tidbits

Below are a couple of randos that have not quite made their way onto the blog yet, but definitely deserve some mention. One of the coolest little eateries we found was in The Rocks. It was on the same street as the market and had a 2^nd story balcony to eat on. This meant we were free to people watch to our hearts content, while the people we gaped and stared at walked by below without a clue. The place was run by an old Irish women and she only serves tea, coffee, and scones. Pretty classic. Tea was great, scones were delish, and the passersby below kept us plenty entertained.

Another day we set off for a bit of a wander and found ourselves in what must officially be the vintage store capital of the world. No joke, there were at least 15 vintage stores side-by-side, and they were all packed with awesome stuff. It was like a clothes museum. Below are two of the better finds we had, although we regrettably bought neither. One more side note is that Oakland Raiders and Oakland A’s gear is absolutely everywhere here. The same was also true for New Zealand. Kiwis and Aussies seem to love wearing Raider and A’s stuff, and while the Raiders clearly have the best logo and colors in the NFL, we still aren’t sure why it is so popular to wear apparel for a sports team you have never seen. Needless to say, Raider Nation is alive and well!

rookie

view from the top

could have used these vintage shops in college

Raider Nation

 

tidbits:

• Australians call Pharmacists, Chemists
• when people take a cab alone, they ride in the front seat- weird
• Starbucks is the only place you can find Brewed Coffee in this city
• our roommates don't think we are real backpackers because we eat out every meal
• I'm dying from living in a hostel for 9 days- our roommate has lived here for 8 months!
• NZ & Australia don't have any coins below 5 cents- so much easier.  time to do away with the penny America!
• Tipping is not customary in Australia unless your service actually was exceptional... what a concept!
• if you like eggs and come to Australia, be sure to order them DRY otherwise you will receive yellow soup.
• the 7-11's here just got Krispy Kreme Doughnuts- it is on every poster, billboard, and bus. Can't blame them, Krispy Kreme's are definitely something to get excited about. 

my pancake craving finally fulfilled

this is what you get when you order an iced coffee...

cheers

Kyle's first stein

breakfast on the harbor- Real black coffee and award winning banana bread!

no this is not fake, that really is the name of the store

Watson's Bay

At the recommendation of our baller travel agent Leslie, we hopped on the ferry again to spend a day at Watson’s Bay. Watson’s is much quieter than Sydney and Manly. It is a wealthy little town right on the Pacific that was perfect for a relaxing day. After exploring the area and seeing some impressive cliffs and a school of dolphins (they came and went so fast we got no pictures, sorry), we basically just hung out in the little park and read and napped the day away. After taking the ferry back, we realized that in all our leisure we had not eaten lunch. A little waterfront sushi took care of that, and another successful Sydney day was in the books.

The ferry

Suuuuuushi

Manly Man Beach

So Sydney’s most famous beach is Bondi, but after hearing from multiple backpackers that it is overrated we decided to spend our warm weather day at Manly Beach. Manly is by no means a “hidden gem,” or “locals” beach. Despite being a thirty minute ferry ride from downtown Sydney, it was packed with tourists. That in no way dampened the mood though because we had an awesome day there and would love to go back before we have to leave. While Olivia read and lounged about on the beach, Kyle got a two hour surf lesson and is now borderline hooked. Manly had great shops and great food, shockingly Olivia food fantastic Thai curry…Overall, Manly was a sweet day trip and Sydney just keeps on showing us a good time.

The Ferry Building

empty beach to ourselves

heading out

kelly slater?

baywatch ready

pirates headed to Sydney

So Sydney’s most famous beach is Bondi, but after hearing from multiple backpackers that it is overrated we decided to spend our warm weather day at Manly Beach. Manly is by no means a “hidden gem,” or “locals” beach. Despite being a thirty minute ferry ride from downtown Sydney, it was packed with tourists. That in no way dampened the mood though because we had an awesome day there and would love to go back before we have to leave. While Olivia read and lounged about on the beach, Kyle got a two hour surf lesson and is now borderline hooked. Manly had great shops and great food, shockingly Olivia food fantastic Thai curry…Overall, Manly was a sweet day trip and Sydney just keeps on showing us a good time.

Simba Was Majestic

So having seen the SF, San Diego, and Oakland Zoos, (Yeah I added Oakland, it has great elephant, otter, and bear exhibits and is wildly underrated) it was going to take a lot for us to be wowed by the Sydney Zoo. We were not disappointed. First of all, as you can see below, the ferry ride was gorgeous. After that we got to take a gondola ride up over a hill and into the zoo. The ride took us directly over the elephant enclosure. Kyle was pretty bummed that the enormous platypus exhibit was closed, but besides that, the zoo was pretty cool. We watched an impressive seal show and then were absolutely wowed by the lions. It was nuts. There was one adult male and two adult female and they walked straight up to the glass and basically just did epic stuff for like 15 fifteen minutes straight. You can check out the photos to try and get a feeling for how close these things were. Right after that was the tiger enclosure that had an adult female and three adolescent cubs. They were all out right in front of the glass rolling around, posing, and wrestling. The rest of the zoo was great and we caught the ferry back just in time to grab a bite from the Vivid festival and pop over to the harbor near our hostel to watch a free fireworks show.

To conclude, we absolutely beastmoded Saturday in Sydney. In case you are trying to keep count at home, that was one weekend market, two ferry rides, one zoo, bomb food, and a free fireworks show, all in one day.  

Hanging out above the elephants

That is not a statue

Decent views

Just a seal doing a handstand on command. No big deal.

Cali mascot

Not sure what this thing is

Posing hardcore

This is the wiseman pose

The girls got involved too but...

You can't beat this

or this

Little creepy when they stare you down

Cubs cuddling

Add caption

Boom

And a little vivid to round the day out

Rockin Rocks

The Rocks is the oldest part of Sydney and sits directly underneath the harbor bridge and across the inlet from Opera House. It is a ridiculously picturesque and is pretty cool neighborhood in its own right, although right now it is even better because of Vivid and all the street food vendors lining the streets. We headed down there on Saturday morning for the weekly market. Sun was shining, we had breakfast in a little café (Kyle was feeling healthy so he ordered a huge piece of cake for his morning meal…), and we browsed the market. Olivia fell in love with a couple of the shops (can’t give up too much info but a few family members might be getting some awesome Australian crafts). As great as the market was we could not spend all day there because we were catching a ferry across the bay to the famous Sydney Taronga Zoo. 

P.S. sorry about no pics of the market, the vendors almost all had no picture signs (can't have evil tourists taking pictures of your artwork and then going home to duplicate it...)

cake makes the best breakfast

Turkish flat bread heated and filled with nutella

View of The Rocks from our ferry

Heading out of Sydney to the zoo