Sarah was kind enough to accompany me while I continued playing tourist, even though she's already been in Sydney for several months already.  Of course, all I wanted to do was walk around downtown and see the Opera House. 

Ta-daaaaaa! There it is!  We walked through the Botanical Gardens to get this view, and it was so so so pretty. There were people running throughout the park, and tons of families, and the sun was shining and it was amazing. Though I do have to ask myself, as always, WHY DON'T THESE PEOPLE WORK.  I don't know why everyone else seems to have figured out life's secret.

Downtown Sydney next to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge

Best (transplanted) city host ever!

Then we walked along the harbor to the Opera House. There's adorbs little cafes (all with insane prices, of course) all long the waterfront.

And here we are! It looks super weird and 70's up close.

Mainly because of this super retro tile the entire building is covered with.

The cafes along the water had tons of SUPER aggressive seagulls just waiting to steal food. These things were seriously out of control. They hopped onto plates while people were still eating and such. (IT REALLY IS JUST LIKE FINDING NEMO)

Pretty cafes. Would come here every lunchtime if I worked downtown

Then we hit up the Modern Art Museum, where they had this weird outdoor installation that looked like an igloo. And inside was this lady with a head thing on making shapes in the sand. Modern art is so weird. But I love it.

I seriously, seriously love modern art museums. Especially when they're free

I loved this painting. The Korean artist fused a bunch of old-school Korean paintings with modern day insignias and brands - like, all the people dancing have Barbie heads or Lady Gaga heads and such.

This was some kind of bubble with the artist's fat and cells inside it, and it would grind it all together like a blender every so often. Ew. Ew. Art is weird.

Neon books! The titles would change every couple minutes

View of the other side of the Opera House from the rooftop cafe in the Modern Art Museum.

We then headed to a historic neighborhood called The Rocks, which is one of the oldest parts of the city (from the late 1700's) and has a bunch of cute boutiques and cafes and such

It's called The Rocks because there are still lots of rocks/ruins of the former neighborhood here (it was a pretty poor/rough working class neighborhood), which were demolished over time.

The Opera House at night! Really I'm just trying to see how many photos of the Opera House I can cram into this blog post.

Sarah and I ended the night with dinner near our hostels, and then we went to karaoke night with a bunch of her hostel friends. This is a terrible photo of nothing, but we closed my last night in Sydney belting out a Taylor Swift song on stage. Obviously. Appropriate.

• Bye, Sydney! Bye, Australia!  I'm really glad I got a chance to visit, especially because I kind of never expected to. It really reminded me of being at home, what with the Western conveniences and way of life and feel and culture and how things operated.  It really is just like the USA, except they throw some weird made-up words into their lingo.  I am officially dubbing Australia "the poor man's America."  Just kidding. This is why they love us.

Fun Facts of the Day:

• Sydney's metro system has double-decker trains! Like the Long Island Railroad!  My fave activity is to make that decision whether to go up or down upon entering the train.

Enthralling

• Australians love these kinds of cars. They're everywhere. They're apparently called Utes. They're hideous. I don't know why these exist:

WHY ARE YOU MISSING A BACK? WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO PRETEND TO BE A PICKUP TRUCK? 

Sunshine Coast, Australia: The Great Australian (Mini) Road Trip!

From Brisbane, we started our great Australian road trip! Ok, it wasn't that crazy - more like a mini road trip.  Jess and I rented a car for a week and cruised up North through what is referred to as the Sunshine Coast, in QLD (that stands for Queensland!).  It's a pretty popular drive with tourists, just because there are tons of little towns and scenic sights and nature and ocean that you pass by on the way.

Our mini-road trip involved Caloundra, Noosa, the Glass House Mountains - then we diverted off the coastal drive on the way back and headed more inland to the tiny town of Tenterfield, to pay a visit to Jesse's dad.

Cliffnotes of the Day:

• Drove the ~2 hour (with lots of stops!) route from Brisbane, up to the coastal city of Caloundra.

We may have overloaded on strawberries for the road trip, as there were tons of farm stands selling boxes of them.  Also, peppers = capsicums!

We are in Caloundra! On the boardwalk

And here is part of the shore! If only it wasn't winter....this fleece has seen more action these past two weeks than it has on the entire trip combined.

Then we found a perfectly-located picnic bench to watch the sunset from

What better way to watch the sunset than with trays of fish & chips?

After the sun set, there was pink sky for a bit <3

• The next morning, we made the hour-long drive from Caloundra to the popular beachside town of Noosa. Noosa reminded me a bit of Miami - lots of old people, lots of fancy buildings, gorgeous buildings, pretty boutiques, beautiful calm beach, outdoor cafes, and white furniture. White furniture everywhere.  It's apparently a pretty big vacation spot, especially since all the hotels were exorbitant prices (we ended up staying in Caloundra).

Tell me our delicious brunch doesn't look like it could be set in Miami

Beach in Noosa Heads. It was actually semi-warm enough for us to lay out in swimsuits under the sun. But not get in the water. No. 

Noosa not only has beaches and boutiques, but also some nearby nature walks and national parks you can wander. We went to one of them to watch the sunset (I LOVE SUNSETS)

This sunset over the water was beyond pretty

Do you know how hard it is for me to cull sunset pictures?! Each photo is just slightly, yet so importantly, different

Great sunset lighting. So I turned Beauty Mode up to a 10 on my camera, and this is the product. I call this the bug-eyed/anime combo.

Sigghhhhh one last shot

And then we headed to dinner, but on the way, stopped by the beach to admire the last dregs of the sunset

Taylor approved.

Beers we had with dinner. They seem to like theming their beer with animals?

Next morning, we had a delicious open-air, ocean-view brunch in Caloundra at the most delicious coffee/breakfast joint in town; the Coffee Cat on Kings Beach.

In addition to sunsets, I'm obsessed with photographing brunch food.  Dear brunch - you have no idea how much I have missed you!

Taking a little stroll on Kings Beach post-brunch

• From Caloundra, we wound our way back South to the famous Glass House Mountains! The Glass House Mountains are a group of 11 mountains that seem to randomly pop out of the flat coastline along the Sunshine Coast. And the mountains have weird shapes. And you can hike them - any of them, take your pick.

Two of the Glass House Mountains (with a tiny third one in the background!), don't ask me which ones, I don't have a clue

Pano from the entrance of a bunch of the mountains. See how they just seem to pop out out of nowhere??

Some of them have weird shapes

We chose Mt. Ngungun to hike (not reallllly by choice, we got a little lost), which only took about an hour.

We made it to the top! Which had STUNNING 360 degree views of the landscape, and a beautiful view of all the other mountains that we didn't climb

There are two of the Glass House Mountains in the back (I  like the weirdo smokestack-shaped one!)

Two of the tiny mound-like Glass House Mountains (they do all have proper names, I swear - I just can't recall them)

Another one. All such different shapes!

The mountain in the back is the tallest one of them all, called Mt. Beerwah.

• From the Glass House Mountains, we drove on back to Brisbane and stayed one last night with Jess' sister and her family.

Overlook of the city of Brisbane from Mt. Coot-tha

Gorgeous clouds from the liquor store parking lot

Looking the other way; gorgeous sunset

• Road trip, Day 4 - we set out from Brisbane to head more inland: about 3-4 hours away to Jesse's dad's place in the town of Tenterfield.  3 things about Tenterfield: 1.) It was FREEZING (seriously, like a legit winter feel rather than the 62 degree/I-need-a-light-windbreaker weather I had been complaining about on the coast), 2.) WILD KANGAROOS. EVERYWHERE, and 3.) it's tiny, with a population of around 3,000 people.

On the open road! Australia's landscapes seriously look just like South Africa's. It was total déjà vu sometimes.

This road may look ordinary, but it was littered with dead kangaroo roadkill. 

The skies in Australia! So magical EVERY NIGHT

• We arrived in Tenterfield in time for dinner with Jess' dad and his girlfriend, Sue. And winter. Winter was at dinner. 
• The area around Tenterfield is chock full of wineries and vineyards - not a hugely popular thing to do in winter, but we went on a mini-tour to do some wine tastings and winery-visiting the next day with Jesse's dad.

But first, an adorable morning coffee/scone/cake at a local tea house. Internet, this is Jesse's dad, Bob.
(Please note the scarf got pulled out. Things are serious.)

'

On the way out to the wineries, I had my first wild kangaroo spotting of the day! Here's a bunch of them in a field, staring at the car (since we may have pulled to a stop and let me out of the car to snap them)

This is about as close as you can get to them

And they started to hop away the closer I got.

But onto the wine! We hit up three wineries (Kurrajong Downs, Balladean, and Jester Hill).

• Road Trip, Day 5: we got breakfast in town and then walked around Tenterfield's main street. Which is tiny and picturesque and sweet.

Like stepping back into the early 1900's!

I love how old buildings have the year they were established on the top of the buildings. And of course in this tiny town, there is a place for Chinese meals.

• We then said good-bye to Jesse's dad and winter, and drove back to his mom's house in Goonengerry - I was leaving the next day for a flight to Sydney, so that was the best place to leave from. 

One last time feeding the neighbor's horses!

I was headed to Sydney....and Jesse's headed to Vietnam, apparently (I can't keep track of all the rando countries he decides to move to on a whim either) - so his mom threw him an early b-day celebration. His birthday is in December, btw - but he won't be home for it, so she wanted to celebrate while there was someone else around. It was so cute!

One last brunch at a trendy Japanese cafe in Mullumbimby with Jess and his mom.  

• Thanks, Jess, for truly being the greatest Australian tour guide ever - and to your wonderful, wonderful fam for being the greatest hosts ever! All the delicious home-cooked meals were epic, and it was one of my favorite things ever to get to actually feel like part of the fam, vs. staying in hostels and eating out all the time and lining up my days with sightseeing plans.  It was beyond appreciated, I had the best time (despite complaining about how the temperature was almost hypothermic) and you're truly the greatest!

Meal of the Day:

Three words: free unlimited sprinkles.

Fun Facts of the Day:

• McDonald's in Oz is shortened to "Macca's."  Which ok, fine, I get the lingo. 

But "Macca's Free Wi-Fry" is pretty much the most GENIUS WiFi name every invented!

• I was explaining to Jess the premise of Outback Steakhouse - you know, the Australian steak chain! Just kidding. I know it's an American company that has bastardized a restaurant to be Australian.  Jess was like "yeah I've heard of it but it's definitely not Australian."  

So imagine my delight when OH MY GOD is that Outback?!?! In Australia!?!?  It IS a legit Australian chain, I knew it! :)

• Last of all your fun Aussie fast food fun facts, Burger King here is called Hungry Jack's.  I've heard reasons for this ranging from the name Burger King not testing well with Australian audiences (uhh why not, it involves royalty), to the fact that the name Burger King was already licensed to someone else first.  

This is a great photo, I know. Feel free to save.

• A proper Aussie response to "thank you" is "that's ok" or "it's ok."  I found this very strange at first. Of course it's ok.  Why wouldn't it be.